Sally Stitch Cake

Decorated to look like one of Tim Burton's most famous characters, this Sally Stitch Cake is a show-stopping centerpiece for any Halloween party! Spiced apple butter cake is layered with a simple chocolate fudge and topped with colorful sweet vanilla frosting. It takes a good amount of time to decorate, but it's so much fun to practice different techniques.

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Prep Time 3

Cook Time 23

Servings: 18 slices

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

Apple Butter Cake

½ cup salted butter
3 ⅔ cup cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon baking soda
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs at room temperature
2 large egg whites at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
¾ cup apple butter
1 cup buttermilk at room temperature

Fudge Frosting

1 ½ cups bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon espresso powder
1 teaspoon vanilla

Vanilla Frosting

2 ½ cups unsalted butter
1 cup vegetable shortening
5 cups confectioners sugar
¼ cup cold heavy cream
1 Tablespoon boiling water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
a pinch of salt
yellow, pink, blue, and black food coloring

Method

Start by browning the butter

Begin melting the salted butter in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat. Once melted, keep cooking the butter until it starts to sizzle and foam. Begin stirring constantly as you keep cooking it and you will notice brown solids forming at the bottom of the saucepan. Keep cooking until those solids turn a deep amber color and the butter has a nutty aroma. Remove from the heat and pour into a small bowl. Place in the fridge for 10 minutes to cool before using in the cake

Make the batter

Preheat the oven to 350℉. Grease three 8-inch round cake pans with butter, line the bottoms with parchment paper, and then grease the parchment paper. Set aside.
In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and salt until combined. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl using a hand or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix together the unsalted butter and granulated sugar on medium high speed until fluffy and combined. Pour in the cooled brown butter and mix until just combined. Add in the eggs, egg whites, and vanilla and mix until combined. The mixture may look a little curdled, that's ok! Finally, mix in the apple butter.
With the mixer running on low speed, pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Then, with the mixer still running on low speed, slowly stream in the buttermilk, and mix until just combined. Divide the batter evenly among the previously prepared baking pans. Bake for 23-26 minutes or until the cakes are pulling away from the sides of the pan, and they bounce back when lightly poked. Allow the cakes to cool completely in the pans set on a wire cooling rack before frosting.

Make the chocolate frosting

In a large microwave safe mixing bowl, melt the chocolate chips in the microwave in 30 second increments, stirring after each until completely melted and smooth. Whisk the sour cream in, a dollop at a time, until thick and creamy. It will seize up at the beginning, and it won't look like it's going to come together, but I promise it will if you keep mixing in the sour cream slowly. Once all of the sour cream is incorporated, whisk in the espresso powder and vanilla extract.

Assemble

I like to slice a thin layer off of the tops of my cakes to create a smooth surface, but this is optional. Place one cake layer on your cake stand and spread half of the chocolate frosting on top. Place another cake layer on top and spread the remaining chocolate frosting smoothly on top. Place the final cake layer on top of that and stick the cake in the freezer to firm up while we quickly make the frosting.

Make the frosting

In a large bowl using a hand or stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whip the butter and shortening together on medium speed until combined and creamy, about two minutes. Add the confectioners sugar, heavy cream, boiling water, vanilla extract, and salt. Mix on low speed for 30 seconds before turning up to high speed to whip for 1-2 minutes or until light and fluffy. Don't color any of the frosting yet, we'll do that after the crumb coat.
Spread a very thin layer of the frosting on the top and sides of the cake. You should still be able to see some of the cake poking through, the crumb coat just gives you a smooth surface for the intricate piping later. I use a bench scraper to make sure the frosting is perfectly smooth. Place the cake in the freezer while we dye the remaining frosting.
Split the frosting among four mixing bowls. Dye one quarter teal, another pink, another yellow, and the last one black. I add a Tablespoon or two of cocoa powder to the black one to help it get to the right color. Put each frosting into their own piping bag, each fitted with a small round tip. I used Wilton #10 for all four colors.
Remove the cake from the freezer. Using a toothpick, trace out your "patches" on the tops and sides of the cake. They don't have to be super precise, just try and make them different shapes and sizes. I like to put a little dot of each color frosting in each section to map out what color each one will be.
Carefully pipe and spread the different colored frostings among the different "patches" on the cake. It's ok if the sections aren't perfectly smooth. Using the black frosting, pipe and out line around where the "Stitches" would be to separate the different colors. Pipe little horizontal lines on top of this black outline to be the "stitches". Finally, using the black frosting, pipe different simple patterns in a few of the colored patches to resemble the different patterns on Sallys dress. I did some spirals, dots, zig zags, grids, and stripes. Freeze the cake for 10 minutes to firm up the frosting and serve!