Recipe: Skeleton Brownies

 

🎶 Skeleton Jack might catch you in the back 🎶 Sorry I couldn’t resist but that particular lyric is perfect for todays recipe. I’m going to hold my hands up and say that these aren’t perfect, they are nothing like the ones on Pinterest that I took my inspiration from but I’m happy that I actually managed to complete this from start to end and have something edible and somewhat cute at the end. This skeleton brownies are a bit of fun, they’re not a serious bake but would look perfect on a Halloween party spread and as I said I’m just happy they turned out edible. 

Ingredient 

For The Brownies

• 200g Dark Chocolate
• 200g Unsalted Butter
• 275g Caster Sugar
• 90g Plain Flour 
• 35g Cocoa Powder
• 3 Eggs
• 33g Dark Choc Chips, 33g Milk Choc Chips and 33g White Choc Chips

For The Decorations

• White Chocolate Pretzels
• White Normal Sized Marshmallows
• White Mini Marshmallows
• Edible Writing Pen
• Toothpicks

Method 

1. Pre heat oven to 180C. Line a 12inch rectangular tin with greaseproof paper.
2. In a Bain Marie melt your unsalted butter and chocolate together. It’ll take a while but it gives a smoother finish to the mixture which essentially gives a fudgier texture to the overall brownie. 
3. Once your chocolate and butter have melted together place to one side to cool. Into a clean bowl place your eggs and sugar and beat until double in size, pale in colour and mousse like in texture. It takes a while to get there but it’s worth it. 
4. By now you’re chocolate mix should be cool and you can now fold it through your egg mixture. You need to fold it through so you don’t beat out the air you’ve just spent time beating in otherwise it’ll give you more of a bread like brownie once it’s cooked. 
5. Fold in your flour, cocoa powder and chocolate chips. This is where you’ll need to scrape the edges and the sides so that everything is incorporated and you don’t have pockets of unmixed flour baking in your brownies. 
6. Spoon your mixture into your waiting tin and cook for 35-40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool completely in the tin. 
7. Now it’s time for some marshmallow art. Grab yourself nine normal sized marshmallows and your edible writing pen. Then all you have to do is have fun and let your creative side show. I’m the worst artist but think my marshmallow skulls came out quite well.
8. By the time you’ve finished your marshmallow art your brownies should be cool and you can start creating your skeletons. To start off with gently score your brownies into nine pieces as a guide to place your toothpicks. 
9. Once you’ve placed your toothpicks in the centre of each brownie chunk, place a pretzel on top of the brownie making sure the toothpick goes through one of the holes. Repeat until you have the base of your skeletons rib cage on each brownie chunk. 
10. Then take a mini marshmallow and gently squish and roll it between your fingers until it’s a bit mishaped but still edible. Slide it down the toothpick until it hits the pretzel and then place another pretzel on top of the marshmallow. 
11. When you have your second rib in place, slide another mini marshmallow down the toothpick to create a neck for the head. Slide the head into place, don’t worry if the marshmallow cracks a little it just adds to the effect. 
12. Repeat until you have nine skeletons erupting from their graves. I advise leaving them to cool completely in the tin and then cutting when it’s sufficiently cooled. 
13. Then all that’s left is to enjoy them. I took mine into work and my colleagues loved them. Imperfect but perfect for spooky season. 

Recipe: Ghoulish Marbled Halloween Cupcakes

 

I love baking for Halloween, it allows me to be a bit more adventurous, so many ghouls and monsters that can easily be incorporated into bakes but sometimes its also nice to strip it back and keep it simple. And that’s what I’m sharing with you today. A simple cupcake recipe with a surprise centre all topped off with a graveyard grey buttercream that has just the hint of glitter in it. 

