Trick or treat? This is a definitely a treat, fit for anyones Halloween celebrations, and these will be great to make with children, as a possible substitute for the messy experience of pumpkin carving or perhaps a great complimentary activity to any pre Halloween preparations, to get you in a spooky mood...
These cupcakes not only taste great for the season, I made the spider cupcakes chocolate flavour and pumpkin cupcakes orange, they look absolutely amazing, especially the pumpkins!
As I write this post i am also trying to prepare for my trip tomorrow to Sardinia, Italy; I hope that this visit there can be incorporated into an upcoming post, let me know through comments or email if you would like this to be a recipe from the area or a post about the area, perhaps just informing you on the lovely island of Sardinia.
Prep
So as this is a tutorial for the decoration of these particular cupcakes, i won't provide you with a recipe for the cupcakes, as those flavours are for you to decide and experiment. But just to give you an idea, as i said earlier i made chocolate and orange cupcakes which i feel worked very well.
So along with your cupcakes, you will need buttercream icing, i corresponded my flavours with my cupcakes, chocolate and orange, but again it is completely up to you. The amount you need depends on how many cupcakes you make but as a general rule of thumb you will need about a tablespoon of buttercream icing per cupcake.
You may be able to buy the appropriate colours of fondant from a shop but if not, you will need to mix them yourself using white fondant and colouring paste, now I am basing my measurements of the fondant on how many cupcakes i made for this post, which was 12 in total, 6 of each type, so of course adjust it to your requirements . The colours you will need are orange (about a generous fist sized amount), green (plum sized amount), black (about 2 fistfuls), white (a plum sized amount).
Tutorial
Pumpkin Cupcakes
1. Firstly you will need to ice a flat topped cupcake with about a tablespoon of your desired flavour of buttercream, making sure it is reasonably level.
2. You will need to find a cutter that is slightly larger than your cupcake, i used a pint glass, roll out the orange icing but not too thin, dusting the surface with cornflour, and cut out one circle for each cupcake. Place the circle on top of your iced cupcake and smooth the edges over.
You will see in this picture the tool you will need to use for decorating these cupcakes, i neither know the official name for this or even fathom a made-up one for it, but hopefully you can see what it's like from this picture. If you do not own cake decorating tools then you can use a cocktail stick or the handle of a teaspoon.
3. To create the side view of a pumpkin, etch curved lines into the icing, similar to those in the picture, ensuring you don't press too hard and cut the icing, make 4 bold lies, and between drag the tool lightly to add extra lines and texture.
4. To decorate the pumpkins to look like you're looking down on it, make a indent in the centre of the cupcake with your thumb or finger and use your tool to make lines going from the centre to outside of the cupcake in irregular little segments, again drag the tool lightly to add extra detail and texture.
5. Using the green icing, fashion a leaf and thin green stalk, hold one end of the stalk and twirl it so it looks like a twisted vine like the one pictured above. Make a leaf and vine for each cupcake and using a little dab of water, stick the greenery onto the cupcakes, either at the top or in the centre depending on which view you are creating.
Spider Cupcakes
1. The same with the pumpkin cupcakes ice the spider cupcakes with your buttercream, making sure it is level.
2. Roll out your icing so that it isn't too thick, and again cut it slightly bigger than your cupcake, attach it and smooth down the edges.
3. You will now have to roll out some black icing into a long sausage and cut that piece into 8 small and equal little lengths. Using a small amount of water stick these legs to edge of the spider, either side in groups of 4.
4. Now you can get really creative, it is completely up to you what you do regarding the face, just make two little circles out of white fondant and flatten them on the palm of your hand, add some little black pupils, stick these together and on the face using a small amount of water and wherever and however you want and then give them character by choosing different mouths to etch into them, perhaps a smile or a frown or a mouth with fangs? The possibilities are endless!
So i hope you enjoyed this little tutorial on how to make your own spooky halloween treats, I hope you have fun and they work out well, trick or treaters will be very pleased to receive these in their goodie bags! Have a great Halloween everyone!
Until next time, Elise x
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