We don’t have Halloween to any organised extent in Australia. If you knock on someone’s door and demand candy, you’ll probably get a puzzled expression in return or in the case of someone on a sugar high who has actually consumed all of the household candy, you’ll get a door slammed in your face. But Friday the 13th is well known. I’m a medium on the superstitious scale but have found that actually nothing bad happens on this day. Every Friday the 13th for me is a day where nothing at all awful happens. And I know this because every year, I wait for something terrible to happen and it never does. So I know to expect a good day rather than a bad.
I got the idea for these from Claire Crespo’s “Hello Cupcake” book which I often turn to for decorating ideas. Sadly I didn’t have any random doll’s arms lying around so I had to make a special trip to buy them. When I got home I pulled the arm off but it was too long for the cupcake so, serial killer like, I hacked off more of the arm. And I’m sure the neighbours thought we were completely bonkers taking the photographs outside at night.
These cupcakes are like a Chocolate Crumb cake and I found the recipe for the cupcakes themselves on the Nigella website from a reader, Bevis. It’s a no bake, easy recipe for when you just cannot cope with the idea of switching an oven on and getting out the heavy equipment. It is rather rich though so I’d suggest making them in the miniature 3cms diameter smaller cases as the recipe only makes 4 regular sized cupcakes.
Chocolate Crumb Cupcakes
Makes 4 regular sized cupcakes
- 8oz/240g digestive biscuits (like McVities)
- 4oz/120g unsalted butter
- 2 tablespoons golden syrup
- Medium sized bar of very dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids at least)
- Chocolate powder to dust on top (I used Max Brenner Hot Chocolate powder)
1. Put the biscuits into a plastic bag or similar and whack repeatedly with a rolling pin. You want some very fine crumbs and some bite sized pieces. Some will also break up a bit more with the stirring so don’t bash them up too much.
2. Melt the butter and syrup together in a pan and break up the chocolate and put that straight into the butter/syrup. You don’t need to worry about heating it over water or anything as long as you don’t have the heat up too high because the butter and the syrup will prevent it burning.
3. Once it’s all melted together into a smooth, silky sauce add the crushed digestives and stir them in until it’s all well mixed. The little crumbs should soak up the chocolate sauce while the larger bits get coated with it. You may not need all the biscuits but you want it so that there is hardly any obvious chocolate sauce, but the biscuits are still glistening and coated with the sauce.
4. Finally pour the biscuit mixture into a cupcake pans. The aim isn’t to crush the biscuits but to pack it all together so that the chocolate sauce bonds the whole lot together. Then put it into the fridge to cool. Once it’s mostly cool, but not completely, insert cut off arm (yes doesn’t that sound gruesome). It needs to be just warm enough for the arm to go in but not so warm the arm falls over). Return it to the fridge until it’s completely cold. Once it is cold it will keep perfectly and refuse to fall to bits even with the most vigorous throwing around as it is carted to wherever you want it.
Recipe adapted from Nigella.com reader recipe by Bevis
26 Comments | Add your own
love the first pic! I’m scared to eat these!!
Happy Friday the 13th!
muhahahaha
hahahaha love the arm dude! dya watch dexter? you shouldve coloured each finger nail a diff colour hehehe
Very cool!
LOVE these haha! great styling on pics:)
i can see these happening with chocolate crackles, but i know which ones i’d rather eat - YOURS!
This is such a wonderful, creative post. It looks like it belongs in a cooking book. (And the cupcakes themselves look so tasty…)
I was really hoping to enter the cupcake carrier competition but alas, anatomy calls. Though I think I may make a batch of these to take into the end-of-session class to celebrate. It seems appropriate!
the lengths you will take to make things authentic!
Love the arm, I hope you gave the corpse a good burial.
lol. gruesomely good! and i would like to have seen your neighbours’ faces too at your outdoor photo shoot!
At first I was thinking what’s was that?
Maybe you can offer these to kids who dare to knocking doors on halloween night in here. They want trick or treat, aren’t they?
nice–clever and creepy at the same time! i don’t really mind the arm, unless it were to hinder my eating of the cupcake. then it would just be unacceptable.
