Make the decorating paste by combining 4 T of melted butter, 1/2 C powdered sugar, 2 egg whites, and 1/2 C flour in a bowl. Color 2/3 of the decorating paste with orange gel food coloring, and the remaining 1/3 with red gel food coloring.

Then fit your pastry bags with tips, and fill your bags with the decorating paste. For the orange, I prefer to use a basketweave tip, and for the red, a small round tip (#3).

If the paste seems a little too soft, please it in the icebox for a few minutes to help firm it up.

Begin tracing your template by first piping the orange lines, followed by the red hexagons. Use a toothpick or skewer to clean up the edges. If you mess up, don’t worry! You can just wipe it away and start over.

Once you’ve finished piping, place the baking sheet into the freezer to harden for
about 10-15 minutes while you prepare the cake batter.

Next, preheat your oven to 375°F.

In a small bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, start beating the eggs, gradually adding the sugar while beating. Beat the mixture for about 2-3 minutes, until the eggs are foamy and light yellow in color; then add in the vanilla and one tablespoon of water.

Gradually add in the flour mixture, and mix just until smooth and combined. Don’t overmix!

Remove your baking sheet from the freezer, and carefully remove the template
from beneath the parchment paper. Pour the chocolate cake batter over your design, and spread evenly with a spatula.

Bake for 8-10 minutes. Watch closely – if you over-bake it, the cake will have a tendency to crack as you roll it up.

Now, this next part goes fast, so get your supplies organized and ready to go.

While the cake is baking, lay two sheets of parchment paper on the
backside of two baking sheets. Dust one of them with powdered sugar.

As soon as your cake is out of the oven (I mean it – don’t even give it a minute to cool!), loosen the edges with a knife or spatula, and flip the cake out
onto the powdered sugar dusted parchment sheet. Carefully remove the parchment paper the cake was baked on (where you originally piped the Overlook Hotel carpet design), cover with the other piece of parchment, and use the two baking sheets to flip the cake over.

Peel off the first piece of parchment paper (the one that you inverted your cake onto), dust the bottom of the cake with powdered sugar, and then begin to roll the short side of the cake up with the remaining sheet of parchment paper.

It is critical to do this step while the cake is hot out of the oven, so it doesn’t crack. Allow to fully cool at room temperature.

While the cake is cooling, prepare the chocolate REDRUM filling.

In the bowl of stand mixer, combine the instant chocolate pudding mix and powdered sugar on low speed. Begin mixing in the heavy whipping cream and red gel food coloring, gradually increasing the speed of the mixer to medium-high until the mixture is fluffy.

Reduce the speed back to low, and add in the dark rum and vanilla extract. For this particular recipe, I used Deadhead Dark Chocolate Rum.

Once the cake has completely cooled (yes, completely cooled – you don’t want your filling to ooze out like the blood-elevator aka ‘the river of blood’ scene in The Shining), very carefully unroll the cake, and spread with the filling. You’ll likely have some filling leftover (I won’t judge if you eat it by the spoonful…I know I did!). Then roll the cake up again, and…you’re done! I like to decorate mine with a little chocolate axe.