It’s Halloween season again and you know what that means, more tricks and definitely more treats. One idea that’ll really spook up the little ones and provide a tasty treat at the same time is the skull cupcakes. Scary looking but mouth watering, spooky but fluffy, it’s perfect for Halloween.
I learned how to make these marshmallow skull cupcakes from my friend Jodi, who created them originally for Martha Stewart Living way back when. With a couple of shortcuts, they are surprisingly easy to recreate (the oohs and ahhs come from simply cutting marshmallow head in half and shaping them into skulls).
Here’s one recipe you’ll fall in love with:
MAKING THE SPOOKIEST TASTY TREATS
Ingredients:
- 50 grams cocoa powder
- 175 grams plain flour
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 225 grams caster sugar
- 175 grams unsalted butter, softened
- 175 milliliters milk
- 1 batch of vanilla buttercream frosting
- 3 tablespoons cocoa powder (unsweetened)
- 1 tablespoon black food gel colour (americolour ‘SUPER BLACK’) for batter
- 1 tablespoon black food gel colour (americolour ‘SUPER BLACK’) for buttercream frosting
- 200 grams white chocolate melts
- 100 grams dark chocolate melts
Instructions:
- Heat oven to 160C (320F). Line cupcake tin with paper cupcake cases.
- Add all of the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl, and mix on low speed for about 20 seconds before you add your softened butter. Let it mix until it reaches a crumbly, sand like texture.
- Add eggs and milk into a jug and whisk together well. Add milk/egg mixture to dry ingredients in a slow steady stream while mixer is on low. Make sure you scrape down the bowl each time you add an ingredient to make sure everything’s mixing well. Add the black food dye and mix on low speed scrape down the bowl to make sure that all the batter is being coloured evenly.
- Scoop into cupcake pan, filling about 3/4 way. Bake for 20 min. To check if they’re done simply pierce the cupcake with a skewer and if they come out clean they’re done. Once they’re done, let them cool down completely.
- While cupcakes are baking and cooling, gently melt your dark and white chocolate (separately) in a microwave-safe bowl for 20 seconds at a time stirring each time until smooth, and put into piping bags (or sandwich zip lock bags). Snip off a little bit of the end.
- To make skulls, start off by piping a blob of white chocolate. Then pipe three small lines at the bottom for the teeth. Let it set a little before you pipe dark chocolate eyes on the front.
- To pipe bones, simply pipe a small ‘v’ at one end and another at the other end connected by a thin line as demonstrated in the video.
- Place the bones and skulls into the fridge to set if it’s a warm day.
- While the cupcakes are baking and cooling add black food dye and a little bit of extra cocoa powder to buttercream frosting and mix in well. You want to get a dark charcoal colour.
- Add buttercream frosting to a piping bag fitted with a plain round tip and pipe in a swirl motion as demonstrated in the video.
- Gently stick the skulls on the front of the frosting
You can make these cupcake treats days before Halloween and put them in the freezer. You can also choose to decorate them before or after freezing.
From Eclectic Mom
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POSTED IN: FOOD · TAGGED: BIRTHDAY CUPCAKES, CUPCAKES, KIDS BIRTHDAY PARTIES