Over The Garden Wall Vintage Chocolate Cake
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Come in and sit for a while in the whimsical world of 'Over the Garden Wall' with our vintage-inspired Lambeth Cake. This charming creation pays culinary tribute to the beloved show's enchanting aesthetic. Explore the art of old-fashioned cake design, as we guide you through the process of crafting a dessert that embodies the essence of the series. Elevate your baking skills and bring a touch of whimsy to your table with this delightful Lambeth Cake, perfect for fans and anyone seeking a nostalgic treat.
what is over the garden wall?
In case you are unaware, Over the Garden Wall is a TV Mini Series created by Patrick McHale that came out on Cartoon Network in November 2014. The series is about two brothers, Greg and Wirt, who get lost in a mysterious forest called The Unknown. They run into plenty of colorful characters along the way. Overall the cartoon is inspired by late 19th-century and early 20th-century bucolic Americana themes. The backgrounds are inspired by brunaille paintings.
This show has been a large part of my autumn rotation for years. It actually came out the year that I graduated from high school, so it feels like it has been in my life for a long time! I just love that I was able to use the inspiration that it has brought to my creativity to make something that I am truly so proud of.
This papier-mâché pumpkin head is inspired by the pumpkin people from Pottsfield in the show!
Gathering Ingredients:
To make this lovely vintage style cake, you will need a few basic ingredients! Overall, this recipe is fairly simple and all of the hard work goes into the decorating.
Cake Flour. If you do not have cake flour, you can make your own by replacing 1 tablespoon (8 g) of the flour with cornstarch, or simply use all-purpose flour in its place.
Black Cocoa Powder. To make this cake black in color, you will need to use black cocoa powder. If you do not have this, you can use regular or Dutch process cocoa powder and black food coloring, though it won’t be as striking!
Sugar. You will need granulated sugar.
Baking Powder & Baking Soda.
Salt. I prefer to use kosher salt in my recipes.
Buttermilk. Buttermilk will help the cake to rise and have a fluffy texture as it interacts with the baking soda. If you do not have buttermilk, you can make your own. Add 1 tablespoon (15 ml) of white vinegar or lemon juice to a measuring cup and top it off to 1 cup (240 ml) with regular milk.
Sour Cream. Sour cream adds creaminess to the cake’s texture. You can substitute this with the same amount of Greek yogurt.
Vegetable Oil. Any neutral oil will work in liquid form.
Eggs.
Vanilla.
Coffee. The coffee helps to bring out the flavor of the chocolate! You can use any kind, even decaf.
Chocolate. You will need semisweet chocolate for this recipe.
Butter.
Powdered Sugar.
sweet beginnings:
To begin making this cake, I started with my recipe for Chocolate Buttermilk Cake that I have used many times in the past. This cake makes three 8-inch (20-cm) layers, which are perfect for decorating a Lambeth style cake with overpiped icing.
Tips for Making Super Soft Buttercream:
To make soft, pipeable buttercream that is easy to spread onto a cake, here are my best tips!
Weigh Your Ingredients. This is one of my biggest tips for any baking recipe, but weighing your ingredients is incredibly helpful in being accurate! I test all of my recipes by weight in grams as well as standard measurements. This can really helpful in ensuring you are using the correct amount of butter and powdered sugar so that your buttercream is not too stiff nor too soft.
Butter Temperature. For perfect buttercream, you will want the temperature of your butter to be at around 60° F (16° C). This is still a bit cold compared to general room temperature, but it is helpful in making sure that the butter doesn’t begin to melt as you are whipping/beating it.
Sift Your Powdered Sugar. This little trick makes all of the difference in creating smooth and soft buttercream! Powdered sugar can often have little hidden lumps in it, which can make your frosting consistency uneven.
Creaming Time. If you have ever struggled with getting your buttercream to pipe nicely, there’s a high chance that you aren’t creaming it for long enough (and it’s too cold!). First, cream the butter alone for about 5 to 6 minutes on high speed. Then, slowly add your other ingredients, continuing to beat the butter for another 6 to 7 minutes or until its super soft, malleable, and even a bit warm.
marbling the cake:
To marble the cake, or give it a sunset-like appearance, I layered on different colors of frosting with a palette knife. I layered on a lighter colored orange at the top, then added a dark red at the bottom and eventually a black-red colored frosting to create depth.
Once all of the frosting is layered on, it is scraped off with a bench scraper. This creates a super smooth edge and marbled appearance as it blends the colors. I also would recommend investing in a lazy susan for cake decorating, if you can! It’s super helpful as you have to constantly be turning the cake around to get the perfect edge.
Greg and Wirt Stencil:
I wanted some intense contrast for this cake, so I decided to go with black piped details. You might have also noticed that I was able to create a silhouette of Greg and Wirt from the iconic Beast’s Lantern on the top of the cake!
To make the Silhouette: We used a homemade stencil to create the illusion of a silhouette. To do this, we used Laser Transparency Film and a Hobby Hot Knife. These knives are traditionally used for creating wood burned crafts, but we purchased it to create our own stencils!
We found a stock image of Greg and Wirt and resized it to fit the top of the cake in photoshop. Then, the stencil was made by tracing the design onto the laser transparency film and cut out with the hot knife.
Once the stencil was made, I laid it on the frosted cake before adding the piped decorations. I dusted the top of the cake with black cocoa powder using a fine mesh sieve. Then, carefully the stencil was removed and voila!
