Last-Minute Recipes for Halloween Cupcakes

Irwin Weiner ASID - We know you're scrambling to find a few easy-to-make goodies for your upcoming Halloween party this weekend, or in a few days when Halloween hits us in the middle of the week. (Don't you just hate it when that happens?) In the following video, you'll see how to make Tombstone or Graveyard Brownies.

This recipe comes from YouTuber Sara Parker, whose 31 Days of Halloween videos include many wonderful ideas for costumes and parties and decor and recipes to help celebrate the spooky side of our holiday. Here's her Tombstone Brownies recipe.

WHAT YOU NEED

Powder sugar
Green food coloring
Brownie, Ding Dongs, or Chocolate Sponge Cake
Grahahm Cracker or Shortbread Biscuit
Chocolate letters
Nutella
Plastic skeleton

HOW TO DO IT

1. Mix Sugar Powder and "Green" food coloring with a tiny bit of water or use green frosting/icing.
2. Use brownie or ding dongs or choclate cake as the base.
3. Use Graham Cracker or Shortbread Biscuit as tombstone, make edges a bit rounder.
4. Cut a gap for the tombstone in the brownie. Place the tombstone.
5. Write something on the tombstone e.g. name of the person you invited. I used premade chocolate letters and used nutella to glue them on. You can use a sugar powder to write on it, too.
6. Add the green sugar powder mix as grass. Let it dry.
7. Make a hole for your skeleton and place it in there. Leave some dirt around it. I cut off the legs of the plastic skeleton.
8. Enjoy!

In the next recipe, YouTuber and cupcake lover Tammy, alias Yoyomax12, gives us her take on a Broken Glass Cupcake. Watch the video, and then afterwards you'll see how she found this recipe and the process.

I found this idea in the book A Zombie Ate My Cupcake by Lily Vanilli. I bought it on Amazon (click the book link title), but it may be available at your local bookstore.

To Make the Candy Glass

2 cups water
3 1/2 cups white granutlated sugar
1 cup light corn syrup or liquid glucose
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

A Word on Substitutions

-There are substitutes for corn syrup in certain recipes (like honey), but I have no idea if they can be used in candy glass making. I took a quick look on the Internet for the information, but couldn't find it. If any of you know, please let me know in the comments. Corn syrup maybe known to you also as liquid glucose or Karo syrup.

- You can't reduce the sugar in this recipe; candy glass is made of sugar and nothing else. Yes, it is bad for you, yada yada yada. Let's move on shall we....

• First line a baking sheet or dish with aluminum foil and then grease the foil with cooking spray.
• Put all the ingredients in a large saucepan over medium high heat and stir the mixture until it comes to a boil and the sugar is dissolved. Once it comes to a boil you can stop stirring. 
• Boil the mixture until the temperature reaches 300F (150C). A candy thermometer is perfect for this and I recommend that you use one. However if you don't have one make sure the reaches the "hard crack stage". This will take about 15 or 20 minutes.

Click on this link for an illustrated guide to the candy making stages and what they look like.

• Pour the mixture very quickly into the oiled pan. Be super careful, the sugar will be VERY hot and will cause severe burns if it touches your skin.
• I used two 9x13" cookie sheets with a rim, but I found the candy to be a tiny bit too thick.
• Let it cool completely and then remove the candy by holding the edges of the foil and lifting it out.

Break the candy into shards by giving it a rap in the center with a hard object like a meat tenderizer.

Insert a shard of the candy glass into the top of the cupcake and add fake blood (I used raspberry syrup) around the base of the glass shard.

The candy glass absorbs moisture very quickly, and within 24 hrs it will become very sticky and the edges will soften. Try to make it the same day as your party.

Click here for my frosting recipe video.

Flavoring the Candy Glass

You can use flavoring extracts that are available in the baking supplies section of your local supermarket, such as vanilla, almond, anise, maple, and lemon. Approximately 1 teaspoon of this kind of flavoring should be enough for a batch.

There are also highly-concentrated flavorings specifically for candy making, available online or in specialty stores. The flavor choices are almost endless. These usually come in tiny 1-dram (1 teaspoon) bottles, and 1/4 teaspoon should be sufficient to flavor a batch.

Add the flavoring just after removing the candy from the stove and before you pour it onto the baking sheet. Be CAREFUL; there might be some splattering as the flavoring comes in contact with the hot sugar mixture.

You would do the same thing if you wanted to add food color.

To clean the pot, submerge it into some hot soapy water and just let it sit for an hour or so and most of the sugar should melt off on its own. You can also fill the pot with water and bring it to a boil on the stove and the sugar with dissolve that way, too.