Hey guys this is my first instructable! I love baking and I have been wanting to make this for a while and the the deceptive deserts contest popped up and it gave me some motive to make it. This cake tastes amazing and my whole family loves it and Im hoping yours will to. Today we will be making not only the cake but frosting and fondant to to help make this cake look amazing! Okay, lets get started.

Step 1: Ingredients

Here are the ingredients you will need for the cake

All Purpose Flower- 2 cup

Unsweetened Cocoa Powder- 1/4 cup

White Sugar- 2 cups

Cayenne Pepper- 1/8 teaspoon

Baking Soda- 1 teaspoon

Ground cinnamon- 1 teaspoon

Softened Butter- 1/2 cup

Vegetable Oil- 1/2 cup

Water- 1 cup

Buttermilk- 1/2 cup

Eggs- 2

Vanilla Extract- 1 teaspoon

That is all you will need for the cake.

Chocolate Frosting Ingredients

Powdered Sugar-2 3/4 cups

Unsweetened Cocoa Powder- 6 tablespoons

Butter- 6 tablespoons

Evaporated Milk- 5 tablespoons

Vanilla Extract- 1 teaspoon

That is all for the frosting. Now on the the fondant.(this is a marshmallow fondant)

Fondant

Butter- 1/4 cup

Package of Mini Marshmallows(16 ounce)

Water- 1/4 cup

Vanilla Extract- 1 teaspoon

Confectioners sugar- 2 pounds

Red food dye

Decorating ingredients

green food dye

Remember you do not have to do all the fancy decorations and such all you really need to do is the cake and frosting and you will have an amazing cake! I just love to use fondant and take my cakes to the next level so if you love to do the same then I recommend you do the same.

Step 2: Tools

Mixer(you can do the mixing by hand but an electric mixer will make life easier)

Two 9 1/2 inch round pans that are 2 inches deep

Rubber spatula And other various tools that may help you in baking.

Some icing tips and piping bags.

Step 3: Making the Cake

First you are going to want to preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Make sure to grease and flower your pans! Now in a large bowl your are going to want to mix together the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and cayenne pepper. Mix well. Now add the butter, oil, water, buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla. Mix all together for about five minutes or until smooth. Spread evenly into the 2 pans. I baked my cake for about 25 minutes but depending on your oven the time will very. So I recommend doing 15 minutes and then after that checking on your cake every 5 minutes till a tooth pick emerges clean. Once you have finished baking the cakes you need to let them sit for at least an hour. Now you need to run a butter knife along the edges and kinda pull up on the cake from the bottom with the knife every few turns. But dont pull up too much, just enough to help loosen the cake from the pan. Now you can go ahead and flip your cakes onto what ever you will be decorating the on, Now on to the next step!

Step 4: Making the Frosting and Fondant

First you are going to want to make your frosting.In a medium bowl you are going to want to sift together the powdered sugar and cocoa powder, and then set it aside. Next, in a large bowl or mixer cream the butter till its smooth.(this is very important to make sure it is smooth.) Then you gradually beat in the sugar mixture alternately with the evaporated milk. Once smooth beat in the vanilla. Now beat on medium for 3-4 minutes keeping an eye on your it. You want it to be light and fluffy. (You can put this in the fridge but with this frosting it will need to be defrosted in the microwave so, if you plan on putting the frosting in the fridge make sure its in a microwave safe container.

Now onto the fondant. The key with making fondant is you can be afraid to get messy. You will have a huge mess on your counter so maybe consider doing the kneading on some wax paper. First your going to want to put the butter in a small bowl or on a plate. Then place the marshmallows in a large microwave safe bowl and set the microwave to 30 seconds. While the marshmallows are in the microwave for the first time I recommend you spray down a rubber spatula with pam. Also spray down your mixer bowl and the mixer attachment with pam. Now keep doing 30 second intervals on the marshmallow and stirring in between each interval till they are melted. Now dump the melted marshmallows into the mixer bowl and add the water and vanilla and beat well. Put aside 1 cup of powdered sugar for kneading. Now gradually add the sugar while mixing till all of it is gone. Dump the fondant onto your sugar covered work area and rub your hands in the butter and start kneading away! You will need to knead for about 5-10 minutes or until most the stickiness is gone. Now if you plan on doing the decorating the next day you can wrap your fondant with plastic wrap and put in the fridge for an hour, but if you want to work on it the same day like me you can freeze the fondant for 1 hour. And thats all for the frosting and fondant.

Step 5: Decorating

Alright now time for the fun. Your going to want to dye your fondant into 3 colors once you have chilled it for a while. First a fairly small ball of green(green vine looking color). Then you want a little bit bigger of a ball of red(kind of blood red). Then for the majority of the fondant you want it chocolate brown.(making a chocolate brown color is a mix of multiple colors its easy to make and if its not on the back of your package of dye you can easily look it up.) Now you want to roll out or brown fondant first into a big roll. You want the fondant about a centimeter thick. Don't forget to use plenty of powdered sugar on your work surface or you fondant will stick. Another trick is putting the fondant between plastic wrap with no sugar and just using the plastic to help with no stick. Once you have the fondant rolled out nicely its time to frost the top of the first cake. Once you frost the top put the second cake on top of the first on and then frost the whole thing. Now roll your fondant up on the rolling pin and bring it to your cake and roll it out over.(or however you want to get the fondant on the cake.)Now press the fondant tight to the bottom of the cake then carefully cut off the excess fondant. Now if you have powdered sugar on your fondant and its all white your can take a damp paper towel and wipe off the excess sugar. Once your brown fondant is on you can get your red fondant out. You can roll the red about half an inch thick. I happened to have a pepper cookie cutter so I used that but you can free hand a chili pepper. Spread out about 5 or 6 chili peppers across the cake.( a little bit of water on the bottom of the fondant chilis applied with a paint brush will help them stick and then you can hang them over the sides of the cake.) Once those are nicely on there you can start cutting thin long pieces of green and rolling them like a thin snake. connect multiple rolls of green together and to the tips of the peppers.( look at photo for better example.) Congrats! You just made an amazing cake to impress your friends. I hope you enjoy like my family did. If you like this a vote would really help. Thank you!