29th: Food: Spider & Bat Cupcakes

As I mentioned in a previous post, they have chocolate bats at Sainsbury's this year. So when I also got this bat cupcake decorating set (above) from Asda, I decided to combine the two and make some spooky cupcakes (below)!

They're really simple, so I didn't do a proper tutorial about them. Just use whichever cupcake recipe you prefer and, once cooked, then leave them to cool.

Following that, ice them all, put a bat-topped cocktail stick in and spider chocolate on each one and you're done! :)

This post is part of The Countdown to Halloween

A-Z Challenge: N is for...Nomskulls

N is for...Nomskulls

Nomskulls, made by Fred, are "kooky creepy" skull-shaped silicone cupcake molds and just happen to be the focus of today's A-Z post! My sister gave me a set of these last September, but I only got around to using them last night. According to the box you can:

"Knock 'em dead with these four stylish silicone skulls. Nomskulls are ready to fill with your favorite grey batter and bake into perfect cupcake craniums. One bite and you'll be head over heels, because there's no doubt about it - this skull bone's connected to the YUM bone!"

For some reason known only to my brain, I forgot that I was making skull-cakes and decided to make the mixture red. The molds are fairly huge but don't make too much batter, as they will overflow if you don't leave the top inch or so free. Of course, it depends entirely on what kind of mix you make and how much you expect it to rise though. 

So that's 3 brain-spills and 1 fancy hairstyle at the back...

However, despite the overflow setbacks, the good thing about the molds being silicone is that any spills come off really easily and the contained cupcake slides out equally as well when you're done.

Unfortunately, the inside of the mold is completely smooth (see photo above) except for the eye imprints, which means that the cakes will come out looking like zombies and aliens unless you decorate them. 

I'm fairly sure that they were intended to be served only inside the molds rather than out of them. It doesn't matter that much though, as the flat tops are there to be adorned with iced brains! 

If you do decide to take them out of the mold, you could try sugar skull-themed icing, zombies with eyeballs popping out, gas maks, Frankenstein's Monster...the list goes on. I think I'll experiment a little and make another post about the decoration when A-Z is over. (It might seem like I've caught up here, but the truth is I'm still missing J, K, L, and M.)

To be continued....in May

This post is part of the A-Z Blogging Challenge.

Fright-day Foods: Infected Cupakes

Another post for Fright-day Foods!

Many horror-themed cakes are made in the creepy cute style, largely because it looks much more appealing to eat than say, green slime and guts. However, if you want to have horror-themed eats that truly reflect the nature of the subject matter, then try these thoroughly disgusting looking (but delicious tasting) 'Infected Cupcakes'! The green cake represents the infected flesh, whilst the red fruit and white cream denote the oozing blood and pus respectively. Mmm...yummy! :D

To make these cupcakes: 

• I used an amalgamation of a meringue (ignore the clotted cream, just make the meringue) and a cupcake recipe, and added a dash of green food colouring to the mix (you don't need much). I also added some cream of tartar to make the mixture thicker, but it isn't really necessary. Cook them as you would cook the cupcakes, as they are more like cakes than meringues. The meringue part gave it a fruity tang, whilst the cupcake part gave a cake-like texture. 

• For the filling, I whisked up some low-fat double cream and put some icing sugar into the a portion of the 'Blood Shake' mixture and put it in the fridge overnight. This then gave it the consistency of a thin jam/thick sauce. I then took off the cupcake lids (muffin tops) and placed them upside down. Then the cream and 'Blood Shake' sauce went on, followed by the bottom of the cupcakes.

Fashion: T.U.K. Shoes

TUK have been terribly helpful and combined two of my loves - horror and shoes! Whilst I'm the first to admit that shoes are not usually very creepy nor horror-related, I think these are absolutely worthy of a mention.

As TUK themselves described these purple and black wonders "Cotton candy colours, cupcakes and skulls, Oh My!" Indeed.

Cute and spooky not your style? Not to worry! There's something for you classic horror lovers too, with TUK's Anti Pop Heels, featuring green stitches, purple lightning bolts and their version of The Bride of Frankenstein:

And if you're still not satisfied, they even have flip flops, complete with skulls and bone-shaped grips. Perfect for those long Summer days spent hiding from the sun, watching old Dracula movies at the beach.

To get your claws on these and other TUK horrors, visit their online store:

TUK Shoes