How to Make a Red Vine Monster Cake

Whether you are making a monster cake for Halloween or for a monster-themed birthday, this Red Vine Monster Cake is ridiculously cute and easy to make! Sponsored by Red Vines.

Not everything for Halloween has to be freaky, ghoulish or gory. Sometimes cute is what you need. And if you have little kids, cute is definitely what you need.

Whether you are making a monster cake for Halloween or for a monster-themed birthday, it is a very easy cake to assemble and decorate. You just need a few necessities and a bit of patience to make this cake.

Why this recipe is so great

When I am going to spend time and effort decorating a cake, I like to use box cake mix. They really are tasty and moist, plus who can resist the low cost and ease to whip up and bake.

Now for the eyes and mouth I challenged myself and make homemade marshmallow fondant. My daughter was home sick and I couldn’t run out to Michael’s to get ready-made fondant. Since I had everything on hand, I decided, “Why not?”

But you can totally use ready made fondant, which you can now find in regular grocery stores. This totally added to the prep time, so if you are going to make your own fondant, add another 30-45 minutes to the prep time, depending on how talented you are as a cake decorator!

I used red vines for the top hair, but the hardest part of this cake is the final application of the “body hair.” Yes, you use a piping bag, but piping hair requires ZERO skill. Just squeeze, pull up and let it go!

Frosting a big cake can cramp up your hand, so I took breaks. Overall, this was such an easy cake to make. You can even get the kiddos to help!

Ingredients you need

• 2 boxes of chocolate cake mix: You can use any cake mix you want, but I used chocolate and dyed it black. You will also need water, vegetable oil and eggs required to make the mix.
• Frosting: You will need 6-7 cups of frosting, homemade or storebought.
• Fondant: You can buy or make white fondant and dye what you need for the eyes and mouth (I did this), or you can buy white, black and blue fondant. If you aren’t a fan of fondant or you don’t want to deal with it, you can frost in the eyes and mouth, or dip small cookies in white chocolate.
• Powdered sugar: When rolling out fondant, you will need some powdered sugar to keep it from sticking to your work surface and rolling pin.
• Food coloring: I used red, black and blue
• Red Vines: I used their red licorice twists for the crazy hair on top.

Special supplies you need

For a large monster like I did, you will need two 9-inch round cake pans and one soccer ball cake pan. If you want a smaller head and taller body for your monster cake, you can use two 6-inch round cake pans and bake the head in a smaller sized glass mixing bowl like this.

I cut my fondant eyes and mouth with a sharp knife, knowing I could hide it’s imperfections with frosting later. If you have small oval cutters, feel free to use them. Just know that you can do it without fancy tools.

You will need a piping bag, coupler and tip #233. It has a bunch of little holes in it and you can use it for hair or grass effects. It is a very forgiving way to decorate your cake.

Step-by-step directions

1. Follow directions on your cake mix box and whip up the batter from one box. Divide batter evenly between the two cake pans and bake until done or when a toothpick inserted into the center of the pan comes out clean, approximately 30-35 minutes. Remove cakes from pan and let them cool on a cooling rack.

2. Pour second cake box batter into a well greased soccer pan. Reduce oven temperature to 325ºF and bake soccer cake until done or when a toothpick inserted into the center of the pan comes out clean, approximately 45-60 minutes. Let soccer cake cool completely on cooling rack.

3. Divide fondant into 4 equal pieces. Reserve one quarter to remain white. Dye a second quarter blue. Combine the remaining two quarters and dye black.

4. Using a large cutting board, roll out white fondant to about ¼-inch thick. Use oval cookie cutters to cut two large ovals. Roll out blue fondant to about ¼-inch thick. Use oval cookie cutters to cut two smaller ovals. Roll out black fondant to about ¼-inch thick. Use oval cookie cutters to cut two smaller ovals. Cut out a large mouth.

5. To assemble the eyes, use your fingers to lightly dampen the white ovals and place the blue smaller ovals over them. Dampen the blue ovals and place the black ovals over them. Gently press down.

6. Add frosting to a large bowl and add red food coloring. Mix smooth until frosting is thoroughly red.

7. Place one 9-inch cake rounds on serving plate and frost the top. Place second 9-inch cake round over the first and frost the top. Place the round cake over the two 9-inch rounds and lightly frost entire cake.

8. Place fondant eyes and mouth onto the semi-frosted cake.

9. Press Red licorice twists into the top of the cake. The amount of spiky Red Vine hair you want on your monster cake is up to you. You can go simple or all out, even make some mohawks. I do suggest you refrigerate your cake prior to sliding in the Red Vines, to help keep the hair from slouching in a soft cake.

10. Using a piping bag and grass tip (Wilton #233), pipe the rest of the frosting all over the cake. Start at the base of the cake, squeeze out the frosting, pull up and let go. You can make long hair, short hair, squiggly hair… you name it. Take breaks because you’ll get hand cramps (tell me about it!), but it is totally worth it.

Recipe tips and FAQs

Red Vines come in black licorice and purple grape, too. So you can really let your imagination go wild. I chose their original red for this monster cake.

The ooohs and aaaahs I received when I showed off this monster cake made it all worth it. I hope your little monsters like it too!

PS If you try this recipe, why not leave a star rating in the recipe card right below and/or a review in the comment section further down the page? I always appreciate your feedback.

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Disclosure: I was paid a stipend by Red Vines to share a Halloween recipe using their candies. The opinions I expressed are mine. If I didn’t like it, I wouldn’t blog about it! This post does contain affiliate links.