Recipe: Simple Halloween Cupcakes

Welcome back to another Halloween inspired recipe. Today's post was supposed to be a Frankenstein inspired cupcake recipe but several factors didn't turn out the way I had hoped they would and instead of wasting all my work and the ingredients I'd put together I changed it to a simple Halloween themed cupcake that any novice or amateur baker could put together.

Ingredients
For The Cake
100g Caster Sugar
100g Stork, softened
100g Self Raising Flour
2 Eggs
200g Nutella, melted

For The Buttercream
140g Butter, softened
280g Icing Sugar
1 Tblsp Milk
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
Several Drops Of Food Colouring
Rice Paper Spiderwebs

Method 
1- Pre heat the oven to 180C. Line a twelve hole muffin tin with paper cases.
2- Place the nutella in a bain marie and melt gently over a low heat. It may be tempting to crank the heat up but slow and steady is the best way to melt it to the right consistency. Once it's melted, place to one side and allow to cool to room temperature.
3- In a bowl place the softened stork and caster sugar. Beat until pale and creamy, taking time to scrape the edges of the bowl to make sure nothing is missed and everything is fully incorporated.
4- Add one egg and a tablespoon of flour to the mixture and then beat again. Once it's combined, repeat with a second egg and second spoon of flour. Beat until everything is combined, taking care to scrape the edges of the bowl repeatedly.
5- Fold in the rest of the flour, taking care to be gentle so you don't knock out any air that your mixture may have. I advise either doing this by hand or on a very slow setting on a stand mixer.
6- By now the nutella should have cooled to room temperature. Fold gently in the mixture, again using a slow speed to combine the two. It's tempting to just up the speed but it'll knock out any air in your mixture and will leave you with a flat, heavy cake.
7- Spoon the mixture evenly into the paper cases and bake for 15-20mins or until a cake tester comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for five minutes then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
8- Now it's time for the buttercream. Place the softened butter into a bowl and beat until soft, pale and creamy in texture.
9- Add half the icing sugar and beat until everything is smooth and completely combined. A lot of people say that you should sieve the icing sugar but I find just adding it in as it is works just fine.
10- Add the other half the icing sugar, alongside the tablespoon of milk and a teaspoon of vanilla extract then beat until everything is fully incorporated. The milk helps create the perfect piping consistency whilst the vanilla extract gives it a slightly sweeter taste without being too sickly.
11- Add in your colouring of choice. I used a green colouring as these were originally designed to be Frankenstein inspired but this turned out more yellow toned than I liked. However you can use any colour you like to give them a spooky theme.
12- Pipe your completed icing onto your now cooled cupcakes, mine came out messier than I'd have liked which is why I haven't photographed the whole batch but it's not always appearence that matters, especially in baking.
13- Once all your cakes are iced, add the cobweb rice wafer and leave to set. Or if your family is like mine, finish decorating your cupcakes and then share them around for everyone to enjoy.