Ghostly Cupcakes

I know, I know... It's not even close to Halloween.  So why bother making a bunch of cupcakes look like ghosts? Well, cause they're awesome looking, that's why!  The recipe was adapted from the book, "Hello Cupcake!", which originally had these little guys as aliens. Not hard to change it around a bit in order to fit my needs. And actually, I did make these for a special occasion.  Since I'm also a Paranormal Investigator in my spare time, I couldn't help but whip these little babies up for our latest BBQ get-together.  They were to die for. ;) 

Ingredients:

• 24 vanilla cupcakes, baked in white or silver liners
• 2 cans (16 oz. each) of vanilla frosting
• 12 Marshmallows (the big kind)
• 24 donut holes (Hello Cupcake calls for plain ones, but I used glazed)
• Black decorative icing

Directions:

1. First, bake your cupcakes and let them cool completely.
2. Take your marshmallows and cut them in half crosswise.
3. Spread a thin layer of frosting on top of the cupcakes and place 1 marshmallow half in the center of each cupcake, sticky side down.  Add another dab of frosting on top of the marshmallow, and top it with a donut hole.
4. Spread the frosting over the marshmallow and donut hole to fill in the gaps and smooth out.  Don't worry about covering the top of the donut hole with frosting, as this may make your ghost "head" look bumpy later.
5. Place the assembled cupcakes carefully on a cookie sheet and stick it in the freezer for 10-15 minutes, or until slightly frozen.  DON'T SKIP THIS STEP!
6. Working in batches, microwave the frosting in a glass measuring cup in 10-15 second intervals, stirring frequently, until it's the consistency of Elmer's Glue.
7. Holding a chilled cupcake by it's liner, dip it into the frosting right up to the edge of the liner.  After the excess has dripped off, turn it rightside up and place it back on the cookie sheet.  Add more frosting and reheat as necessary.
8. Use the black icing to create little beady eyes, and use a fork, toothpick, or chopstick to create the mouth.
9. Pat yourself on the back for the half-day's work.  And don't forget to reward yourself with a cupcake. :)



Reindeer Cupcakes

I stumbled upon this recipe at the Amateur Gourmet last year around Christmas time, and they were a huge hit at my family Christmas party.  If you have any kids in your family, I'm sure they'll enjoy them more than anyone else.

Ingredients

• Chocolate cupcakes
• Chocolate frosting
• Vanilla wafers
• Large Pretzels
• M&Ms
• Mini M&Ms
• Mini marshmallows
• Black Icing

Directions

1. Make chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing.Get a vanilla wafer and stick it on the cupcake, one side of the wafer touching the perimeter of the cupcake
2. Stick your pretzel antlers in.
3. Get yourself a big red M&M. If you are not committed to specifically Rudolph cupcakes, you can get brown ones, I suppose.
4. Use icing to attach the M&M to the vanilla wafer. Presto. That's your nose.
5. Now the eyes. Take a mini-marshmallow and slice it in half. Place the two marshmallow halves in place on top of the wafer, sticky side up.
6. Take two brown mini-M&Ms and stick them on to the mini-marshmallow halves.
7. Using icing, make reindeer smiles underneath the nose.

Turkey Cupcakes

Here's another recipe I originally found in my Hello Cupcake! book... And since Thanksgiving is right around the corner, why not create something super cute for your family or friends?
Though there's a lot of ingredients, feel free to skimp on some of them if need be... For example, you could simplify the recipe by skipping out on the Fruit by the Foot, the Graham cracker sticks, the sprinkles, or the chocolate jimmies (used for the eyes... use mini M&Ms instead, perhaps?)
Thanks to Duncan Hines for letting me copy the recipe from their website instead of having to copy it from the book.

