Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons cocoa
• 1 (1/4 ounce) bottle gel-based red food coloring
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
• 4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter
• 3 cups confectioners' sugar
• 2 tablespoons whipping cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon salt
• red gel-based food coloring (for the heart coating batch)
• 3 large egg whites
• 4 cups confectioners' sugar
• food coloring
• 16 ounces chocolate
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup

Instructions

1. TO MAKE THE CAKE:.

2. Preheat oven to 350.

3. Grease two 8-inch round pans.

4. Beat butter and sugar until fluffy and creamed. Add eggs and whip. Mix cocoa and red food coloring separately and add to creamed mixture. Add vanilla, vinegar and buttermilk together in a glass. In a third bowl, sift and mix flour, baking soda and salt.

5. Begin adding flour to the batter, alternating with the buttermilk mixture, whisking just until incorporated. Mix until just combined, being careful not to overmix.

6. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake in preheated oven until a tester inserted into the cake comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Out of the oven, cool ten minutes before removing from baking sheet. At this point, they should be covered and chilled until ready to assemble. When creating structural cakes, temperature is key and the colder everything is, the better!

7. CREAM CHEESE FROSTING:.

8. Cream butter and cream cheese together in stand mixer. Once fluffy, add sugar a cup at a time and beat until airy. Add vanilla and salt and spread over cake and in between layers that require no structural support.

9. BUTTERCREAM FROSTING:.

10. In a stand mixer, beat room temp butter until fluffy. Add icing sugar one cup at a time. Add whipping cream and salt (and add desired color for the heart section batch). Whip and frost cake.

11. ROYAL ICING:.

12. Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Use for Lambeth-style decorating as well as webbing on the heart and teeth on the Demogorgon blossoms.

13. MODELING CHOCOLATE:.

14. Warm corn syrup separately in the microwave. Melt down chocolate or candy melts. Once in a liquid state, remove from heat and mix in warm corn syrup, mixing just until a soft serve texture forms. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and allow to set for 6-8 hours. When ready to use, break off a selected piece and manipulate in your hands until it is soft and flexible again. If it's too soft, you can always fold in a little powdered sugar to help it set up a bit more. Once you have a flexible dough you can roll it out to make the Demogorgon blossoms or sculpt the hand. .

15. Tip: I tripled this recipe for my 3-tiered cake. For the third batch, I poured the cake batter into a 6" pan and a 10" pan.