Halloween Project #7: Ghost and Gravestone Cupcakes

I'm buckling down, really. But Gabe's homework requires Halloween crafts, and he asked for my help, and I can't just let him down, now can I? This week has been crazy, though. What started out as "Maybe I could get some photographs of things you've already made", turned into "You should bake a bunch of great things!". It's not that I didn't want to, but there was certainly quite a bit of work required for everything I did. Other projects will be posted this week when they're all put together properly.

Anyway! Our project for today is actually rather simple, and I didn't do anything homemade, but you can make your own frosting and cake if you should desire. With just a few ingredients you can have a haunted graveyard!

What you'll need:

- Cake! I used a chocolate box mix, but what you choose to use is not important to this project.
- Nutter Butter Sandwich cookies
- White Chocolate (24 oz should do the trick), divided into 2.
- Black food coloring (I used Icing Coloring for this one)
- Green food coloring
- Black Decorating Gel
- Hot cocoa powder (Optional)
- 16 oz. Can of white frosting, divided into 2.

1. Bake your cupcakes in white cupcake liners according to box/recipe instructions.

2. While your cupcakes are baking, melt half the white chocolate (be sure not to overheat it, or your chocolate will seize and will be ruined. Melt for 1 minute in microwave, then in 15 second increments until it is smooth. If a few chips remain unmelted, just stir until it is smooth). Cover a baking sheet in aluminum foil. Dip Nutter Butter cookies into white chocolate, and place on aluminum foil. Refrigerate or freeze.

3. Melt other half of white chocolate the same way, slowly add in your food coloring until your chocolate is gray. Once again, dip the Nutter Butters in on both sides, and laying down on a baking sheet covered in aluminum foil. Refrigerate or freeze.

4. With your frosting divided in two separate bowls, dye one half green, and the other half black. To get a good BRIGHT green color, I added some yellow drops until it was less bluish green and more like grass.

5. After your ghosts and gravestones have hardened, remove from the fridge/freezer. Write "RIP" on the gravestones, and give the ghosts faces with the black decorating gel.

6. Frost your cupcakes, half in green, and the other half in black. Sprinkle hot cocoa powder over the green ones to be 'dirt'. If you'd like, you could make all of the frosting green, so as to make a 'haunted graveyard', but there are plans for haunted house cupcake liners in the near future so the ghost will have a place to haunt. It is entirely up to you, of course, as making cupcake liners will be a lot more work.

When you frost the grass, be sure to make the frosting very 'rough' so as to mimic grass, and keep the black very smooth so as to mimic a floor.

7. Using a spoon, dig a small sort of 'ditch' in the center of your cupcakes (this will prevent the cupcakes from cracking in half), then place the graves and ghosts in their appropriate cupcakes.

8. Indulge!

I didn't realize how fantastic this was going to be until I got to eat one of the gravestones that broke in half. Apparently Peanut butter + White chocolate is ACTUALLY PRETTY GOOD. I was very pleased, and the fact that there is a moist chocolate cupcake to go along with it makes things even better.

Coming up this week I have stencils, my first cake -pops- and a haunted house to put that ghost inside. While I am rather tired, I can't wait to see how everything turns out!

Would You Like Fries With That?

My Dad loves food. My Dad eats whatever he wants, however he wants, and doesn't feel bad about it. Growing up with a Dad like this is a blessing and a curse. While I am the same way with my eating, I tend to be less healthy because of it. I've finally started figuring out that it's okay to eat healthy, even if my Dad gives me a hard time about it.

Almost every occasion I can, I make my Dad food. It's usually dessert, and I think I do this because he really does love ooey gooey in-your-face fattening high-cholesterol extra grease never-ever-low-fat AWESOMENESS. It also gives me an opportunity to partake in said awesomeness, as well. So when I found a book of crazy cupcakes, I guess it somehow turned into a Father's Day tradition.

So last year I made my Dad Chocolate Moose for Father's Day. No, not a typo. They were chocolate cupcakes that looked like moose. So this year, to keep the tradition going, I decided to do another kind of crazy cupcake. These are  much simpler, but still have that 'wow' factor.

I know you're thinking "How is putting french fries on top of cupcakes 'wow-ing'?" Well, that's just it. They're not fries! They're pound cake!

I got the idea from "What's New, Cupcake?", and it's so simple. Not only that, but this is the 5th idea I've taken from that book, and all of them have been fun and easy. I highly recommend this book.

What You Need:

- Box of cake mix (I used Pillsbury Golden Butter Recipe)
- Frosting (I used the canned stuff. For this one I used a 12 oz. can of "Whipped Cream" frosting and I loved it! Easy to use, and you can do a lot with a little). If you do make your own, you'll need 12 - 16 oz.
- 1 pound of thawed pound cake (It will be in the frozen section. Yes, get the big one.)
- Crinkle cut vegetable cutter.
- Red food dye.
- Both regular size and mini cupcake tins.

How To Make This:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.


2.. To make an extraordinary box cake mix, ignore the directions on the back. Use 4 eggs, a cup of buttermilk (if you don't have buttermilk, use a cup of milk, a tablespoon of lemon juice, stir and wait 10 minutes), and however much oil it calls for on the package (usually 1/3rd cup). Stir it all together.

Golden buttery goodness.

3. Make your cupcakes! Mine ended up making 17 regular size and 8 mini.


4. Cut off the ends of your pound cake using your crinkle cutter. Cut your pound cake into 1/2" thick slices, then cut the pound cake crosswise into 1/2" strips. Put your "fries" on 2 greased baking sheets.

5. Preheat your broiler to high. Toast the poundcake strips under the broiler until golden (about 20 - 30 seconds). Turn the pieces and continue toasting until all sides are golden brown (I just used my fingers. Tongs were kind of awkward, and the poundcake isn't actually all that hot). Repeat with the other tray. Let them cool.

6. Tint about 1/4 cup of your frosting red (I used a little more). Frost the mini cupcakes with the red frosting for the cups of ketchup.

7. Frost the regular size cupcakes with the white frosting.

8. Arrange your fries on top of your cupcakes.

9. Feast!

I hope you guys enjoy this as much as I did. I also highly recommend buying "What's New, Cupcake?" if novelty cupcakes sound like a hobby you want to pick up. I can definitely assure you that you will impress people every single time.