Halloween has to be one of my favourite holidays – it’s basically just an excuse to eat sweets and watch cool movies, right? What’s not to like!
I also just love baking at this time of year; the rain and chilly evenings seem made for gorgeous cooking smells and warm goodies fresh from the oven.
I wanted this recipe to be SUPER simple, because, let’s face it, with pumpkin carving and toffee apples and apple bobbing and trick or treating, there’s enough to try to fit in to your Halloween preparations without adding a complicated cake recipe into the equation.
Now, I am not a fan of food colourings generally, I’ve known some additives do TERRIBLE things to otherwise charming children, but if there’s one time of year when brightly coloured icing is obligatory, surely it’s Halloween?
For the colour, I used Dr Oetker’s Extra Strong green gel, orange would be super fun as well though! I found one 15ml tube split gave plenty of colour for both cake and icing. It can be ordered on Amazon if your local shops don’t stock it:
Don’t be tempted to use colour from a bottle – they’re nowhere near as strong and don’t give such a consistant colour.
The eyes were from Poundland and have been stuck in my baking cupboard for ages. Another fun idea would be to use some strawberry lips with the eyes to create faces on the cupcakes.
The Stawberry Zombie Mummy Eyeballs (which look SUPERBLY disgusting) were from our local Cooperative supermarket.
I piped my icing using a set from Lakeland because I’m fancy, but you could just use a strong plastic food bag with a little bit snipped off a corner.
Make sure the cakes are completely cool before adding the icing!
The cakes are just my basic vanilla cupcake recipe with half a tube of colouring added, topped with green vanilla icing.
Let’s get down to the recipe!
Makes 12
Ingredients
For the cakes
Half a tube of Dr Oetker’s Extra Strong green gel
125g butter (soft, I usually pop it on low in the microwave for a few seconds)
125g caster sugar
125g self raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 large free-range eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
a dash of milk
For The Icing
Half a tube of Dr Oetker’s Extra Strong green gel
80g softened butter
Half a teaspoon of vanilla extract
250g icing sugar
A couple of tablesoons of milk
Method
1: Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius and put 12 cupcake cases ready in a cupcake tin.
2: Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and creamy.
3: Sift in the flour and baking powder. Add the vanilla essence and mix together.
4: Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix in before adding the milk and food colouring. Continue mixing until all combined.
5: Divide the mixture equally between the 12 cases and put in the oven for 12-15 minutes until golden brown.
6: Leave to cool for 10 minutes and then remove from tin and put on a cooling rack.
7: Make the icing by beating the butter and sugar together with an electric hand whisk or a good old wooden spoon and some elbow grease! Next, add the vanilla extract and milk and mix for at least 5 minutes. The longer you mix it for, the softer and fluffier it will be. Add the colouring and mix until combined.
8: Ice your cakes with the aid of a a piping bag or just plop a good old dollop on each cake! Add googly eyes and any other decorations and you’re done! See, I said they were easy!
Variations:
To make these gluten free, just substitute in gluten free self-raising flour for the regular self-raising flour. Oh, and don’t forget to check your baking powder is gluten free!
picky pickers 