Cute & Simple DIY White Chocolate Ghost Cake
When I say I have a penchant for Halloween and spooky things, this is what I mean. I may not be the scariest of all the moms in the PTA (I’m just kidding; we don’t have a PTA), but I’m 100% the spookiest mom in my house, and my kids love the little things I create — including this DIY white chocolate ghost cake.
At least, my younger two did. My eldest doesn’t appreciate strawberry (to each their own), which is the flavor I chose for the cake, but he did very much appreciate the white chocolate ghosts used to decorate it.
So, what did I do, why did I do it, and how did it lead up to this super cute, yet simple, DIY white chocolate ghost cake? Let’s talk about it.
DIY White Cholocate Ghosts (AKA Your Halloween Cake Decor)
I’m a bare minimum crafter which means I’m always looking for something easy to try to DIY before I dive headfirst into similar projects. Baking has always been my favorite (although I do make some mean snickerdoodles), but since I’ve gotten more into it lately by homemaking our bread to save a little money and doing the same with flour tortillas, I thought it was time to try my hand at desserts once again!
Honestly, since this was a boxed cake mix (thank you, Duncan Hines), it was a very simple DIY. I’ll share all the things if you’re curious and want to try it, too, because it really is the cutest and would make an adorable Spooky One smash cake.
You could also use the same technique for a bigger cake (or cupcakes) and serve these little white chocolate ghosts for your little one’s “Two Spooky” party.
What You’ll Need:
Before I can give you instructions, there are a few supplies you’ll need to gather. Luckily, you can find most of this at your local food store, Joanns/Micheals/Hobby Lobby, or Amazon.
You’ll need…
- Boxed Cake Mix or DIY Cake Mix, it’s up to you
- Baking Pan, I used a 6-inch Round
- Icing of choice with flat spatulas like this one
- White Chocolate: I used Melt’ems, but really, any melting chocolate will do
- Black decorative icing like this one
- Pans for your chocolate to cool: I just used a cookie sheet with aluminum foil, but I think wax paper was recommended.
How to Make a DIY White Chocolate Ghost Cake
So how do you take all of those things and combine them into one surprisingly tiny, yet cute, cake? Simple! Follow these instructions, and you’ll find out (but I’m also going to talk to you like you already know a few things because it’s a box cake, and it gives you instructions).
Step #1: Gather Your Ingredients & Bake The Cake
I know you want to start with the fun part first (creating your little chocolate ghosts), but you have to bake your cake first if you want to decorate it on the same day. Part of getting your icing to cooperate is having a fully cool-down cake (no matter how delicious warm cake is, but I digress).
I highly recommend using more than one baking pan as the process will move much quicker. Still, if you’re anything like me, you’re just working with what you already have — and in my case, that was a six-inch cake pan I borrowed from my sister when I thought I was going to bake the smash cake for my daughter’s Wild One birthday party.
Do what you need to do for baking then let the layers start cooling!
Step #3: Melt Your Chocolate
Would I choose Melt’Ems again? I really don’t know. It was my first time melting chocolate, but the process was extremely simple: You just had to very carefully microwave it to melt. Now, before you start melting, prep your cookie sheets with aluminum foil or wax paper. You don’t want your chocolate to cool down before you can make your ghosts.
My cookie sheets were old, but they worked! I should’ve grabbed an extra set from Target when I did that DIY Cookie Sheet Magnet Board not too long ago.
Step #4: Make Your Chocolate Ghosts!
I wish I had more pictures of this part of the process, but I only took pictures as I was adding the eyes and mouth! But, you can follow this super simple tutorial I found (and followed myself) on Youtube here. If you don’t want to watch the video, it’s pretty simple to figure it out on your own!
Just make sure your chocolate is still warm and you use a soon (or that icing tool) to create your ghosts in the chocolate – next is adding the eyes and mouth like I did here:
Step #5: Finish Your Cake
Now that you have all your ghosts on hand, it’s time to finish your DIY white chocolate ghost cake! Once my cakes were cooled, I cut the top layer off to make a flatter surface for icing. Then, I used the icing to creat e somewhat smooth surface for the ghosts to stick on.
Finally, I randomly placed the ghosts onto my cake voila —
What do you think? Do you love it? I do! It’s probably my fave spooky DIY at the moment because it truly was soo simple to do and the longest time it took was when I was waiting for the cake itself to cool!
Personally, I think there’s a lot of opportunity and cuteness if we just added a cake topper — but that’s for another day (I’m DIYed out for the moment).
Would you tackle this DIY white chocolate ghost cake? Let me know in the comments down below!