This story appears in our July 2025 Nostalgia issue, presented by Up, where we asked 13 professional bakers to recreate cakes from the iconic The Australian Women’s Weekly Children’s Birthday Cake Book.
Taking the Friendly Ghost cake as my inspiration, I decided to give it a glow-up by using my mum’s favourite cake as the base: carrot cake sponge with cream cheese buttercream and apricot jam.
I made my own apricot jam for this recipe (you can too!) but I would also highly recommend Bonne Maman apricot conserve. It is my mum and grandmother’s favourite on toast in the morning.
Using recipes below, cut out and assemble cake as indicated in original book.
I tempered some white chocolate to use as the eye sockets (instead of the original eggshells) and added house-made guava sour plum jellies for the irises.
For the smile, I used green Smarties. Why Smarties and not M&Ms, you might ask? Well, because only Smarties have the answer!
Surrounding the cake is some some pink-coloured desiccated coconut. I spread a thin layer of cream cheese buttercream onto the cake board, before dusting the desiccated coconut.
Cake ingredients
680g carrots
200g walnuts
520g flour
10g baking soda
2.5g baking powder
7.5g ground cinnamon
2.5g fine salt
400g whole eggs (about 8 large eggs)
600g caster sugar
480g extra virgin olive oil
Cake method
Preheat a fan-forced oven to 165°C. Line a rectangular baking tray (30cm x 24cm) with baking paper.
Peel then finely grate carrots with a box grater or julienne mandolin.
Lightly toast walnuts for 5 minutes in the oven at 150°C. Allow to cool, then roughly chop.
Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder and ground cinnamon together, and weigh salt into the dry mixture. Whisk gently to combine.
In a stand mixer with the whisk attachment at medium speed, whisk whole eggs and caster sugar until fluffy. Slowly pour in extra virgin olive oil.
Lower speed of the mixer and slowly add in the sifted dry ingredients. Finish with carrots and walnuts.
Pour mixture into the rectangle baking tray and bake at 165°C for 45–60 minutes. Check doneness with a skewer or knife.
Leave to cool completely before use.
Cut out and assemble the cake using the instructions in the original book.
Cream cheese buttercream ingredients
145g caster sugar
40g water
110g whole eggs (approx 2 large eggs)
500g unsalted butter (soft)
600g cream cheese (soft)
Cream cheese buttercream method
Weigh caster sugar and water in a boil, and on medium heat, bring to 118°C.
While waiting for the syrup to come to temperature, weigh eggs into a stand mixer with the whisk attachment. Whisk at medium speed until fluffy. Gradually pour in the syrup.
Once the mixing bowl is cool to touch, add in the unsalted butter. Whisk until fluffy and creamy.
Slowly add in cream cheese until well mixed.
Apricot jam ingredients
1kg fresh apricots
400g water
150g dried apricots
200g caster sugar
80g lemon juice
Apricot jam method
Clean and pit apricots, and cut into cubes.
In a pot, weigh all the ingredients together, and bring to boil over medium heat. Lower the heat, and simmer until thickened slightly.
Allow to cool before use.
The ghost cake recipe first appeared in the The Australian Women’s Weekly Children’s Birthday Cake Book, published in 1980.
