This festive Halloween bundt cake looks like a big pumpkin, but it's actually a moist, tasty carrot cake! It's topped with spider web legs made from cream cheese frosting and lots of seasonal Halloween treats both inside and out. Enjoy!
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Halloween On The Horizon
The Halloween season is coming again, and you may even begin to see the classic candy corn being sold at the store before the weather even feels like fall. To celebrate the season, we've taken a seemingly simple spiced carrot cake and transformed it into a Halloween pumpkin bundt cake, complete with spider legs and candy decoration!
The trick here is to simply bake this easy-to-make spiced carrot cake in a bundt pan. From there, you can decorate the spider legs and add a secret stash of Halloween candy into the cake before the treat-or-treaters arrive.
🍽 Equipment For Halloween Bundt Cake
For this Halloween bundt cake recipe, the bundt pan is key. Any bundt pan will do; but if you can find a more rounded bundt like this, you will already be ahead of the game. A rounded bundt pan with the curved sides makes the cake look so much like a pumpkin (especially when the cake is orange) without any extra work!
You can depend on a solid stand mixer for the cake or well-equipped hand mixer. Make sure to use the paddle attachment for the cake and the whisk attachment for the cream cheese frosting.
In addition, any disposable plastic piping bag will work for adding the cream cheese frosting spider legs to this Halloween bundt cake recipe. You don’t even need to use a tip - just cut a slightly wider piece into the tip of the plastic bag and you will produce a nice thick line of cream cheese frosting for the Halloween bundt cake decorations.
Halloween Bundt Cake
🥘 Ingredients
Carrot Cake
- all purpose flour
- baking powder
- baking soda
- cinnamon
- ginger
- nutmeg
- allspice
- canola oil
- salt
- eggs
- light brown sugar
- granulated sugar
- orange zest
- applesauce
- vanilla extract
- dark rum
- grated carrots
Cream Cheese Frosting
- cream cheese
- butter
- heavy cream
- confectioners sugar
- vanilla extract
Additional Decoration
- Variety of Halloween candy, esp. candy corn (autumn mix includes the pumpkins), gummi bears, M&M’s etc
🔪 How To Make This Halloween Bundt Cake (Step-by-Step Instructions)
For the Carrot Cake
- Preheat oven to 350°F and grease the bundt cake tin.
- Whisk together the dry ingredients.
- Beat oil, eggs, sugars, applesauce, rum, and vanilla.
- Add in carrots and orange rind.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients until combined.
- Pour batter into bundt cake pan.
- Bake for 40-45 minutes.
- Allow to cool before releasing from the bundt pan.
For the Cream Cheese Frosting
- Whisk the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add in the cream and vanilla extract, and confectioners sugar until reaching the desired consistency.
To Decorate
- To create the look of spider legs, pipe the frosting evenly over the sides of the bundt cake and add on some candy corn “feet.” You can then add additional piped frosting and/or candy decoration.
💭Halloween Bundt Cake Decorating Ideas
For easy Halloween cakes like this, you can pipe the frosting as “legs” over every fourth bundt cake ridge evenly around the cake, adding a little extra frosting at the base of each leg.
Feel free to get creative here when adding additional piping and/or Halloween candy on top of the cake. I decided to pour a variety of candy inside the central hole of the bundt cake so that, when cutting into the cake, a nice candy surprise comes with each slice.
Finally, if you are looking for more seasonal fall dessert ideas, then definitely check out our pumpkin creme brulee recipe or these awesome apple cider muffins
Also do check out these Pumpkin crafts for kids to make your Halloween party fun filled and creative!
FAQs
How can I make a bundt cake look scary for Halloween?
You can draw a spider web, pipe some spider legs as in these Halloween cake recipes, or simply pipe thin strands of multiple Halloween colors (black, orange, purple, green, white) over the bundt cake’s ridges. You can even add a set of eyes using any brightly colored candy and give your spider a personality.
How can I make a web on a bundt cake for Halloween?
Check out our guide on how to draw a spider web, and also keep in mind that, if piping a spider web, you will want to use a small round piping tip, depending on the size of the cake. Since this Halloween cake is decorated with spider legs, it only took a piping bag snipped to about a half-inch diameter to create the decor.
When should you glaze a bundt cake?
Make sure to wait until the bundt cake is free from the tin and has cooled completely. Otherwise, the glaze will become watery and not adhere to the cake.
Can you use normal cake batter in a Bundt pan?
Yes - nearly any cake batter will work in a bundt pan, but you will need to adjust the baking times (and occasionally the temperatures).
For instance, if this carrot cake were baked in two 9-inch cake tins, they would take 30-40 minutes to bake. However, this bundt cake will take at least 45-50 minutes to cook all the way through, due to the depth and density of the bundt pan.
Halloween Bundt Cake Recipe
Ingredients
Carrot Cake
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- ½ tsp ground allspice
- ¾ cup canola oil
- ½ tsp salt
- 4 eggs
- 1½ cups light brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 rind of an orange
- 4 oz. applesauce
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 Tbsp dark rum
- 3 cups grated carrots
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 1 8 oz. packages cream cheese room temperature
- ½ cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1-2 tbsp heavy cream
- 1 - 1½ cups confectioners sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
For the Carrot Cake
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Grease the bundt cake pan with some additional canola oil or Pam cooking spray.
- In a bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and salt). Set aside.
- In a mixer, beat oil, eggs, sugars, applesauce, rum, and vanilla. Add in the carrots, making sure to incorporate into the other ingredients. Add in the grated rind of 1 orange.
- Slowly spoon the dry ingredients into the batter until fully combined. Pour batter evenly into the prepared bundt cake tin.
- Bake at 350°F for 45-50 minutes or until a long stick or butter knife comes out clean from the center of the cake. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes inverted upside down on a wire rack.
- Once cake has cooled for 10 more minutes on wire rack, you can gently lift the bundt pan tin off of the cake. Allow to cool completely before decorating.
For the Cream Cheese Frosting
- In either a stand mixer or hand held mixer, beat the cream cheese and cubed softened butter until smooth. Add in a tablespoon of the heavy cream, vanilla, and beat until incorporated.
- Slowly add in the confectioners sugar and keep beating until the frosting thickens to the desired consistency. You can add in more of the cream or additional sugar to adjust the thickness.
- To Decorate
- To create spider legs around the grooves of the bundt cake, spoon the cream cheese frosting into a disposable piping bag and snip the tip to a ½ inch diameter or however big you wish the legs to be.
- Pipe down each 4th groove or evenly around the entire bundt cake. You can pipe a little extra frosting at the base of each leg. I added candy corn “claws.”
- Have fun with any variety of Halloween candy you can. This cake has some candy corn pumpkins on top, with some additional piping, and a variety of candy in the central hole of the bundt, which offers a nice candy surprise when the cake is cut. You can add two pieces of candy for eyes if you want your spider to have a personality!
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