Peabody pol bakes monster-sized cake

PEABODY – Students and staff at Endicott College in Beverly might notice something unusual about their dessert table this afternoon.For the third consecutive Halloween, Peabody School Committee member Ed Charest will whip up his monstrous and famous life-size coffin cake, complete with Count Dracula resting in peace inside.But you won’t find any blood (real blood that is) or wood in his recipe. The dangerously delicious cake is made of approximately 130 pounds of cake batter (yellow and chocolate), at least 50 pounds of frosting, and 10-12 pounds of chocolate ganache. Combined, that’s enough to make 12 extra-tall sheet cakes and serve more than 700 people. White chocolate is also used to make decorative spider webs.Dracula, however, is made with non-edible items, such as a red cape, a white chef’s coat stuffed with linens to give a full-bodied effect, and a dummy’s head, fake of course. To complete the look, Charest uses candy pieces as eyes and drives a steak through Dracula’s heart.The whole process takes about 3.5 hours to complete, but for Charest, it’s worth it. He first started the project 15 years ago when he was employed at a different college in Massachusetts. It’s been such a hit with co-workers and students ever since, he couldn’t possibly go a year without it.”It’s kind of funny,” he said. “They look forward to it now.”Charest said Halloween is big around campus and most people dress up, but you won’t find him sporting devil horns or a clown suit.”It’d be kind of hard for me to make the cake in a costume,” he quipped.