If you’re looking for easy, no-recipe-needed Halloween treats, these creeped out cupcakes are an eerily good choice. In one, a traditional frosted cupcake falls victim to a bat attack. In the other, they take a slimy, almost radioactive, turn.
Both ideas are from Matthew Mead’s “Monster Book of Halloween,” which is jammed with numerous ghastly treats and decorations.
VAMPIRE CUPCAKES
Bake up a batch of your favorite cupcake recipe or prepare a boxed mix according to package directions. Alternatively, most bakeries (even those in grocers) will sell unfrosted cupcakes if asked in case you want to do only the fun part — the decorating.
Once the cupcakes have cooled, frost them with white cake frosting.
Use black gel icing (the sort sold in tubes in the baking aisle) to draw a bat on top of each cupcake. If you need help with this, a template can be downloaded from Mead’s Web site at tinyurl.com/yeboobr. Cut out the template and use it as a stencil.
Use a toothpick to make 2 holes (bite marks) near each bat, then drizzle red gel icing into each.
GET SLIMED CUPCAKES
Prepare 2 packages of Jell-O Gelatin (any variety, though green and yellow are good) according to the package’s directions for Jigglers (2 packages plus 2 cups boiling water). Divide the liquid between 6 flexible silicone baking cups.
Divide the remaining liquid between 6 round-bottomed teacups (this creates a domed top for each cupcake), filling each about 1/2 inch. Refrigerate everything for 4 hours, or until set.
To remove the gelatin from the cups, set the base of each in a bowl of warm water for about 10 seconds. Overturn the cups and gently pry out the cupcakes and dome tops. Invert a dome onto each cupcake, then decorate with gummy worms.
IDEAS adapted from Matthew Mead’s “Monster Book of Halloween,” Time Inc., 2009.
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Larry Crowe
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Creeped out cupcakes for Halloween
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