Halloween Chocolate Tunnel Cake

Halloween Chocolate Tunnel Cake is a moist, from scratch, dark chocolate cake filled with a tunnel of orange cheesecake center and drizzled with colorful cream cheese frosting. Just the right amount of festive and spooky for your Halloween party!

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It’s my anniversary! My 8^th anniversary already.

I always associate our marriage with Halloween because we got engaged on Halloween.

So, today I’m sharing this cake that I made as part of Cupcake Diaries’ 30 Days of Halloween.

It may seem early for Halloween but these Halloween Cream Cheese Swirl Brownies have been crazy popular on Pinterest and Facebook for weeks so I don’t think it’s too early.

I actually made this cake three times before I felt like I got it just right. I used my favorite from-scratch chocolate cake recipe. If you’d rather use a box mix, go for it, just try to get a dark chocolate one so you have a black cake instead of brown.

The cream cheese filling is like having a cheesecake inside your chocolate cake – the best of both worlds.

The cream cheese frosting/glaze is the perfect amount of sweetness to offset the cream cheese filling. Plus, I colored it orange, green, and purple to make it Halloween-esque so it looks really pretty. You can skip the food coloring and it’ll be equally delicious (though not quite as eye catching).

Tips to making this Halloween Chocolate Tunnel Cake a success:

• Use Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa powder (or your favorite dark chocolate cocoa powder) to get the cake really dark (black).
• I used the Wilton Color Right Performance Kit for dying the cheese cake and cream cheese frosting. I love the variety of colors you can achieve.
• Make sure to use non-stick spray so your bundt cake slides out easily.
• Feel free to use a box mix if you have one on hand & don’t feel like making the cake from scratch.
• Keep any extra cake covered and stored in the fridge.

Supplies you may need:

• Food coloring kit – this is the one I used for this cake & the cream cheese swirl brownies
• Bundt pan
• Cake cutter

Other Halloween treats you make like:

• Cream Cheese Swirl Brownies
• Brownie Bottom Halloween Cupcakes
• Mummy Jalapeno Poppers
• Black Cat Pudding Cups

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Halloween Chocolate Tunnel Cake

Melissa Williams | Persnickety Plates

Halloween Chocolate Tunnel Cake is a moist, from scratch, dark chocolate cake filled with a tunnel of orange cheesecake center and drizzled with a cream cheese frosting. Just the right amount of festive and spooky for your Halloween party!

5 from 4 votes

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Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 16

Ingredients

  

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For the cake

• 1 ½ cups flour
• ⅔ cup dark chocolate cocoa powder I used Hershey's Special Dark
• 1 ⅓ cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• ⅓ cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ⅔ cup milk I used 2%
• ⅔ cup hot water

For the cream cheese filling

• 2 bricks 8 oz each of cream cheese, at room temp
• ⅓ cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• orange food coloring

For the cream cheese frosting

• 2 oz cream cheese at room temp
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2 Tablespoons milk I used 2%
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• orange, green, purple food coloring

Instructions

 

To make the cake

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and generously spray a bundt pan with non-stick baking spray. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, add the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and mix together with a whisk.
• Add in the eggs, oil, vanilla, and milk and milk until just combined.
• Pour in the hot water and stir until smooth (it will look runny - this is right).

To make the Cream Cheese Filling

• In a medium bowl, add the 2 bricks of cream cheese, sugar, egg, and vanilla and mix with a hand mixer on medium until smooth.
• Add in the food coloring and mix until just combined.
• Pour half of the chocolate batter into the prepared bundt pan.
• Spoon the cream cheese mixture into a ring around the center of the chocolate batter. Gently smooth the cream cheese mixture with a spatula to evenly distribute.
• Pour the remaining cake batter on top.
• Bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out cleanly.
• Let cool then flip onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

To make the Cream Cheese Frosting

• In a medium bowl, whisk together the cream cheese, powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla.
• Pour the frosting into 3 small bowls. Use food coloring (a very small amount) to color each bowl. I used orange, green, and purple.
• Drizzle each color over the cooled cake.

Nutritional information is an estimate and provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe using your preferred nutrition calculator.

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I’ve never been much for dressing up but I do love Halloween decorations and treats. There are some really cute and delicious looking recipes in the collection & it’s only halfway through – I can’t wait to see the rest of the month!