Spooky Chocolate Cupcakes

Dress up your Halloween cupcakes with witches' hats, spider webs or tombstones.

CUPCAKES
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups milk

FROSTING
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners. Whisk flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in small bowl.

2. Beat 1/2 cup butter, sugar and brown sugar in medium bowl at medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and 1 teaspoon vanilla. At low speed, beat in flour mixture in three parts alternately with milk just until blended, beginning and ending with flour mixture.

3. Spoon batter into muffin cups. Bake 18 to 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out with a few crumbs attached. Cool in pans on wire rack 15 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely.

4. Meanwhile, beat 1/2 cup butter in medium bowl at medium speed until smooth. Slowly beat in powdered sugar. Beat in milk and 1 teaspoon vanilla 3 minutes or until fluffy. Decorate cupcakes with frosting.

24 cupcakes


DECORATIONS

Witch Hats
Beat 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa into 1 1/2 cups of the frosting until combined. (Thin with milk to pipe, if necessary.) Frost cupcakes with remaining vanilla frosting. With pasty bag fitted with plain round tip, pipe circle of chocolate frosting in center of each cupcake to become brim of hat, leaving wide rim of white frosting. Place 1 Hershey’s Kiss in center of chocolate circle. With tube of colored decorating gel, pipe narrow ribbon around base of Kiss.

Spider Webs
Beat 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa into 1 1/2 cups of the frosting until combined. Frost cupcakes with remaining vanilla frosting. With pastry bag fitted with very narrow round tip (or resealable plastic bag with small hole cut in corner), pipe 5 concentric circles on top of each cupcake with chocolate frosting, leaving at least 1/4 inch between circles. Starting at the center of cupcake, use a toothpick to pull outward through chocolate circles at regular intervals around each cupcake to make spider web design. (Wipe icing off tip of toothpick after each pull to keep the design clear.) Press plastic spider into center of each web, if desired.

Tombstones
Beat 5 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa into frosting to make a dark chocolate frosting. Reserve 1 cup of icing in piping bag with narrow round tip (or resealable plastic bag with small hole cut in corner). Frost cupcakes with remaining frosting, smoothing surface with knife. Put 6 Oreos or other chocolate wafer cookies in resealable plastic bag; crush with rolling pin into fine crumbs.

With reserved frosting, pipe “RIP” on top half of 24 oval cookies, such as Pepperidge Farms Milanos, ladyfingers or rectangular wafer cookies. Press 1 “tombstone” into each cupcake toward back; spoon a bit of the cookie crumb “dirt” in front of each tombstone.