Spooky Halloween Cupcakes!

 Last weekend, I did some Halloween baking. With a somewhat last minute decision and sparse supermarket, the things I wanted wasn't all quite available, but nevertheless, although they didn't come out quite as the inspiration did, I still think they are super cute! 

For the recipe we did 170g of butter and caster sugar, creamed together. Then 3 eggs mixed and the dry mixture added in thirds together and folded together. The dry mixture consisted of 100g self-raising flour, 70g cocoa powder and 1 teaspoon of baking powder. 

The mixture actually made quite a lot of cupcakes and probably could have easily made more but we split it between 18 cases. 

These were then put in a fan oven at 180 degrees, for 20 minutes, checking regularly after 15 minutes for a non-sticky skewer. Of course, before decorating, you then have to leave the cupcakes to cool for at least an hour. 

For the buttercream icing, it's 100g of butter, 200g of icing sugar and 3 drops of vanilla essence. We then made 3 different designs: Skeleton, Pumpkin and Frankenstein. I chose these because they were all super easy to make, fun and cute!

Skeleton

For the skeleton face, you need the plain buttercream. Simply put it on with a knife to make it flat. Then I used 2 chocolate chips turned over for the eyes and melted chocolate for the nose and smile. I actually didn't have a piping bag or icing pen but they would have been easier to use. Instead, I simply dipped a cocktail stick in and drew. 

Pumpkin

For the pumpkin, I used orange and green food colouring to dye the buttercream. This was the hardest to do as required piping the frosting. Put the orange on in stripes starting from each side and following the shape of the cupcake, finishing with one straight down the middle. For the green top, we had a leaf tip but as you can see, it wasn't perfect. Again, for the face, just melted chocolate and a cocktail stick; two triangles for eyes, one for the nose and a zig-zagged mouth. You can have fun with this one though! 

Frankenstein 

For this one, simply use the green buttercream and put it on with a knife to make it flat. Add 2 chocolate chips turned over for the eyes and melted chocolate for the straight-lined mouth. Add on two small scars; a line with two lines perpendicular. These are a little small and faffy but add character. To finish, put some hair on top! 

I thought this turned out so cute and as you can see, very easy to make! What do you think? 

You can also watch the vlog here to see me bake them!