Ingredients

• 24 standard Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Spice cupcakes baked in white paper liners
• 24 mini Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Spice cupcakes baked in white paper liners
• 1 cup Duncan Hines Creamy Home-Style Vanilla Frosting
• 24 thin orange flavored scalloped cookies (e.g. Anna's)
• 2 cups candy corn
• 1 cup chocolate candy melts, melted (if making the turkeys the night before)
• 1 can (16 ounces) plus 1 cup Duncan Hines Creamy Home-Style Caramel Frosting
• 1 1/2 cups chocolate jimmies
• 12 marshmallows
• 24 pieces harvest corn
• 1 roll strawberry fruit leather (e.g. Fruit by the Foot)
• 48 brown candy coated chocolate covered sunflower seeds
• 1/2 cup Duncan Hines Chocolate Fudge frosting
• 24 graham cracker sticks (e.g. Honey Maid Sticks)

Directions

1. Spoon the vanilla and the chocolate frostings into separate ziplock bags.
2. Snip a small corner from the bag with the vanilla frosting and pipe a dot of frosting near each scallop on cookies, to make 7 dots.
3. Add the candy corn to the dots of frosting, pointed end facing center of cookies. (If making the night before, brush the backs of cookies with melted candy melts, to protect the cookies from moisture, and let set in the refrigerator until set, about 5 minutes) Continue with decorating.
4. Place the chocolate sprinkles in a small bowl.
5. Spread the caramel frosting on top of all of the cupcakes, standard and mini, and make smooth. Roll the edges of the standard cupcakes in the jimmies to cover.
6. Dip one edge of the mini cupcakes in the jimmies to coat.
7. Press the harvest corn in the center of the mini cupcakes, flat side in, to make the nose.
8. Pipe 2 dots of the vanilla frosting on either side of the candy nose and insert the brown candies to make the eyes.
9. Cut the red fruit leather into twenty four 1 1/2 inch tear drop shapes and lay over the harvest corn to make the waddle.
10. Spoon the chocolate frosting into a ziplock bag. Snip a very small corner from bag and pipe names on the flat side of graham cookies.
11. Snip a larger corner (1/4 inch) from bag with the chocolate frosting.
12. Cut the marshmallows in half on the diagonal with clean scissors. Place a cut marshmallow near the edge of the cupcake, cut side down, with pointed end facing the center.
13. Pipe a dot of chocolate frosting on side closest to the center.
14. Place the decorated cookie with the empty edge pressed into the frosting to make the tail feathers.
15. Add the mini cupcake on top and press into frosting slightly to secure.
16. Pipe a small dot of chocolate frosting in front of cupcakes and attach the graham cookies with names.
17. Arrange turkeys on table as place cards. Add 2 candy corns on the table next to the cupcakes to make the feet.

Hello Cupcake!

So, I was at Borders the other day, and I came across this awesome book, Hello Cupcake! And although I NEVER spend money on books, I coughed up the $16 in order to get it. Here's an example of what you can make:

Yeah! I know! Corn on the cob cupcakes. Those kernels are jelly beans, and the butter is a melted Starburst. Yes, I'm gonna get girly on you--arent these just the cutest things you've ever seen?

And no, I did not get asked to do this post. I just thought this was the most kickass book in recent history, and I thought I'd share.

And yes, I ended up making these cupcakes and they turned out awesome. Go check out this book at Amazon right now.

Rainbow Cupcakes

I made these for work one day, and everyone loved them! They're super easy, as long as you have a bunch of food coloring on hand...

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 1/4 cup self-rising flour
• 1 cup fine granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 tbsp milk
• Food coloring
• 12 cupcake holders

Directions

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees and round up your ingredients.
• Beat the sugar and butter together, until fluffy and light colored.
• Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding a little flour each time, until you've added it all.
• Add the vanilla extract, mix, then add 1 tbsp milk at a time while mixing thoroughly.
• Divide the mix into 6 small bowls:
• Bowl 1: Add half a cap full of red coloring.
• Bowl 2: Add half a cap full of red and half a cap full of yellow.
• Bowl 3: Half a cap of yellow
• Bowl 4: Half a cap full of green
• Bowl 5: Half a cap full of blue
• Bowl 6: Half a cap full of blue, half a cap full of red.
• Divide the purple bowl between the 12 cupcake holders. Smooth to form the bottom layer.
• Repeat with the other bowls in reverse order of the rainbow (blue, green, yellow, orange, red)
• Put in the oven for 15-20 minutes.