Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Halloween Cupcakes


This is a festive treat I made for my Halloween party! The cupcakes can be anything, the "halloween" part is the decoration on top - brains!! I decided to go with Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes with Cherry Frosting (the cherry gave the frosting the perfect pink tint). While the cupcakes may look intricate, it's actually simple to achieve this frightening look.

Halloween Cupcakes

(Yields 14 cupcakes)

Ingredients:
  • 1/2 cup cocoa powder
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 1/3 cup flour
  • 2 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp. salt
  • 6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 2/3 cup white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 10-oz. jar of cherry filling (I used a filling that had chopped bits of cherries, not whole cherries. If you can't find this, just pulse the filling with whole cherries in a food processor to break it up)
  • Cherry buttercream (see recipe below)

Directions:
  1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Line muffin pan with 14 cupcake papers
  2. In a small pot, heat milk until boiling. Add cocoa powder and stir until smooth. Set aside and allow to cool
  3. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside
  4. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light at fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition
  5. Beat in vanilla extract, then scrape down the sides of the bowl
  6. Gradually add flour mixture, beating until just incorporated
  7. Add the cooled cocoa mixture and stir until smooth 
  8. Fill each cupcake 2/3 full with batter
  9. Bake 16-20 minutes, or until cupcakes are springy to the touch and a cake tester inserted into the cupcake comes out clean
  10. Remove to a wire rack and allow to cool
  11. Once cupcakes are completely cool, use a cupcake corer to hollow the center of each cupcake (if you don't have a cupcake corer, try using a knife to cup the circle and a spoon to hollow the cupcake). I know it is tempting, but DO NOT each the parts of the cupcake you removed yet!
  12. Spoon about 1 Tbsp. of cherry filling into each cupcake's hollowed center
  13. Place a small portion of the removed "core" to "plug" the cupcake. This allows you to frost the cupcake without the frosting falling into the hollowed center! Once all the cupcakes have been "plugged", feel free to eat all remaining bits of cupcake :)
  14. Spread a small amount of buttercream over the top of each cupcake; enough to cover the surface but not enough to add height
  15. Pipe a single line down the center of the cupcake
  16. Pipe a loop pattern on one side of the cupcake
  17. Pipe a loop pattern on the other side of the cupcake

Cherry Buttercream


Ingredients:

  • 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 2 Tbsp. cherry filling
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 2 Tbsp. milk 
  • 2+ cups powdered sugar (enough to get the consistency you want)

Directions:
  1. Whip softened butter in a medium bowl with a hand mixer
  2. Mix in cherry filling, vanilla extract and milk
  3. Add powdered sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, until you have your desired consistency
  4. Add extra cherry filling and milk as needed to get the flavor you want



Enjoy and thanks for reading!
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