Spooky Skeleton Cake
Pretzels make it easy!
1 (15.25 cake mix oz.) pkg. French vanilla 1 3 eggs cup buttermilk 1⁄ 3 cup oil 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice 30 thin pretzel sticks 1 cup white candy melts, melted 18 white fudge- covered Flipz pretzels 3 regular marshmallows 3 mini marshmallows, halved crosswise 1 cup + 1 (16 oz.) can chocolate frosting 12 chocolate wafer cookies 1 (16 oz.) can vanilla frosting 1 tsp. orange concentrated food coloring 3 Junior Mints 6 red confetti sprinkles 15 Mellowcreme pumpkin candies
1 Heat oven to 350°F. Coat two 8" cake pans with cooking spray. On low speed, beat cake mix, buttermilk, eggs and oil 30 sec.; on medium speed, beat 2 min. more. Stir in pie spice. Evenly divide between pans. Bake 24–29 min. or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 min. Transfer from pans to racks; cool.
2 Line baking sheets with wax paper. Dip each pretzel stick into candy. Transfer to wax paper; refrigerate 5 min. Transfer remaining melted candy to sandwich bag; reserve. Cut 3⁄4" piece from each dipped end of 6 pretzel sticks; reserve 3⁄4" pieces for necks. Discard larger pieces. Servings: 16 PREP time: 1 hr. TOTAL time: 2 hrs., 40 min.
3 For arms and legs, cut 3⁄4" piece from one end of each remaining pretzel stick. On wax paper, arrange pieces in pairs, one longer piece and one 3⁄4" piece, at an angle. Microwave bag of candy in 5-sec. intervals to soften; snip tiny hole in one corner of bag. Pipe dot of candy at pretzel joints to attach as shown. Refrigerate 5 min.
4 For ribs, trim 1 loop from each Flipz pretzel as shown. For sculls, cut 1⁄ 2" slice from each end of large marshmallows; discard center pieces. Crosswise trim 1⁄4" from edge of each slice. Press 1 mini marshmallow piece onto trimmed edge of each marshmallow slice as shown. Transfer 1 cup chocolate frosting to plastic food storage bag; cut tiny hole in one corner. Pipe faces on marshmallows. Enlarge hole in corner of bag. 5For bat wings, cut 1 cookie in half. Microwave pieces to soften, 5–10 sec., keeping pieces together. Using 3⁄4" round cutter, cut 2 side-by-side halfrounds from cut edges of cookie halves as shown, reserving scraps. Repeat to make 2 more sets of wings. Finely grind remaining cookies and scraps for dirt.
6 Fill cake layers with 2⁄ cup vanilla 3 frosting; freeze 15 min. Transfer 1 Tbs. remaining vanilla frosting to plastic sandwich bag; reserve. Stir food coloring into remaining vanilla frosting; spread over cake top. Spread remaining chocolate frosting over cake side. Using reserved bag of chocolate frosting, pipe border around cake top. Sprinkle ground cookie dirt around bottom edge of cake.
7 For each skeleton, insert 2 pretzel legs into bottom edge of cake, about 1" apart, then 3 ribs and 2 arms. Press neck and skull into frosting. Just before serving, press wings and mints onto cake top. Snip tiny hole in one corner of vanilla frosting bag. Pipe dots on mints; top with confetti. Decorate with pumpkins.