SPOOKfetti Cupcakes!

Halloween is one of my all time favourite holidays, and like every holiday its usually such a flurry of activity that everything else - including timely blogging - falls by the wayside. However, now that all the wee candy monsters are off in bed, and since I don't have to be up in the wee hours to drive to work tomorrow, I can finally get in a quick blurb about the spooktacular cupcakes I made for our school's Halloween party this year!

You may remember waaay back in time (okay, 2008) when I made two cupcake varieties for another school's Halloween bakesale, including one with "eye" decorations. Those super-easy confections were such a hit that I couldn't resist re-creating the design this year, with a little refinement and a touch less work along the way. I knew I wanted to try making "funfetti" cupcakes again (despite all the issues I've had over the years with bleeding sprinkles and whatnot), so I took my (now) go-to egg and nut free, sinfully rich-tasting "French vanilla" cupcake recipe and tossed in a handful of Halloween nonpareils right before baking. To decorate, I took a standard vanilla buttercream and enriched it with custard powder and a dash of yellow colouring for the eye's "jaundiced" whites, then squiggled red gel "blood vessels" and pressed a coloured chocolate "iris" in the centre. Everything is edible (and, IMHO, delicious), not to mention perfect party food!

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Spookfetti Cupcakes
Adapted from from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero
Makes 12
1 cup unsweetened coconut beverage (not the canned kind) or 1% milk
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
⅓ cup canola oil
½ cup sugar
⅜ tsp stevia extract powder
1 tbsp vanilla extract
¾ cup flour
½ cup Kamut flour
pinch nutmeg
2 tbsp non-instant vanilla custard powder (or cook-and-serve vanilla pudding)
¾ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
¼ cup Halloween nonpareils
1 ⅔ cups vanilla buttercream frosting
2-3 drops yellow food colouring
1 tbsp non-instant vanilla custard powder (or cook-and-serve vanilla pudding)
12 coloured chocolate wafers (i.e. Merckens)
2 tbsp semisweet chocolate chips, melted
red gel icing, to decorate

1. Preheat oven to 350 F and line a muffin pan with paper cups.
2. Whisk the milk and vinegar in a bowl and set aside for 10 minutes.
3. Add the oil, sugar, stevia and vanilla extract and beat well.
4. Add the flours, nutmeg, custard powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt, mixing until no large lumps remain.
5. Quickly fold in the nonpareils.
6. Fill cupcake liners two-thirds of the way and bake for 20 to 22 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool.

Decoration:

1. While cupcakes cool, combine frosting, food colouring and custard powder until well combined and the mixture has a slight yellowish tint. Set aside.
2. Place the coloured chocolate on a plate and with the end of a chopstick create the “pupil” with melted semisweet chocolate. Allow to set.
3. Frost the cupcakes and drizzle with gel icing to make “bloodshot” eyes, then top with a chocolate wafer.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 353.9
Total Fat: 14.3 g
Cholesterol: 0.1 mg
Sodium: 90.3 mg
Total Carbs: 48.8 g
Dietary Fiber: 0.7 g
Protein: 1.8 g