Translate

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Festive Fun Halloween Cupcakes

It's almost that whimsical time of year when kiddies take to the streets for frightful fun. If you prefer to throw a stay-at-home spooktacular, the following recipe is a fun and easy take on the regular cupcake.

This "Chocolatetown Special Cake" recipe via the Hershey Company has been a favorite of mine for more years than I care to mention ☺.  You may opt to use it or a boxed cake mix for the cupcakes.

Cake

You will need:

1/2 cup Hershey's Cocoa
1/2 cup boiling water
2/3 cup shortening
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
2 1/4 cups unsifted all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups buttermilk or sour milk*
Paper baking cups

*To make sour milk:  mix 4 teaspoons vinegar plus milk to equal 1 1/3 cups.

Stir together cocoa and boiling water in a small bowl until smooth.  Set aside. Cream shortening, sugar, and vanilla together in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs; beat well. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a separate smaller bowl. Add alternatively with buttermilk to creamed
mixture.  Blend in cocoa mixture.   Pour into a muffin tin lined with baking cups.  Bake at 350 degrees approximately 25-30 minutes or until an inserted cake tester or toothpick comes out clean. Cool ten minutes.  Remove from pan. Cool completely. Frost as desired.



To frost my cupcakes, I used regular sanding sprinkles and these adorable Halloween-themed stencils both available at Williams-Sonoma.


 The box comes in a set of four, including a bat, spider, skull, and cat. 


Frosting technique:    I used Pilsbury premade Creamy Supreme cream cheese frosting. After cupcakes have cooled and have been frosted, carefully place stencil just above the frosted cupcake.  Dust with colored sprinkles. I chose to use black.

A word; the sprinkles are a bit more difficult to pull off, unlike the skull, shown here, in which I omitted the frosting and instead used powdered sugar.


You may also opt to use cocoa powder, or do as I've done here, making a special treat for the grown-ups by dusting with flavored instant coffee.

If you enjoy this post, please visit the archives!  You may also visit my full profile to view my other blogs. Connect with me on my Facebook Page, Parsimonious Perfection.   You might like to visit my other blog hubs,

The Marvelous Maison, a lifestyle blog hub and 
Frugal Fab Fashionista, my fashion blog hub. 
 
Follow me on Pinterest!!
 
Thank you for stopping by! ❤
 
 


No comments:

Post a Comment