Halloween Candy Bucket Cake

Ingredients:

• 2 boxes (500g each) of spiced cake mix
• Cooking spray
• 8 eggs of category CO
• 2 cups buttermilk or kefir
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 packs (450 g each) of vanilla glaze (fondant)
• Orange gel food coloring for the background
• Starch, for dusting
• 340 g of orange sugar paste (can be purchased at specialty confectionery stores or online)
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate glaze
• 2 long black licorice strips
• Small candies to fill the "bucket"

Preparation:

1. Spray one 8-inch (20 cm) round cake pan and two 6-cup (1.5 L) fluted muffin tins with cooking spray. Beat the cake mix, eggs, buttermilk, and vegetable oil with a mixer and divide the batter among the pans.
   
   Bake until a toothpick comes out clean: Round cakes take about 25 minutes, and cupcakes with holes take 30-35 minutes. Cool.
2. Color the vanilla frosting with orange food coloring. Trim the flat sides of the cupcakes with the hole and the round cupcake so they match.
   
   Turn one cupcake with the hole upside down and spread with frosting. Place a round cupcake on top, more frosting, and another cupcake with the hole, then frost the entire cake and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. Lightly dust a sheet of parchment paper with starch. Roll the fondant out onto the paper into a 53 x 20 cm rectangle, 0.3 cm thick. Cut into 12 strips, each 20 cm long and 4.5 cm wide, making slits along the edges as shown in the photo.
4. Place the fondant strips on the cake, pressing them lightly and smoothing them out from the base upward. Refrigerate the cake for 30 minutes.
5. Draw the eyes, nose, and mouth of a Jack O'Lantern on paper and cut them out. Pin the templates to the cake with toothpicks. Use a paring knife to trace all the details, then remove the toothpicks and paper.
6. Use a knife to make cuts along the lines you've drawn, cutting through the mastic and, a little, into the cake layer. Use the tip of the knife to remove the cut-out pieces.
7. Using the slits, make 2.5 cm deep indentations in the cake. Place chocolate frosting in a heavy-duty plastic bag, snip off the tip, and squeeze the frosting into the indentations.
8. Interlace two licorice strips and insert them into the top of the cake to form a bucket handle. Fill the top of the cake with candy.