spooky Halloween cupcakes

I love baking, so if theres ever an excuse to bake, you can be certain that I will probably have produced some sort of cake, or some cookies or biscuits. I also really enjoy this time of year in particular, I love the festiveness, I think it serves as an even better reason to get baking, and to make those bakes fun and creative. So I thought what better way to spend a couple of hours this week than to make some Halloween cupcakes.
I  decided to keep them simple, I contemplated adding a gooey chocolate filling or experimenting with flavours, but I wanted to focus more on making the toppings look fun and creative, and very Halloweeny (probably not a word). I was very prepared for these cakes, I had been planning making them basically since the final cake from last years halloween batch was polished off, therefore as soon as all the haloweeny bits popped into the shops I stocked up on cute cases and fun toppings.

I used the recipe that I always use every time I make cupcakes, and it has never disappointed, people always seem to enjoy the cakes. (The recipe is a Nigella Lawson recipe, but I pretty much bake them form memory by now)

For the cakes:
makes 12
125g of caster sugar
125g of butter
125g of self raising flour
2 large eggs
1/2 to 1 teaspoons of vanilla extract
and a dash of milk.

I make these cakes by shoving everything in the food processor and blending until smooth with a dropping consistency, basically not too runny and not too stiff. It doesn't mater what order the ingredients are added. Although i would add the milk last when its in the bender. You may even find you don't need milk.

I prefer to use a muffin tin, rather than a smaller tin for fairy cakes or cupcakes,  and larger cases as it makes them bigger and I personally think they look better a little larger.

To cook: Bake in an oven at 200 degrees or gas mark 6 for about 15-20 minutes or until golden brown on the top, as ovens do vary. Then to be sure whether or not they are fully baked stick a thin knife in one of the cakes, if it comes out clean they are done! Always remember to avoid opening the oven too much during baking, as this will cause the cakes not to rise properly, and no one wants flat, floppy cakes.

For the topping:
There are no rules when it comes to the toppings, its up to you whether you want to use butter icing, or runny icing or royal icing, or nothing at all! one year I made some with runny icing and put marshmallows on the top to make little ghosts, they looked really cute. but this year I decided to make traditional cup cakes and use butter icing.
There is not a definite way to make butter icing, its down to personal preference of how sweet you like yours to be, and how much you want. But as a general rule I would say double the amount of icing sugar to butter.  So to make the icing;  you beat the butter in a large bowl until its soft and smooth then you mix in about half or your icing sugar and then the other half, doing it like this stops you from making a mess or adding too much you then add about a table spoon of milk, it may need more than this, but again like with the cakes your looking for a smooth and soft finish thats not too runny or too stiff- perfect for icing cakes with pretty swirls that won't just flop is what your looking for.
Its at this point where you may decide to colour the icing or add an additional flavour, like lemon or vanilla, I used vanilla in mine, so I added about half a teaspoon of vanilla extract. It just makes it that little bit sweeter.
This is how they turned out...
enjoy, Emma xxx

 The sprinkles are from Waitrose, and the little Halloween icing shapes are from Waitrose too. I found the cases for sale in a garden centre but I have seen them for sale in various baking shops.

These were the little ghost cakes I made a couple of years ago.