We always get excited when the Halloween festivities come creeping around the corner. We love planning (and eating up) fun ghoulish tutorials and recipes, carving out pumpkins, buying in spook-tacular baking supplies and of course over using the pun ‘spook-tacular’. With all this in mind here is a fun recipe and tutorial so you can create these ghostly Haunted Black Forest Cupcakes at home! These spooky cupcakes are our non-alcoholic spin (great for the kids!) on the traditional Black Forest Gâteau cake. They’re soft dark chocolate cupcakes swirled with delicious cherry buttercream finished with floating fondant ghosts; perfect for petrifying parties or spooky soirées!

Basic Dark Chocolate Recipe (makes approx. 12 cupcakes)

226g self raising flour
226g butter
226g caster sugar
6 eggs
2 heaped tablespoons of cocoa powder
100g of melted dark chocolate buttons, callets or broken pieces
12 cupcake cases

Pre-heat your oven to Gas Mark 3/325F/170C.

Cream your butter in a mixer then add the caster sugar. Add in the flour along with half of the eggs for around one minute. Once half of the eggs are combined add the remaining and mix for about 5 minutes. Add in your melted dark chocolate and cocoa powder. Mix.

Fill your cupcake cases until 2/3 full and place on the top shelf. Bake for around 20/25 minutes.

Cherry Buttercream Recipe

250g butter
300-350g icing sugar / confectioner’s sugar
6-12 drops of cherry essence
Cherry Pink gel paste food colour
Piping Tip (We used the Ateco 858 tip that we stock)

Add half of the butter diced into pieces. Cream the butter in a mixer then gradually add icing sugar and the remaining butter (cut into cubes) until you get a smooth, creamy texture. Add in your cherry essence. Finally add some pink gel paste food colour with black gel paste food colour until you get your desired dark cherry colour.

What you need to make your spooky ghosts:

Black Edible Ink Pen
White fondant / sugarpaste
Kebab sticks
Large plain circle cutter
Tylo powder
White candy melts
Fondant rolling pin

Assembling your cupcakes and creating your fondant ghosts…

Step one: Pipe your cupcakes with swirls of your delicious cherry buttercream.

Step two: Cut down three kebab stick to about 4 to 5 inches in height (though you should compare this alongside your cupcakes).

Step three: Mix some tylo powder in with some white sugarpaste fondant and form into spherical balls about the diameter of a 10 pence piece (or a quarter if you’re US bound).

Step four: Melt some candy melts. (Tip: We pop some in a disposable piping bag, melt them in the microwave and then snip the bag.) Apply a little to the top of the kebab sticks and carefully slide the sugarpaste balls on.

Step five: Leave these to dry and harden. You can stand your sticks upright by pushing them into a cake dummy or a thick cardboard box… or by even leaving them to stand in a high and narrow container (e.g. a coffee pot).

Step six: When the balls are a little firmer push these into the centre of your piped cupcakes.

Step seven: Roll out some white sugar paste to around 2mm thick and cut out as many circles as there are cupcakes using a plain circle cutter.

Step eight: Carefully lay your circles out over the kebab stick and fondant ball ‘lollipops’ in your cupcakes and arrange the bottoms of them to look like flowing ghostly shapes. This takes a steady hand as you can end up smearing the buttercream underneath!

Step nine: For the finishing touch carefully draw some creepy (or funny) faces on your little ghosts!

Hurrah! Finally you have a little army of ghosts ready to celebrate the Halloween season!