Bat Cut-Up Cake

Let’s all just say it together: Awwwww! Yeah, he’s cute, and he’s super easy to make. All you need is one cake mix, a cut-up cake template, and a lot of chocolate frosting. 

If you’re unfamiliar with cut-up cakes, they’re really, really fun. Basically, you take normally shaped cakes (usually square or round), cut them into different shapes, and assemble the whole thing into something recognizable (like a bat or this Easter bunny). I’ve been making them since I was a kid. In fact, they’re a great kid’s activity. 

I did make this one far more fancy than I would if I were really working with a kid (this happens when you know the whole internet may see your product). There are tons of really easy ways to decorate this. You could stick with store-bought frosting, frost the whole thing, and then add details with candy. I’m envisioning Twizzlers for the mouth, Oreo cookies opened up for the eyes, and M&Ms or mints for the ears. And that’s just one thought. 

If you’re interested in doing the cake the way I did, I’ll walk you through my process down below. I used a cake mix (doctored, of course) for my cakes, but you’re welcome to use any recipe you like just as long as you can get two 8-inch round cakes out of it. Same goes for the frosting. I used my favorite buttercream recipe, but just about anything will work as long as you’ve got enough to cover the cake. 

Bat Cut-Up Cake

2016-10-06 23:02:35

Serves 16

Two round cakes make an adorable Halloween bat!

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Prep Time

1 hr

Cook Time

1 hr

Total Time

2 hr

Prep Time

1 hr

Cook Time

1 hr

Total Time

2 hr

Cake

1. 1 box cake mix
2. 1 box instant pudding
3. 4 eggs
4. 1/3 cup melted butter
5. 1 cup milk

Buttercream

1. 1 cup Crisco
2. 1 cup butter or margarine
3. 2 tsp vanilla
4. 8 cups powdered sugar
5. 1/2 cup cocoa
6. 2-4 Tbsp water or milk

Cake

1. Beat together all ingredients.
2. Pour half the batter into a greased and floured 8 inch round pan. Bake for 30 minutes at 350°.
3. Repeat with other half of batter.
4. Cool and remove from pan. Cut cakes and assemble them according to template instructions.

Buttercream Frosting

1. Beat together butter, vanilla, and Crisco until thoroughly combined.
2. Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time. If you want to decorate with white, save some of the frosting out here.
3. Add cocoa and mix until well combined.
4. Add water or milk until desired consistency is reached.
5. Frost cake.

Notes

1. I used Hershey's special dark cocoa to get that really dark brown color.
2. If you want to decorate the face like I did, save a bit of the frosting out before you add in the cocoa.

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Bat Cut-Up Cake, Step-by-step

This is your starting set up. You need two round cakes, a board to put them on, and the cutting template here. This is probably a good time to mention that this bat ends up being extremely, extremely wide. My regular cake board was too short for him (he ended up being 23 inches!), so I had to tuck pieces of foil under each wing. Just a warning.

You have two options for the cutting. You can either lay the template over your cake and poke a knife through it and cut that way, or you can lay the template, poke toothpicks through, then remove it. The second option leaves you with these nice little guide holes that you can then cut through with a knife. The first option is faster, the second is more precise. Your choice. Once you’ve cut the cake up, you’ll reassemble it like this: 

The ears are made from the center of the cut cake. There is one small section you won’t use. Feel free to eat it or throw it away. And yes, my cake is red velvet, because bats suck blood!

All that’s left now is the decorating. Feel free to handle that any way you want. If you want to make yours look like mine, this is how it’s done. 

I am the world’s worst free hander, so I made a face template, printed it off, cut it out, and placed it on the cake.

I then used a Wilton 3 tip to pipe around the shapes. I did the eye outline in black, the nose in brown, and the mouth in pink, and the teeth in white. I also piped a center to each of the ears, which I forgot to get a picture of. 

Next, I went back using a Wilton 18 tip and made little star shapes to fill in my outlines. The result looks like this: 

And last but certainly NOT least, I used the 18 tip to pipe dark chocolate stars over the entire rest of the cake. This is very time-consuming, but not at all difficult. I love the way the end result looks, but do be warned. It took me the better part of an hour to finish with the chocolate!

Well, time-consuming or not, I love him! And trust me when I tell you, he tasted delicious 🙂

Looking for more cake ideas? Gotcha covered!

Bunny Cut-Up Cake

Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream

Pumpkin Spice Cake

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