I had this mad idea to make cupcakes AND biscuits for Halloween, but honestly, I have been so busy that I only made it to the cupcakes. Lol? 🧁
I have become obsessed with my PERFECT RED VELVET CAKE RECIPE
and I wanted to see how it would work out as cupcakes, because not all recipes can be interchangeable - as I have learnt with my vanilla cupcake recipe: which is unbeatable for Vanilla Cupcakes
but makes terrible cake.🤦♀️ Please feel free to leave a great, flop proof vanilla cake recipe in the comments if you have one!🙏🙏
It turns out the red velvet recipe is ❤️GORGEOUS❤️ for cupcakes AND they still have a hell of a shelf life as it took me a day (or three) to get my ass into gear to finally get fondant shapes and icing made.
I have also been procrastinating the whole process as I was looking for halloween themed cupcake holders, but alas, none of my usual suppliers had anything and by the time I thought to order online, I was already out of time for shipping et al, and it seems really silly to pay more for shipping than the product you're buying. Even though they were some absolutely gorgeous ones online (I may still order some for next year actually.
I eventually went with black. I knew the cupcakes were going to be really colourful anyway, and I think it actually worked out for the best!
Anyway, the 1st stage was, of course, baking the cupcakes (which for some ungodly reason meant I was up at the crack of sparrow's fart to bake the 1st batch. I am so glad I made two batches since only 39 of the 48 actually made it to the icing phase. Sacrificed soldiers, lol. There are always a few that are skew or spill over or are just not presentable - but still taste amazing, plus I obviously needed to sample them. 🥰😍😜
Soon enough I was joined by @aimeludick and @zakludick who were very helpful at licking bowls and transporting stuff to and from the kitchen! Normally, I use the boys for this, but since they weren't awake and these two were, I used them! And boy were they efficient!
Next, I thought we'd have a bit of fun with my Mom and help her get out of her room a bit (she's staying with a friend at the moment until she can find a more permanent solution since her retirement from nursing in the UK was abruptly forced by declining health - and at her age, 75, she shouldn't be working anyway).
It took a lot longer than the hour or two I had set out and I'm glad I took my mom up on the offer of buying us dinner! Hard work leads to hungry tummies! We also had the help of @aimeludick's friend, Angel, who is my new bestie, even though he's Aime's age. I am not sure who he is texting more, me or her! :) hehehehe. Makes me feel all cool and stuff. Age is but a number, so they say, right?
Well, I was super impressed by what the kids came up with. Much like Meren's Space Cake,
I gave them an idea or theme of what I wanted and then let them get creative! I have to say, the kids models looked way better than mine!
Yesterday, I finally got around to icing the cupcakes, which turned out to be very frustrating. The nozzle kept getting jammed, even though there were no "bits" in the icing, and t was basically the widest nozzle I have. I also, despite precautions, managed to get myself covered in icing and thus, plenty of food colourant, which mostly came out in the bath. Look at my poor toothbrush (which is also evidence of me munching cupcakes on the sly😜)! 
Luckily I did dress accordingly and it was not the end of the world that a large amount of food colourant got on my clothes and hands and hair and everywhere else it could.🤦♀️
My cream cheese icing also melted ridiculously fast, progressing as the afternoon sun moved more directly toward the window closest to me. So I started out with pretty good looking white cupcakes, but by the time I had gone through a whole Halloween spectrum of colours, from white🤍 to orange🧡, to green💚, to purple💜 and then to black🖤.
(https://images.ecency.com/DQmPEUycnMyXUcpyJ3SwnK1KjgWdLSyFxHKgCZgrb3SbsmK/img_20251026_074926.jpg)
(https://images.ecency.com/DQmWRrLWfaXCxznXeT76AEYUrZxLE95DUgDv34k7E1QuVSH/img_20251026_074928.jpg)
(https://images.ecency.com/DQmcVwB5F61httDjJinL85pVZ1KYEJzBU9i41AAsDR74FMp/img_20251026_075333.jpg)
(https://images.ecency.com/DQmXPCgw5T6KcunEU2QnguHuYDYdjU8jH6HWBdZV7JxoFzA/img_20251029_181237.jpg)
(https://images.ecency.com/DQmVmfKEZfhwuU4XzrEeNJzNAcXMKLAi921VAUSwack5nwA/img_20251029_181242.jpg)
(https://images.ecency.com/DQmfFU56doX3cYpVD9cD29wjh57S7YdpQWSJiPTMxBrkQn1/img_20251029_181258.jpg)
(https://images.ecency.com/DQmPjd6J5thXsiBigwxLTRvNu7dohdYnfmTTEUz4xiSbYA9/img_20251029_181305.jpg)
(https://images.ecency.com/DQmX6TeJbbxH4KMcYcD3nxDT1dVwbz5ScFt2V2hLaqioEUa/img_20251029_181310.jpg)
(https://images.ecency.com/DQmTezjRtm6E8ZGvu8hahktWQomfX8p5qDAYHbbG3dTM7dp/img_20251029_181316.jpg)
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By the time I got to black, it just came out as mush: even though I only took the individually coloured icing bowls out as I needed them. It just melted way too fast. Way faster than I could fill the piping bag and ice!🙄🙄🙄
I also think the purple and the black were an issue because I used the most food colouring in them. 💜🖤
🖤The black was interesting as it seemed to get darker in the fridge. When I first made it, it was a sort of gunmetal grey or dark grey, but by the time I was ready to ice, it was definitely black, even if it was sludge, at least the colour was right!
💜The purple icing was also a nightmare. I honestly think I will just buy purple food gel the next time I'm at the baking shop. I used red and blue food gel to try to achieve purple. I probably could have used far less colourant and achieved a nice purple, but I ended up with a very deep purple, very close to black. I think I will get away with a lot when I put the fondant decorations on later. I didn't want to do this part earlier as you aren't supposed to put fondant in the fridge. Pity I don't have purple glitter. Oh well...
As I said, I am actually not terribly worried about how the piping turned out, actually, because I can get away with murder with toppings and glitter!😜🩸
I have been planning to take cupcakes to work tomorrow, but now I'm worried I'm going to stain everyone 🤦♀️ I guess that's the trick and the cupcakes are the treat! Lol!😜
I will definitely post the final pics soon!
Happy Halloween everyone! 👻🎃🧛♂️🦇⚰️🤍🧡💚💜🖤♥️🧁 (https://images.ecency.com/DQmWaa4MUUF6etuxVT5DHFKiJRre3PK9iLNv6jEMdtsdFhu/fb_img_1760472196325.jpg)