Skull and Spiderweb Cupcake Decorations

Here's another Halloween/Day of the Dead cupcake design. I hardly ever work with candy melts (frequently called "white chocolate" on shows like Cupcake Wars, which drives me nuts) because they are so weird and artificial. They have two distinct benefits: the "chocolate" doesn't need to be tempered  AND it dries/hardens quickly.

After melting my melts, I piped my design freehand on a piece of wax paper. You could easily slip some clip-art or another design under the paper as a guide. When it dries, carefully peel the decoration from the wax paper and top your cupcake! For the spiderweb one, I piped the web onto a pretzel stick for some height in the decoration. These were done quickly so are a little messy. With care, you can execute some pretty intricate designs.

Here is a website with illustrated instructions on making a piping cone from parchment paper.
http://www.fantes.com/parchment-triangles.html
 This is what I use for piping small amounts of something for decoration instead of using a big ol' plastic piping bag.

Another Witch Cupcake!

Despite signs to the contrary, I'm not really obsessed with witches. Oh, I like them just fine (old-fashioned scary ones) but I also like a a nice scary bat, a cute pumpkin, or a spooky ghost. It just worked out that I made a bunch of witch cupcakes this year.

These cupcakes were made by piping a big dollop of swiss meringue buttercream (dyed green) for the face. Height is important - don't make a squished witch face! Decorate the face with more buttercream and a green M&M for the nose. The hair is made of edible Easter grass (again - you could use licorice or strips of fruit roll-ups). The hat is made out of a Fudge Stripe cookie with chocolate ganache piped for the cone of the hat. The buckle on the hat is made from more buttercream frosting.

Making the ganache is easy - heat one cup of cream and pour over two cups of dark chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate chips. Let it sit for about 5 minutes then stir to melt all the chips. You will need to let the ganache cool to good piping consistenc - too warm and the hats will flop over but too cold and the hats won't pipe out of the bag.

Steampunk(ish) Costume

This year some of us decided to go "Steampunk" for Halloween. I don't know if I would say my costume is really authentic Steampunk (which is funny to say since it is a sort of made up time period) but I was pretty happy with the way it turned out. I am supposed to be a Steampunk Entymologist (bug scientist).

We did a little photo shoot at an abandoned building that had a kinda Old West facade. It used to be an antique store, I think, but it's falling apart now. You can see more of my costume here. My mom added the puffed sleeves to my shirt but most everything else I just bought at the thrift store. I made the "cincher" corset-type-thing from a paper bag and gold duct tape.

Here's a better picture of my hat. I made the form out of cardboard and covered it in wrinkly paper bag. Then I painted it, added some faux-leather trim, some packing tape with an insect pattern (found at Target in the office supply section) and some plastic insects I had "antiqued" with black and gold paint.

Below is a picture of my sister's costume, from the back. She's lucky because her hair looks cool without having to wear a wig! Isn't the tree awesome?

Here's a action shot of my brother-in-law above and one of my sister (Ma Barker style) below.

Skull Jack-o'-lantern

Happy Halloween!

Hope everyone is enjoying a spooky good time. The moon is full so watch out for wicked witches, werewolves, and goblins of unusual size (GOUSes)

Here is my jack-o-lantern design for this year. I decided to do a mosaic-type thing with the pumpkin and pieces of another squash (Carnival, is the name). It's a little "Day of the Dead" so I'm happy with it.

Melted Witch Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes over the weekend. People still watch the old "Wizard of Oz" movie, right? Because what with the "Wicked" musical being so popular, the kids these days might not want to eat a melted Elphaba cupcake (she being merely misunderstood rather than truly wicked).

I wanted to make these gluten-free so I ended up using a mix (Betty Crocker - it was pretty good, not dry like some gf mixes I've tried). I used my easy chocolate buttercream recipe for the frosting  - cream together two sticks of butter, 2-3 cups powdered sugar, 1/2 cup melted chocolate, a tablespoon of cocoa powder and a pinch of salt).

The witch cupcakes I've seen have used a Fudge Stripe cookie for the brim of the witches hat, but the scale wouldn't have been right for these cookies. I didn't have a smaller cookie (you'd need one that's slightly bigger than a quarter) so decided to just put the Hershey's kisses in for the hat, with no brim.

I wanted the witch to look truly "melted" so made a flat icing (whisk together a cup of powdered sugar, 2-3 tablespoons of cream or half and half and vanilla extract to taste. Add food coloring.)  I smoothed out the top of each cupcake a little and poured a little puddle of witch on each one.

The broom is made of a pretzel for the broom handle and some edible grass I got at Easter. I realize that not everyone has the forethought to get candy at Easter to use for Halloween (Ha! Just kidding - I bought it thinking that I could do something with it but not having any idea what) so you could use fruit roll-ups cut into strips or licorice. The "broom bristles" are attached with melted chocolate. I set them on wax paper until the chocolate was set.

Halloween Links!

Here's a photo of the ghost cupcakes I made last year. These are pretty easy - a dollop of frosting with chocolate chip eyes. I sprinkled some sugar on them for sparkle but it ended up looking weird. I don't recommend it.

 Sorry for the lack of posts. I've been having technical (and other) difficulties. I WILL post thirteen Halloween posts but they may not be on thirteen different days. Here are some pics of my cupcakes I made last year, with some tips for making them. Also, some great Halloween links:

•  An extremely cool Day of the Dead felt piece: http://vitaminihandmade.blogspot.com/2011/11/dia-de-los-muertos.html
• The best pumpkin carver ever! http://villafanestudios.com/
• An elegantly scary cake (that's easier than it looks) http://www.ledelicieux.com/2011/10/19/black-forest-cake/

These are pretty easy. Frost the cupcakes as you normally would (I just put a big dollop of frosting on). Pour orange sprinkles in a bowl or on a sheet of wax paper and press the cupcake into the sprinkles. The faces are made with melted chocolate and the stems are just more buttercream.

For these festive swirls, I just put three different colors of frosting in my piping bag, trying to "stripe" them in but it doesn't really matter. You could also paint stripes on the inside of your bag with gel food coloring, which would give you a similar look.

Gingerbread Cupcakes

I've seen this cute decorating idea on several blogs lately. It turns out this upside-down witch cupcake is easy to make. You need paper straws, black construction paper and your favorite cupcake. Cut the straw in half (or thirds) and attach a black construction paper witch shoe to each half. You will need to make two slits in the "shoe" so that the middle part is about as wide as the inside of your straw. That way you can just pop the shoes on and stick your straw "legs" into your cupcake.

 Gingerbread Cupcakes Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp cloves
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp allspice
• 1 tsp cocoa (dutch-processed preferred)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup butter, melted and cooled
• 3/4 cup molasses
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 large egg

To Make:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Sift/mix dry ingredients (except salt) in a mixing bowl. Set aside.
3. Mix last six ingredients together until well-combined.
4. Add dry ingredients to wet, a third at a time and mix on low speed until just mixed (no dry spots but it may be somewhat lumpy - that's okay).
5. Fill cupcake cups about half full. Bake 15-25 minutes or  until toothpick comes out clean.

Easy Orange Frosting

3 cups powdered sugar
2 sticks of butter, softened
1 tsp orange extract or orange zest
pinch of salt

To Make:

1. Cream Butter and 1/3 of powdered sugar until very fluffy.
2. Add salt and orange extract
3. Add remaining sugar or until you get the consistency and flavor that you want. If it gets too thick, add a teaspoon of milk or cream.