October is my favorite month of the year. I love when the leaves start to change colors, I love all things pumpkin, and most importantly, I LOVE LOVE LOVE Halloween. It’s my family’s favorite holiday. Since I can remember, we have been celebrating Halloween the right way. No half-ass costumes, or bite sized candy bars – we follow the go big or go home mentality. And yes, the dogs get in on the action. There are wigs, masks, face paint, and a big party with tons of delicious food. So this year I decided I would contribute to the party with these adorable monster and jack-o-lantern cupcakes. They were a lot of fun and easy to make. So even if you are not as obsessed with Halloween as I am, you can still give these cupcakes a try.
You can really create any kind of spooky Halloween character – a ghost, a witch, a black cat. Let your imagination run wild!
Happy Baking!
Oh, and just in case you were wondering how good I am at Halloween…
DIY HALLOWEEN CUPCAKES
Ingredients
CUPCAKES (MAKES 24 CUPCAKES)
- 2 cups sugar (402 g)
- 1 3/4 cups flour (224 g)
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder (89 g)
- 2 tsp. baking soda (10 g)
- 1 tsp. baking powder (4 g)
- 1 tsp. kosher salt (6 g)
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup buttermilk (245 g)
- 1 cup coffee (8 fluid oz.)
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil (112 g)
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract (9 g)
FROSTING
- 1 cup or two sticks unsalted butter (226 g)
- 3 1/2 cups confectioners sugar (438 g)
- 1 tbs. whole milk (2g)
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract (4g)
- 1/8 tsp. kosher salt (1g)
Instructions
For the Cupcakes:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F, grease the cupcake tins and place the cupcake liners.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda and baking powder. Mix on low until dry ingredients are thoroughly combined.
- On low speed, add eggs, buttermilk, coffee, oil and vanilla.
- Once everything is combined, beat on medium speed for 1 minute.
- Pour batter into cupcake liners 2/3 full.
- Bake for about 20 minutes, or until wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
- Transfer pans to wire rack and let cool completely.
For the Frosting:
- In a bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth and creamy, 2 to 3 minutes.
- On low speed add confectioners sugar, milk and vanilla.
- Once all the ingredients are combined, mix on high speed for 3 minutes.
Decorating:
- While your cupcakes are cooling, and your frosting is made, prep everything else you need.Food coloringFondantRolling PinAteco tips #5, #30, #133, #805Exacto KnifePipping Bags
- Divide your frosting into separate bowls and add food coloring until you reach desired color.
- Roll out fondant and make the faces. I used a combo of an exacto knife and Ateco tips #5 and #805 - you can really get creative here!
- Once your faces are complete, frost your cupcakes. As you can see, I used a different frosting technique for each color.
- Once you are done frosting place on your faces!
