Happy Hauntings

Forgive the lateness of this post.

I hope everyone had a merry all hallows eve following an even better samhain.
Just remember, not everyone who boils pots of rat's tails and bat's wings with owl toes are witches.
They just have strange tastes and are misunderstood.
No need to burn their evil, soulless bodies in the town square.

The smell is enticing though.


My halloween was actually a tad more eventful than I thought it was going to be. I figured I'd be sad panda at home binge watching episodes of something on Netflix and drinking lots of eggnog.

Most awesome friend's roomie had a party at their establishment. Of course I HAD to go since there were no other social events coming at my general direction as far as I could see.

Had to make cupcakes. Just had to. Can't do anything without a good cupcake in your life.

So I decided to whip up something from this bounded sugary delight.

And it's actually a cookbook 'trilogy'.
I haz all three.

Don't judge me.

The recipe I pulled was from their halloween section (duh) and it looked like a real easy piece.

OF COURSE it has cats. 

What else would you expect of someone suppressing their spinster cat lady urges? 

If I'm ever alone, I'll be the old woman with fifty cats hovering on and around my legs at all times as I shuffle through the house with a hairy cup of luke warm coffee. 

Ah, that's the life.

But anywho. This shall just be another decorating bit. Way too many steps to include everything.
So, the "Hello Cupcake" books are renowned for their use of canned icing and jazzed up cake mix recipes.
Nuh-uh. Not this lady. No way.
Ever since I jumped onto the scratch made and buttercream train I've missed every stop and haven't gotten off. There is NO WAY I'm going back.

The recipe calls for white cake mix and a can of vanilla frosting. *vomits*
Yeeeaaahh, no.

So, I decided (I'm not sure why) to do a devil's food cake with orange cream cheese buttercream.
The buttercream recipe taken from this little dandy here.

Okay, now after baking all of the cupcakes and letting them cool in wire racks I get my decorations going. This part takes a while.
First of all, the cupcake book gives you an outline for your sprinkled chocolate kitties. It was HUGE. Like to actually use the original template I would have to either make jumbo cupcakes or just hope to Nrygoth that the chocolate was solid enough to not break.
Looking at it, I was like, from one to even I can't.

So being the awesomeness that I am, I scanned the template, fiddled around with the color and scaled it down to print out a sheet of kitty outlines.

Tape it down onto a baking sheet or whatever is easiest for you.

Then tape a sheet of parchment paper on top.

Oh, and before I forget, these are the main objects you need for this project.

Here we have black paper liners, parchment paper, two things of black sugar and some chocolate candy melts.

Okay, so once you have your template all prepped and ready, now it's time to melt your chocolate.
Place some candy melts in a ziploc baggie.

Then microwave for about 15-20 seconds at a time. Making sure to mush it in your fingers so it gets all melty in between the microwaving intervals.

Yes, before you say anything, I know how much this looks like I had the squirty dumplings into a sandwich bag.
But believe me, it's really melted chocolate.
;)

Now press all the air out and seal. Then twist everything into one corner like so.

Cut off a very small part of the tip and begin tracing over the template. Working kitty at a time, trace the outline, then fill in, making sure to tap lightly to get rid of any air bubbles, and sprinkle on your black sugar.

Once you've made all the kitties you need, remove each gently and place onto your iced cupcake. Then pipe the little evil hallow's eve kitty eyes.

And if done correctly, you should have something similar to this!

 

I successfuly got these to the party, got super trashed, and had a fun time downtown.

Then celebrated buy buying ALL of the discount halloween candies the day after.

 Because I'm an adult.