Piping on the Decorations:
The piped designs are made using a variety of cake piping tips. I used a large French star tip, a medium French star tip, and a small round tip to create the drooping vines.
The piping is fairly easy to do if your buttercream is warm enough. If your buttercream has started to firm up at this point, you can easily warm it up by warming the outside of the bowl or piping bag with a hair dryer on high heat. It should be soft and malleable but not melting!
Overall, I wanted the look of the cake to feel autumnal and also as if it was part of the Edelwood forest that the Beast enhabits.
How to Make a Black Chocolate Cake:
This cake is a basic chocolate cake, but it’s colored by black by using a special ingredient: black cocoa powder!
Black cocoa powder is a cocoa powder that has been heavily dutched or alkalised. It is not colored with artificial food coloring, making it a healthier alternative. It has a smoother taste than regular cocoa powder, and it’s generally non-bitter making it a great ingredient for baking! However, it’s “chocolate” taste is not as strong as other cocoa powders.
Ideally, it’s just a great ingredient for coloring food in a more natural way without having to use lots of black food coloring!
final thoughts:
In the end, I am still in utter shock of how this vintage-style cake turned out! This culinary homage to Over the Garden Wall has been one of my favorite projects to date.
If you have never watched Over the Garden Wall, I highly recommend you give it a viewing! It’s an incredible show and perfectly inspiring, spooky, and cozy. If you are a cottagecore lover, it will be right up your alley!
Similar Recipes:
"Over The Garden Wall" Chocolate Lambeth Cake
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups (325 g) cake flour, sifted
- 3/4 cup (88 g) black cocoa powder
- 2 cups (400 g) granulated sugar
- 1 tbsp (12 g) baking powder
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) buttermilk
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) sour cream
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tsp (10 ml) vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) hot strong coffee
- 1 oz semisweet chocolate, melted
- 3 cups (696 g) butter, softened to room temperature, about 60° F (16° C).
- 12 cups (1,416 g) powdered sugar, sifted
- 12 tbsp (177 ml) heavy whipping cream
- Food coloring, optional
- Black cocoa powder, for the silhouette
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350° F (177° C). Butter and flour 3 8-inch (20-cm) cake pans and set these aside while you make the cake.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.
- Then, add in the buttermilk, sour cream, oil, eggs, vanilla, and coffee. Whisk together until a thick batter forms. Then, stir in the melted chocolate, whisking to combine, about 2 minutes.
- Divide the batter evenly amongst the prepared pans and bake the cake for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake tests done.
- Let the cakes rest in their tins for at least 15 minutes before moving them to a wire cooling rack. Allow the cakes to cool completely to room temperature before decorating them.
- When you are ready to decorate the cakes, it is time to make the buttercream. I know, this recipe looks like a LOT of buttercream, and it is. That is because to make a Lambeth style cake, you will need plenty of frosting to work with. If you would only like to frost the outside of your cake, you can cut this recipe into thirds: 1 cup butter, 4 cups powdered sugar, 4 tbsp heavy whipping cream.
- I would also suggest dividing the recipe in half to make the frosting so that it is easier on your mixer.
- Begin by beating the butter in a standing electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. It needs to be at room temperature but not overly soft. You should be able to easily make an indent with your finger, but the butter should not be melty or greasy. It should ideally be at about 60° F (16° C).
- Beat the butter in the mixer until it is pale yellow in color, light, and fluffy. This takes about 5 to 6 minutes.
- Then, slowly begin to add the powdered sugar. It will become thick and stiff. When this happens, add the heavy whipping cream. At this point, it will look like thick crusty frosting. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and then beat the mixture for 5 to 7 minutes, or until the frosting becomes fluffy, light, and full of air. It should appear foamy, like shaving cream, and be super soft and malleable.
- If your butter is too cold or the frosting is not fluffing up, you can warm the bowl slightly by blowing a hair dryer on high heat on the outside of the bowl.
- When the buttercream has finished, divide it into bowls and color it to your liking. To replicate my cake, about 1/3 of the frosting will be a soft pumpkin orange, another 1/3 will be black for piping the details, and the remaining 1/3 of the frosting will be colored black, dark red, and light orange to create the sunset.
- First, spread a small portion of buttercream on your cake's stand or plate. Even out the cake layers by slicing off some of the top with a serrated knife to make sure the cake is completely flat. Place one layer of cake down.
- If you like, you can brush the cake with a little bit of black coffee for extra moisture. Transfer your medium orange frosting to a piping bag fitted with a large round tip and pipe frosting onto the top of the cake, spreading it evenly. Then, put on the remaining layers of cake. Pipe frosting all over the top and down the sides, spread it evenly all over the cake and scraping it away to create the crumb coat.
- Let the crumb coat sit and then add the remaining frosting. To make a Lambeth cake the sides need to be as smooth as possible so using a bench scraper is ideal. Scrape around the outside of the cake to make a flat surface. With a palette knife, spread on bits of the light orange, red, and black frostings to create a sunset appearance. Scape around the outside and top of the cake with the bench scraper again to marble the frosting.
- If you are creating a Greg and Wirt stencil, apply this now. You can watch how we made the stencil in my youtube video.
- With the black frosting, divide it among piping bags with different cake tips. Pipe on your decorations!
Nutrition Facts
Calories
1940Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
