hope everyone had a spooktacular halloween! we spent the foggy, overcast day running errands, aided by a quick stop at starbucks for the limited edition frappula. i couldn't quite bring myself to pass up this treat, and was a predictably sugar-filled start to the year's sweetest holiday.
halloween isn't complete without some creepy red velvet cupcakes topped off with gummy brains and vampire fangs (recipe below!) so we whipped up a batch before heading out to trick or treat!
kind of loving that we got an extra hour to lay around today and recover from our sugar comas.
frappula
something wicked this way comes...
| ingredients |
1 box red velvet cake
3 eggs
1/2 cup melted butter cooled, slightly
1/4 cup milk
2/3 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
cream cheese frosting:
1/2 cup butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3-4 cups powdered sugar
red decorating gel
gummy brains
gummy vampire fangs
| method |
preheat oven to 350 degrees. line a cupcake pan with liners and set aside.
in a medium mixing bowl, whisk the red velvet cake mix to remove any lumps. add in the eggs, butter, milk, sour cream and vanilla extract and mix until thoroughly combined. fill the liners 3/4 full with cupcake batter, and bake for 14-20 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the cupcake comes out clean.
cool cupcakes on a wire rack.
while the cupcakes are baking, prepare the frosting by whipping the cream cheese and butter for 2 minutes. add the vanilla extract until combined. gradually add in powdered sugar and whip until desired consistency is reached.
pipe cooled cupcakes with frosting, and decorate with the red gel and gummy candies.
for the brains, drizzle gel and gently swirl into the icing with a toothpick (or in my case, a chopstick. the toothpicks in our house were mia) and top with a gummy brain.
for the vampire fangs, dot two spots of red gel onto the edge of your cupcake, and gently drag your toothpick downward to create fang marks, top with gummy fangs.
our last-minute costume to accompany the kiddos trick or treating: j as daredevil and some quick cat make up and a fur shawl for me.
cat's and costumes...not such besties.