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: 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. 

Recipe: Halloween Shaped Cookies

Happy Wednesday. Today I'm back with the first of six Halloween themed recipes. Yes I know it's only the third of October but I've had these planned out since the middle of August and I'm honestly excited to share them all with you. I thought I'd start off with some simple and work up to the more complex recipes as Halloween draws nearer.

Ingredients 
115g Unsalted Butter, softened
50g Caster Sugar
175g Plain Flour
A Pinch Of Salt
1/2 Tsp Of Vanilla Extract
100g Chocolate Chips
Various shaped Halloween Themed Cookie Cutters

Method
1- Pre heat your oven to 180C. Line two to three baking trays/sheets with parchment paper. You may not need all of them but it depends on the size of your cutters and it's always best to be over prepared than under prepared.
2- In a bowl beat the softened butter and sugar together until soft, pale in colour and creamy. You can do this either by hand or with an electric mixer/stand mixer. By hand will take longer but you'll end up with the same result as if you'd used a stand mixer.
3- Sieve the flour and salt into the mixture, then add your vanilla extract and chocolate chips. I used milk chocolate chips but you could easily use white or dark chocolate chips in their place, depending on what flavour you were looking for.
4- Now mix together until everything is combined and you have created a firm dough. The important thing to note here is that no spatula, wooden spoon or stand mixer attachment will work as well as your hands. I made the mistake of trying to use my mixer and ended up giving myself twice as much work to do. Hands is the best way of mixing this together into a dough. Also a touch of milk/flour  doesn't hurt if your dough is crumbling or not forming how it should be.
5- Once your dough if formed, lightly sprinkle your worktop with flour. Place your dough on the worktop and gently knead it until it's smooth. Take your time, don't rush it. Rushing it will create a short dough that'll crack and crumble when you attempt to roll it out.
6- Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll out your dough until it's 1/2 inch thick. Take your chosen cutter shapes and cut out as many cookies as you can, remembering to keep rerolling the dough to maxmise the batch.
7- Once you've cut out your cookies, arrange them on your baking trays making sure to leave them slightly apart from each other in case they spread whilst they're in the oven.
8- Prick the top of each cookie with a fork and leave to chill for half an hour. I didn't have room in the fridge so I placed them along the windowsill in my bathroom. Not the most hygenic place I know but it's the coldest room in my house and I covered each tray with a tea towel to try and keep it as hygenic as possible.
9- Once that half an hour is up, cook them in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. Cool for five minutes on the tray before transferring to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
10- Then all that's left is to enjoy them. I do advise enjoying these warm as the chocolate chips just melt in your mouth. I displayed them in my adorable Frankenstein treat dish from Primark and enjoyed them with a mug of milk in the matching Frankentstein cup as me and the family watched the Strictly results on Sunday night.