Spooky Halloween Cupcakes

 

Let’s face it, Halloween definitely isn’t considered the healthiest of festivities. From pumpkin pie and caramel apples to collecting buckets of sweets, it’s enough to put even the sweetest of teeth on edge. With that in mind, we’ve pulled together a healthier alternative to the classic sugar overload…just kidding!

This half term, why not indulge in some fun family baking and make a batch or two of our creepy cupcakes! Feel free to use your favourite cupcake recipe or alternatively, give ours a whirl.

Chocolate Cupcake Ingredients:

• 100g plain flour
• 20g cocoa powder
• 140 caster sugar
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• A pinch of salt
• 40g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 120ml whole milk
• 1 egg
• ¼ tsp vanilla extract

• 500g icing sugar
• 250g unsalted butter
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 1tbsp milk

• Sugar eyes
• Food colouring
• Sprinkles

1. Combine all of the dry ingredients in a bowl, along with the butter and mix with an electric hand mixer until it reaches a soft, sand-like texture.
2. Once combined, add the vanilla extract and the milk, a little at a time until smooth.
3. Once all of the milk is combined, add the egg and mix until rich and velvety.
4. Divide the mixture between 12 baking cases and bake in the oven at 170°C for 20 minutes or until cooked all the way through.
5. Leave to cool slightly in the tray before turning out onto a wire cooling rack.
6. While cooling, combine all of the ingredients for the buttercream and mix until smooth and lump-free. Divide into separate bowls, one for each colour icing you would like to make.
7. Once completely cool, they’re ready for icing and decorating!

Creepy Cupcake Decoration Ideas:

Once baked and cooled, the fun part can start! For our Halloween twist, we decorated half the cupcakes with simple piped lines of white buttercream in a random crisscross pattern to give the illusion of a wrapped mummy complete with 2 sugar eyes peeking out.

For the other half, pipe or using a palette knife, cover the top of the cupcake with your bright orange icing and the cover liberally with some spooky sprinkles for the perfect finishing touch!