Devil's Food Cupcakes with Swirled Frosting

Here's the last Halloween cupcakes of the 3 different ones I made this week - click here for mummies and here for candy corn - these aren't as decorated but still turned out good and weren't hard to do. This technique is perfect for when you want cupcakes to look "done" but you don't want to do so much decorating.

I started with a doctored up devil's food cake mix - replace the water with milk, and add an extra egg, a teaspoon of vanilla, and a handful of mini chocolate chips. Bake as directed.

For this pretty orange and white swirled frosting I made a batch of vanilla buttercream (beat one stick of butter, a pinch of salt, 1 teaspoon of vanilla, 3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, and a few tablespoons of cream or milk in a big bowl with a mixer), dye half of it orange. In a large piping bag fitted with a open star type decorating tip spread either color around the inside edges of the bag (see the picture) leaving the center as open as possible. I did this with a decorating knife and sort of smeared the frosting around the inside of the bag. Then add the other color to the middle of the bag, twist the top of bag and squeeze frosting out until the second color starts to come thru (otherwise you are just getting the color that is around the edges without the second color). Then hold the bag straight up and starting in the center of the cupcake make a ruffled swirly flower by spiraling the frosting toward the outside edge. I then sprinkled some with halloween sprinkles and others with orange sanding sugar. This is much easier than I'm making it sound! It's hard to see the two colors in my pictures but you do in real life :)

one year ago: pumpkin spice soap

two years ago: tissue paper flowers

Mummy Cupcakes

Need some Halloween cupcake ideas for any upcoming parties? Or just 'cuz you want to make cute cupcakes haha? I have 3 cute and easy ones to share with you over the next couple days...they are all about the decorating, not the baking. Start with your favorite cupcake - these are devil's food boxed mix doctored up with an extra egg, replace the water with milk, add a teaspoon of vanilla and handful of mini chocolate chips.

To make each mummy I frosted with my chocolate buttercream frosting (see below), add 2 candy eyes, then pipe white buttercream frosting in strips across the top (I used a #104 piping tip).

Buttercream frosting: using a mixer, beat 1 stick of unsalted room temperature butter with about 3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and a few tablespoons of heavy cream (or milk) until fluffy. Add more sugar or cream for spreading consistency.

Chocolate Buttercream: follow the above recipe adding cocoa powder (probably 1/4 to 1/3 cup).

one year ago: Mickey's 2 ingredient pumpkin spice cookies
two years ago: no sew trick or treat bag

Witch Hat Cupcakes

Happy Halloween! For my last post this month I decided to make witch hat cupcakes for my niece's soccer game today - probably not the most practical treat at a soccer game but they are so cute I'm doing it anyway :) Girls are going to love them!

I just made regular white cupcakes from a mix and frosted with white store bought vanilla frosting (left over from Halloween gingerbread houses) whipped with some cocoa to make it light brown and fluffy. My sister heard a tip somewhere that if you whip the store bought frosting with a mixer it gets light and fluffier and it worked! Giving the non-baking sister credit for that baking tip of the day ;).

For the witch hats: melt black candy melts in the microwave according to directions on the bag (I added a little bit of shortening to it to make it a little runnier, maybe a tablespoon), then using a pastry brush I brushed small sugar cones with the melted candy and set them on a parchment lined baking sheet to dry - it doesn't take long to set up.

 For the brim I cut small (about 1 1/4")  holes in patterned cupcake liners and slid them over the top of the cones. Set on top of frosted cupcakes at a slight angle so you can see some of the frosting underneath.

This idea came from Country Living Magazine , click here for the article.