Halloween Cupcake Ideas

Photo: karen

Ingredients

Devil's Food Cupcakes

Chocolate Ganache Icing

Shortbread Tombstones

Orange-Tinted Cream-Cheese Frosting

Crushed Chocolate Wafers

Royal Icing

Gummi Worms

Cocktail Straws

Halloween Pictures

Black Licorice

Candy Corn

Spun Sugar

Preparation

To make a cupcake "cemetery," spread devil's food cupcakes with chocolate ganache icing. Dip the top of each frosted cupcake in crushed chocolate wafers to create the look of dirt, then insert shortbread-cookie "tombstones", piped with scary messages like "Boo!" or "R.I.P." in royal icing, in the centers.

Top more devil's-food cupcakes with chocolate ganache and chocolate-wafer "dirt," make a hole in the center of each with your finger, and position half a Gummi worm to look like it's slithering out of the hole.

Enlist your kids to draw scary Halloween figures, or copy Halloween images out of books. Cut the pictures out, tape them to cocktail straws (you can cut the straws shorter, if necessary), and insert them into cupcakes you've decorated with orange-tinted cream-cheese frosting.

Decorate more devil's-food cupcakes with orange cream-cheese frosting, then spell out words or phrases like "Happy Halloween" by forming one to three letters out of thin black licorice on the top of each cupcake.

Serve your cupcakes on a tray covered with candy corn or spun-sugar "cobwebs."