Make These Zombie Brain Cupcakes to Freak Out Your Halloween Guests
Spooky treats are an obvious Halloween must, but you may have thought they stopped at Halloween cookies or homemade candy. Not so! Everyone loves a good cupcake, so whipping up a batch of creepy Zombie Brain Cupcakes is sure to be a crowd-pleasing endeavor. These zombie treats are stuffed with cherries smothered in ooey-gooey red sauce, giving the illusion of total ZOMBIE INSIDES. Yum. Top it off with some piped green frosting and inject a syringe of blood-red sauce, and you’ll have your guests running *toward* the zombie apocalypse.
Here’s how to make ’em, courtesy of Elise Strachan’s newest cookbook, Sweet! Celebrations: A My Cupcake Addiction Cookbook($20).
Zombie Brain Cupcakes
Makes 24 Cupcakes
Ingredients:
- 1 batch classic vanilla cake batter
- green food coloring
- 1 ½ batches vanilla bean buttercream frosting
- 2 cups strawberry sundae syrup
- 1 large jar morello cherries
- thin food-grade syringes (optional)
Instructions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line 24 cups of 2 muffin tins with green cupcake liners.
2. Make the cake batter and tint it green. Fill each muffin cup two-thirds full with batter. Bake until the center springs back when lightly touched, 20 to 22 minutes.
3. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
4. Make the frosting and tint it green.
5. Once the cupcakes are cooled, use a sharp knife to carve out a cone-shaped hole in the center of each cupcake, reserving the piece you cut out. Spoon in about 1 teaspoon of strawberry syrup, then fill with 2 or 3 cherries (whatever fits) and fill to the rim with syrup. Allow to sit for 5 minutes, as the cupcake will absorb some of the syrup, and then add more (skip this step if you’re using the syringes; see step 8). Trim off the pointed bottom of the reserved core pieces and use the top as a lid, placing them back on top of the cupcake centers.
6. Scoop 1 Tablespoon of frosting on top of each cupcake and use the back of the knife to create a smooth dome. Place the rest of the frosting into a zip-seal bag and cut off a small corner. Pipe two long center lines down the middle of the cupcake (this is the center of the brain where the two lobes meet), and then on either side, pipe two rows of curvy lines to resemble brain matter.
7. Using a teaspoon, allow small droplets of strawberry syrup to drop onto the tops of the zombie brains to resemble blood. If using syringes, suck up some of the remaining strawberry syrup into the syringes and stab them into the tops of the cupcakes.
8. Encourage your guests to inject their “zombie brains” with strawberry “blood” just before eating.
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Copyright © 2016 By My Cupcake Addiction PTY LTD. from Sweet! Celebrations by Elise Strachan.
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