Halloween Cupcakes

Frosting cupcakes

 I love Halloween. My husband loves Halloween. My daughter loves Halloween. Our dogs do not love Halloween. They hate Halloween.They do love cupcakes, and I have to keep these out of their reach.

We usually go all out for Halloween. Unfortunately, we are not going all out with decorations this year but we are with food. This is the first of several Halloween posts. I usually I have ton of stuff going on this time of year. Sooooooo if I can cut some corners without sacrificing taste, I am going to.

Use your favorite cupcake recipe for the base. The cupcake recipe below makes a great cupcake. I am a huge fan of sour cream cupcakes because it makes the cupcakes so moist! Yummy! You could also add chocolate chips. I think mini chocolate chips would be perfect for these. It makes a ton of cupcake (24 cupcakes!). Enough for a class of kids, the teacher, and the baker! Not that you will want to share.

Chocolate Sour Cream Cupcakes

1 Box (18.25 oz/517 g) of Chocolate Cake Mix

16 oz. (455 g) of Sour Cream

1/4 Cup (55 g) of Butter, Melted

2 Large Eggs

1 Tsp of Vanilla

Preheat oven to 350F/176C/ Gas Mark 4.

Place all ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix on low until all ingredients are moistened. Increase speed to medium and beat for 3-4 minutes, scraping the bowl as necessary.

The batter should be smooth

Pour into muffin tins or muffin tins lined with paper or foil liners. Fill each cup 2/3 of the way full.  Bake for 25 minutes until wooden pick inserted into the center of the cupcakes comes out clean. Allow to cool completely. (They are also really good warm-- but don't ice them when they are warm).

Yum! Chocolate cupcakes

My family hopes that we will have ugly ones that they get to eat. I expect to walk in and see my husband smashing one with his fist. (It would then be deemed an ugly cupcake and would get eaten).

Butter Cream Icing

I am opposed to bland tasting icing. This icing is amazing. The secret is to use half and half or cream not milk. Also butter is necessary for this recipe, not margarine. It is lovely. It makes just enough to ice the cupcakes. 

Butter Cream Frosting

1/4 Cup (55 g) of Butter, Softened
1 1/2 Cups (170 g) of Powdered Sugar
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
2 Tbsp of Cream or Half and Half
Beat the butter until creamy. Alternate adding the powdered sugar and the cream and extract. Scrape bowl and beat until creamy. Add more cream or sugar until you get the desired consistency. 

To frost the cupcakes

Spread the butter cream icing on each cupcake. Allow to dry.  Place black icing into a pastry bag with  the tip that makes straight lines. Make concentric circles with the black icing. 

It is like making a target out of icing

Before the icing hardens, take a butter knife or tooth pick and drag the icing from the middle to the outer circle. Repeat.

Steps in making a spiderweb

To make a spider, make a large dot of icing in the center and add four legs on each side.  

Add caption

The bottom line: Will we make these again? Yes and hopefully each year I will get better at decorating them.