Crash-Landing Witch Cake

Ingredients

• 1 box cake mix yellow
• 1 serving chocolate-covered peanuts with wrapping paper and plastic food wrap or foil
• 12 oz fluffy frosting white
• 20 drops purple gel food coloring 
• 1 tablespoon coarse salt black
• 4 small m&m candies ()
• 1  bass fillets green hard cut in half
• 3  chocolate wafers such as nabisco famous crushed thin
• 1 strip licorice rounds 
• 2 large marshmallows 
• 1  poached berries (from 5-oz box)
• 1  licorice rounds green cut into 1-inch pieces
• 2  semisweet chocolate chips miniature
• 5  sprinkles 
• 0.5  snack peppers green (from 5-oz box)
• 1  licorice rounds cut in half
• 9  pumpkin 

Equipment

• bowl
• oven
• knife
• toothpicks
• microwave
• muffin liners
• mini muffin tray

Directions

1. Heat oven to 325°F. Grease 2 (8-inch) round cake pans with shortening; coat with flour (do not use cooking spray). Lightly grease 2 muffin cups in mini muffin pan.
2. Make cake batter as directed on box.
3. Pour into 2 mini muffin cups, filling two-thirds full.
4. Pour remaining batter into round pans.
5. Bake cupcakes 11 to 14 minutes, rounds 29 to 34 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes.
6. Remove cakes from muffin cups and pans; place rounded sides up on cooling racks. Cool completely, about 1 hour. If necessary, cut off rounded tops of cakes.
7. Meanwhile, reserve 2 tablespoons of the frosting in small bowl. In medium bowl, stir orange gel food color into remaining frosting until smooth.
8. Place 1 cake layer, rounded side down, on serving plate.
9. Spread 1/2 cup of the frosting over cake layer to within 1/4 inch of edge. Top with second layer, rounded side up. Frost with remaining frosting.
10. Cut 1 mini cupcake in half at an angle; press into cake to make the witch's behind. Frost with reserved 2 tablespoons frosting, sprinkle with black coarse sugar.
11. Microwave chewy chocolate candies on High 3 to 8 seconds, just until moldable. Press 1 candy on uncut end of each hard candy stick. Mold chocolate candies to make witch's shoes. Mold the remaining 2 chocolate candies together to make hat.
12. Insert cut end of hard candy sticks into cake near witch's behind.
13. Sprinkle cookie crumbs around witch's behind.
14. Using paring knife, cut the orange strip out of the rainbow-berry flavor sweet-sour chewy licorice. Wrap the orange candy strip around the witch's hat, and gently tie it onto the hat.
15. To make pumpkins, wrap remaining mini cupcake and both marshmallows with punch berry fruit snack, pinching to seal fruit snack. Firmly press green licorice candies into top of wrapped pumpkins to make stem. Press miniature chocolate chips in cupcake face for eyes and brown candies for mouth.
16. Place on cake.
17. Fold remaining fruit snack in half lengthwise with paring knife; cut small slits into fruit snack without cutting all the way through. Wrap fruit snack around one end of chocolate licorice stick to make broom; place on cake. Decorate with candy pumpkins. Store loosely covered.