Spooktacular - Halloween - Cupcakes - Kopiaste..to Greek Hospitality

Rosie and Maria of Sweet and Simple Bakes are hosting an Event for Halloween.

BOOOOO!!!

Happy Halloween for all of you who are celebrating.

Unfortunately here in Greece we do not celebrate Halloween and we know about it only from the films we see.

I have never made anything spooktacular before so I really didn’t know how they were supposed to look. I had some ready made marzipan but did not have any molds to cut the shapes, so I just cut them with a knife. I tried to make a few ghosts which turned out rather friendly like casper.

I added a drop of green food colour in some marzipan so that the skull and ghost would show better.

I also tried to make a boogeyman using spoon sweet cherries for his mouth, some craisins covered in chocolate for his eyes and for hair, mouth and eye balls I used a cream cheese frosting.

I also made some cob webs.

Actually, I got this idea from a beautiful cake Deeba made. Some months back I made this cake and it looked like a cob wed so that was easy to make.

Halloween – Cupcakes

Makes approximately 12 cupcakes

Ingredients
175g (6 oz / 1 &1/3 cups) self-raising flour
175g (6 oz /1 &1/2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
175g (6 oz / 1 cup) of caster sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 – 4 tbsp milk
Icing/frosting of your choice – go wild and make a statement
Decorations of your choice – the spookier the better 🙂

You will need a 12 hole-muffin tin and 12 cupcake paper cases

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan180°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6. Line a 12 hole-muffin tin with cupcake paper cases.

Sieve the flour into a bowl and leave aside. In a large mixing bowl add the butter and sugar and beat until the mixture becomes light in colour and fluffy. Add one egg at a time beating well between each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract and then gently fold in the flour until combined. Stir in the milk until you have a good dropping consistency. Spoon the mixture equally into the prepared muffin tin and place in the preheated oven. Bake for 20 -25 minutes or until risen and golden and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to completely cool.

Rosie’s notes: 1. Fill the cupcake paper cases no more than two-thirds full for the cupcakes to rise. 2. If the tops dome a little when completely cool, take a segregated knife and slice the domed tops off and discard, this enables flat tops for icing and decorations. 3. I have also measured my ingredients that I weighed out into cup measures as requested but please note if using, I cannot guarantee how accurate these measures are in cups. 4. If using plain flour because you cannot acquire self-raising flour add 1½ tsp of baking powder to the plain flour.

My twist to the recipe

When the mixture was ready I added a few spoonfuls in the prepared muffin tins and I kept some of the mixture in which I added a few spoonfuls of cocoa and mixed with the spatula. Then I added another spoonful of the dark mixture on top of the white mixture.

Fun part:

Decorating

Chocolate topping

1 couverture chocolate, melted in bain marie. I then added 1 teaspoon butter and 2 tablespoons fresh cream and mixed until they melted.

Cream cheese decoration

100 grams cream cheese
50 ml Whipping cream
2 tablespoons icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

(whip everything together and refrigerate before using)

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Rosie

Thursday 6th of November 2008

Hi Ivy - Yes I can comment it works!!

Your cupckaes look amazing Ivy and many thanks for partaking in sweet & Simple Bakes Event. I hope you will be able to join us next month sweetie :D

osie x

Cakelaw

Tuesday 4th of November 2008

These are all so cute Ivy, and very creative. My favourites are the fridnly ghosts.

Deeba

Monday 3rd of November 2008

BOO to you Ivy...shiver me timbers...love 'em spooky cupcakes! You've mastered the web, Spiderwoman!!

shibani

Lovely cupcakes and the frosting is very good.

Niki

I love the cupcakes! I never thought to use marzipan for decorations, usually I roll out some fondant and use that, but I've never been a fan of the taste...

And I think Greece and Australia should start celebrating Halloween! It's not like it's Independence Day (Fourth of July) or something. All Hallow's Eve isn't an American holiday. Granted Orthodox people don't celebrate it, but still!!! It's the most fun dressing up and being goofy.