Tanya Burr’s Halloween Cupcakes

It’s been a while since I last baked so I thought it was time to have another go at it. Since we’re close to Halloween (only a few more days now!) I thought it would be fun to make some scary baked goodies. I put on my themed baking hat and pulled out my favourite recipe book for baking: Tanya Bakes by Tanya Burr. I had a lot of fun making (and eating) these, and I’m sure you will too. Enjoy!

Preparation time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Makes: 12

Ingredients (for the cupcakes)

• 50g unsalted butter, softened
• 180g caster sugar
• 100g plain flour
• 60g cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 160ml milk
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 100g chocolate chips

Ingredients (for the icing)

• 250g unsalted butter, softened
• 500g icing sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2x Dr. Oetker orange gel colouring

We used green colouring for these cupcakes because they were sadly out of orange colouring, but I think it worked out alright so if there’s a different colour you think fits for Halloween – definitely go ahead and follow your instinct!

To decorate

• raspberry jam
• Halloween-themed sweets

How To

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) and line the cupcake tray with paper cases.
2. In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
   
3. Fold in the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder. Then slowly add the milk, mixing as you go.
   
4. Crack in the egg, add the vanilla extract and beat until smooth before adding the chocolate chips.
   
5. Spoon the mixture evenly between the cupcake cases and bake for 15 minutes until springy to touch. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
   
   
6. Once cool, make the icing. In a bowl, combine all the ingredients until smooth and consistent. (Side note: we also added a splash of milk because the mixture was looking a bit too dry.)
   
   
7. Make a hole in the middle of each cupcake and fill with jam.
   
8. Pipe (or spoon) the icing on top of each cupcake and decorate with your favourite Halloween treats.
   
   

I took us a lot of hard work, but I think they turned out quite alright. I would’ve preferred to have them with the orange coloured icing, but the green looks enough like Halloween to me! They taste delicious, too, which – in the end – is the most important part anyway. The raspberry jam adds a nice touch, not just because it looks like blood oozing out of the cupcake, but also because it kinda compensates for the sweetness of the other ingredients.

I know I’ve added a lot of pictures to this post, but if you’re a more visual person and can’t make head or tail of the instructions in this post, Tanya Burr also made a video about this recipe, which you can find here (we definitely looked at it every now and then for a bit of extra help!).

These cupcakes definitely made me excited for Halloween. How are you preparing for All Hallow’s Eve?