Scary-Cute Monster Cupcakes!

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I made these Scarey-Cute Monster Cupcakes for my niece’s sixth birthday recently and wanted to share them with you. It’s been quite a long time since I’ve made any cupcakes, and it was fun to be back in the baking saddle again!

These monstrous cupcakes are so easy to make, and are a great sweet treat for a Halloween party food table, or for a monster themed birthday party!

If you’re throwing a Halloween Party, or just want some spooky ideas for the season, you’ve come to the right place! Crafty October 2018 on The Purple Pumpkin Blog celebrates Halloween all month long!

Monster Cupcakes

You’ve probably seen very similar cupcakes all over Pinterest – it’s exactly where I go the inspiration for them! My niece Sephy had asked if I would make the cake for her birthday party. I was of course happy to oblige, and was going to make one big monster cake.

However, it’s been a long time since I’ve done any proper baking and I wasn’t too confident of my [rusty] skills – so I suggested I make some cupcakes and she could help me decorate them. And that was exactly what she did!

Her party was at a soft-play venue, but she wanted to have a monster theme. So I made the party invitations for her, which you can see below, and the whole Monster Party Printables Set will be coming to The Shop in the new year; and her party bags had a monster twist too.

Halloween comes but once a year, but it’s lasts the whole month on the Purple Pumpkin Blog with my annual series – Crafty October!

Back in 2012 when I first started this series, I shared a Halloween craft every day in October – which is where the name Crafty October came from. Over the years the series has evolved into more than crafts, with me sharing recipes, free printables, pumpkin carving templates, party ideas and more! I do sometimes sneak in some Autumn themed stuff too!

I do have some new stuff to share this year – yay! – but will also be sharing lots of roundups of ideas as well. I wish I could do it all, but these days, I just can’t… but my vision for this blog is to think up the ideas so that you don’t have to!

You can see all of Crafty October 2018’s posts here.

To make these monster cupcakes, I turned to my tried and trusted vanilla cupcake recipe which I have been using for many years. It is a very simple all-in-one cake batter, so you don’t have to faff around creaming butter and sugar first, and then adding other ingredients.

The butter, caster sugar, self-raising flour, baking powder, eggs, and vanilla extract all go to a bowl and mixed with an electric mixer for a few minutes until well combined and light and fluffy. The cake mixture is then divided between the cupcake cases – this makes at least 24 cupcakes – maybe a few extra (cook’s perk!). I like to use an old fashioned ice-cream scoop to divide the mixture evenly.

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Once the cupcakes are cooked and cooled, it’s time to decorate! I bought a grass tip piping nozzle to create the “fur” of the monsters, as well as some candy googly eyes to bring the monster cupcakes to life!

Sephy got to choose the colours of her monster cupcakes – green (as it’s her favourite colour) as well as red and blue. I took care of the piping, and she took care of the eye placement! Monster cupcake making is very serious business! I love the concentration on her face!

My piping technique was rather haphazard! I’ve not used this type of nozzle before and wasn’t sure how it would behave. I was in a rush as we had to get the cupcakes decorated to take to the party venue so just did short squeezes of the piping bag for short fur, and a longer squeeze for longer strands.

Sephy similarly had haphazard method of putting the candy eyes on – some had one big one, some had small eyes, some a mixture. I think their placement, along with my piping gave these monster cupcakes a rather whimsical charm all of their own!

I forgot to mention about the buttercream – it’s basically an even split of soft unsalted butter and icing sugar, with a dash of vanilla and a splash of milk to adjust the consistency for piping. I divided the buttercream into thirds, and coloured each with a small amount of food colouring paste.

The full recipe is available just after the next couple of photographs – it can be printed off too.

Scary-Cute Monster Cupcakes!

Yield: 24

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

This is my tried and trusted vanilla cupcake recipe. Makes 24 cupcakes. I use an ice cream scoop to get equal quantities of cake mixture per case. Add 3tbsps of cocoa powder to the cake batter to make chocolate cupcakes

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Ingredients

For the cupcakes[br]

• 335g unsalted butter, softened
• 335g caster sugar
• 335g self-raising flour
• 1½ tsp baking powder
• 6 eggs
• 1½ tsp vanilla extract

For the buttercream icing

• 500g unsalted butter, room temperature
• 500g icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp milk
• food colouring in your colour choices. I used green, blue and red
• candy eyes in various sizes

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 175C/Gas 4.
2. Place 24 cupcake cases into tins.
3. Put all of the ingredients into a mixing bowl and beat with an electric whisk for 3 minutes until smooth, pale and fluffy.
4. Divide the mixture between the cupcake cases. (see notes above)
5. Bake for 20 minutes until golden and risen.
6. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.
7. 
   

To make the buttercream

1. Add the softened butter to a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer.
2. Slowly sift in the icing sugar until combined.
3. Whisk in the vanilla extract and some milk to adjust the consistency for piping. You want it to be able to hold its shape, but not be too stiff, as this makes piping hard on your hands, and split the piping bag!
4. Divide the buttercream into however many colours you will be using, and colour each with a small amount of food colouring. Start lightly - you can always add more colour, but not take it away.
5. 
   

To assemble

1. Only decorate the cupcakes when they are completely cool.
2. Place some of the buttercream icing into a piping bag with a grass nozzle attached (don't overfill the bag) and pipe "fur" on each cupcake - you could do short or long strands. If you're not too confident, practise first on some greaseproof paper - you can always re-use the buttercream.
3. Clean the nozzle between colours, and continue till all cupcakes are iced.
4. Place the candy eyes however you like and you're done!

Whether they’re for a monster themed party or Halloween party, I hope you have fun making these monster cupcakes! I would love you to share them with me – follow and tag me on Instagram – @ThePurplePumpkinBlog and use the hashtag #thepurplepumpkinblog, #craftyoctober, and or #tppb so I can see them!

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