Ingredients 

For The Cupcakes

- 150g Stork

- 150g Caster Sugar

- 150g Self Raising Flour

- 2 Tsps Vanilla Extract

- 3 Eggs

- Orange Food Colouring

- Green Food Colouring

For The Buttercream

- 200g Butter, softened 

- 320g Icing Sugar

- 2 Tsps Vanilla Extract

- Black Food Colouring

- Jam, flavour of your choice

Method

1. Pre heat oven to 180C. Line a twelve hole cupcake tin with paper cases. 
2. Into a bowl place your caster sugar and stork. Cream together either by hand, electric mixer or stand mixer until it’s pale and fluffy in colour. 
3. Add one egg and a tablespoon of flour. Beat until well combined and then repeat with your remaining eggs. 
4. Fold in your flour and vanilla extract, taking time to slowly fold it through and keep all the air you’ve just beat into the mixture. 
5. Now comes the fun part. Divide your mixture between two bowls. Into one bowl add your orange food colouring and mix until you’ve reached your desired colour. I used quite a lot of orange colouring as I wanted it to be quite bright. 
6. In your second bowl add your green food colouring and again mix until you reach your desired colour. I had to mix two different greens for this recipe as the lighter green on it’s own had too much of a yellow undertone that the darker green turned slime coloured when added. 
7. To marble the two together just alternate spooning the mixture into the waiting paper cases and pop in the oven for 20-22 minutes or until the top springs back when pressed. You could take a toothpick and marble them together before cooking but they automatically and organically do it when they bake so I always like to leave it to the oven to create my pattern. 
8. Leave to cool in the tin for five minutes and then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely. 
9. Now its time to make your buttercream. Pop your softened butter into a clean bowl and beat until soft and pale in colour. I highly advise using a hand mixer or a stand mixer for this part as doing this by hand can be a killer. 
10. Sift in half of your icing sugar and beat until fully incorporated. I tend to start off by folding my icing sugar in so it doesn’t fly out of the bowl and you’re don’t get that dreaded icing sugar cloud. 
11. Sift in the remaining half of your icing sugar and vanilla extract and beat again. Take this time to really scrape the edges and the bottom of the bowl so there aren’t pockets of icing sugar left unmixed in your buttercream. 
12. This is where it gets difficult. Adding food colouring to buttercream isn’t difficult but trying to create that perfect midnight black is. I used the Sugarflair Midnight Black food colouring to start with and it’s what’s given it that lovely metallic sheen but you may need to combine two shades of black to get there or even somewhere close. I also used the Dr Oetker Black Gel Food Colouring to achieve this colour which wasn’t what I was going for but still turned out well in the end. 
13. Once you’ve gotten your desired colour, set your now prepared buttercream to one side. It’s time to add your secret centre. Take your now cooled cupcakes and using a knife or a corer cut out the centre. You could keep them to place on top once you’ve filled them or you could eat them as I did. 
14. Take your jam and spoon a small amount into the middle of your cupcake. Using the back of your spoon gently press down so that your filling lies flat against the top of your cupcake. 
15. Fit a piping bag with a nozzle of your choice and then fill it with your buttercream. Pipe your desired design onto your cupcakes. Don’t worry about your buttercream mixing with your jam, it’s all going to smush together when you bite it anyways.
16. Then all that’s left is to enjoy. I love the metallic sheen these have and when you bit into them you get that delicious sweet vanilla alongside the sharp, tart taste of the jam. Trust me whoever you bake these for is going to love them. 

Recipe: Halloween Shortbread

 

“This is Halloween, This is Halloween” Sorry couldn’t resist it. October is finally here which means Spooky Season is finally upon us. And what a way to kick off the month than with a simple yet punchy recipe that’s absolutely adorable to look at and taste delicious with a cup of coffee. For this recipe I once again played with my flavour combinations, opting for ginger and dark chocolate so it’s got a bit of a kick to it but isn’t too overpowering or bitter. The dark chocolate adds a nice little bit of sweetness whilst not making it overly sweet. 

Ingredients     

- 115g Butter

- 55g Caster Sugar

- 175g Plain Flour

- A Pinch Of Salt

- 100g Dark Chocolate Chips

- 1 Tsp Ground Ginger

Method

1. Pre heat oven to 180C. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper. 
2. Into a bowl place the salt, sugar and flour.
3. Add your butter and rub between your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs. 
4. Add your ground ginger and dark chocolate chips. Keep rubbing the mixture together until it starts to come together and form a dough. You may need a little water to help bind it together but it should come together quite easily on it’s own. 
5. Place your dough on a lightly floured surface and roll until about an inch thick. Make sure your flour your rolling pin as well as the chocolate chips are likely to stick to it after a couple of rolls. 
6. Using Halloween shaped cutters of your choice cut out as many shapes as possible, rerolling the dough until you have none left. I got my cutters from Shein and really love the plunger on the top to help get them easily out of the mould. 
7. Place on your prepared baking tray/s and bake for 10-15 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. Don’t worry if the middles still feel a little soft, they firm up as they cool on the tray. 
8. Leave to cool completely on the tray and then all that’s left to do is enjoy them. I recommend them with a good cup of coffee or a nice hot cuppa.