The Haunted Mansion Bloody Wedding Cake

• Ingredients:
  Cherry Pie Filling:
  2 cups (420g) frozen black cherries 
  ½ cup (6oz/110g) water
  2 Tbsp. (6g) freshly lemon juice
  1/3 cup (73g) granulated sugar
  2 Tbsp. (15g) cornstarch
  1/4 tsp. almond or vanilla extract
  ⅛ tsp. Salt 
• Simple Syrup:
  ½ cup granulated sugar (110g)
  ½ cup water (106g)
  
  Traditional American Buttercream
  2 cups (4 sticks) room temperature unsalted butter
  8 cups or a 2 lbs bag of powdered sugar
  2-3 tsp. of milk
  3 tsp. vanilla extract (good quality)
  2-3 pinches of salt

• Cream Cheese Frosting:
• 8 oz block of cream cheese (room temperature)
• 1 stick of unsalted room temperature butter
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• ¾ cup powdered sugar

Instructions:
Make your favorite vanilla cake mix, you will need 3 (8 inch) vanilla cakes.

Cherry Pie Filling:
In a medium saucepan, combine the cherries, sugar, lemon, cornstarch, water, and salt. Mix to combine and cook over a medium high heat until the cherries thicken and reduce. Remove from heat, stir in the almond or vanilla extract and set aside to cool completely. 

Simple Syrup:
In a small saucepan combine the sugar and water, cook on medium high heat until the sugar dissolves, remove from heat and allow to cool completely. Once the simple syrup is completely cool, add 8-10 drops of red food coloring. Mix to combine. 

Vanilla Buttercream:
In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the powdered sugar in 3 increments, beating well after each addition. Once the powdered sugar has been added, add the vanilla extract and salt. Beat another 3 minutes, then add the milk a small amount at time until you reach a smooth creamy piping consistency. 

Cream Cheese Frosting:
In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese until smooth and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the vanilla extract and powdered sugar and beat another 3 minutes.

Assemble the Cake:
Place 1 vanilla cake down on a plate or cake plate. Fill a large piping bag with vanilla buttercream. Pipe a border around the outside edge of the vanilla cake. Using a spoon, spoon small amounts of the red simple syrup in blotches all over the top of the vanilla cake. Add a nice layer of half of the cherries, followed by half of the cream cheese, spread evenly. Top with the second vanilla cake, repeat with the next layer. Before adding the top cake, add red simple syrup to the bottom side of the cake, then place the cake on top and add more red simple syrup to the top layer of the cake. 

Carefully add a thin layer of buttercream to all sides of the cake (this is the crumb coat). Once the crumb coat has been added, chill the cake for 20 minutes. The cream cheese and cherry filling is very soft and might make it difficult to ice the cake, you may need to chill the cake for longer than 20 minutes. After the cake has chilled, finish frosting the entire cake with the vanilla buttercream, making it as smooth as possible. 

You can pipe a border on the top and bottom of the cake, and pipe any other design you like along the sides of the cake. 

Using a small brush or a clean unused toothbrush, dip the brush into the red simple syrup and splatter the cake with the red syrup. This will give the cake the blood splatter look. 

Chill the cake for a few hours to allow it to set completely. For smooth clean cuts of cake, cut cold and allow the slices to come to room temperature for at least 30 minutes before eating. 

Enjoy!