I have had that book for over 2 years but haven’t made anything from it, yet. Thank you for the inspiration, Lorraine! these are so cute!
Hi Iron Chef Shellie-Thanks so much!
Happy Friday the 13th to you too! It’s now the 14th and nothing bad happened again-except for a sudden case of the hiccups while we were at the movies watching Enter the Dragon 
Hi chocolatesuze-Haha no I don’t watch Dexter! The cartoon you mean?
Hi Popeye-Thankyou!
Hi sarz-Thanks so much, it was actually quite fun putting it all together-once I had the arm of course. It would’ve been nothing without the arm
Hi lynn-Yes, you’re completely right, I considered doing choc crackles if I couldn’t a hold of the digestive biscuits!
Hi M-thankyou!
Haha how cool would that be? And totally appropriate. The Cupcake courier comp lasts for over a month so you can always enter later! 
Hi Maria T-Haha yes I become possessed when I love an idea and I loved these cupcakes as soon as I saw them. The rest of the doll is lying on the kitchen table. I’ll have to remove her before visitors come tomorrow, don’t want to scare the kids!
Hi Helen-Thanks!
Haha I’m pretty sure they find us strange at the best of times.
Hi Lilia-Muahahaa what a great idea! Although I suspect kids might like the gruesomeness of it all and not be scared
Hi grace-Hehe no no hindering with the arm although it is hard to pluck out when the cupcake is set!
Hi Patricia-Thanks and you’re welcome!
I love that book,there are so many kooky little ideas in it 
So cute - this would make for a creative and fun party table. Love it.
I’m an avid reader and I love the humor and fantastic pictures-this post was so cute! Now all I want to do is make food with tiny dismembered doll parts-what will my friends think!?!
haha that just looks too cool to eat. but if you have to eat it, i’d go arms first.
is the nail polish black cherry chutney by opi…looks just like it!
Hi giz-Thanks!
I gave them to two boys that I thought would appreciate the gruesomeness of it 
Hi Grace-Why thankyou!
I know, I felt like such a serial killer cutting into those arms 
Hi Caleb-Of course! To dispose of the evidence of course muahahhaaaaaaaaa
Hi Chloe-it’s “Mythe” by Chanel which is a purple with blue. Although in the pictures it does look more like a black cherry colour! Must be the spooky lighting
i’m giggling hysterically at the thought of you and cupcakes in the garden at night!!! they look fantastic though! well worth terrifying the neighbours!
Hi airy fairy-They probably think that we are weird enough without burying the doll
Brilliant cupcakes, Lorraine! I have Hello Cupcake, but haven’t used it. I love the hands on top of each cupcake
You are so creative! I love it!!
I’ve been reading your blog for a while now and it is just brilliant! Thank you for keeping me entertained (and giving me great ideas to try out).
Hi Y-Why thankyou!
There are so many great ideas there. We had to make a special trip for those arms, I’m afraid I didn’t have any doll limbs lying around…
Hi Brenda-Thankyou so much!
That’s such a lovely compliment, it really makes my day, thanks again!
Hellloooo!
I wonder each day where you are and how you are!
I remember seeing these spooky photo’s around the time you posted them and thinking “wow.. what an impact these make”!
The food styling is fabulous, hats off to you Lorraine and your hubby if he was involved!
I was intrigued with this ‘no bake’ type cupcake.. a cupcake of ‘crumbs’.. how interesting!
Are the McVities bikkies readily available in supermarkets or a speciality item? Maybe I’m aware of them but not the actual name? I’d be very curious about the taste of these. Bitter? Rich? One would be enough? Moreish? They sound rich and like one would be enough.
Good job!
Oh..and you have to LOL at the ripping the arm off the doll only to have to cut more bits of it off.. how macabre.. totally fitting with the theme of course 
Hi Maria-Awww how sweet! Thanks so much, we were rather tired but my compulsion to create the grisly overtook us and out to the garden we went
It’s kind of like a chocolate crackle so it’s not really cake like but still very sweet. I’ve seen McVities biscuits at Coles, just look in the imported biscuits section and they should be called ‘disgestives’. They’re very, very, very rich. Two bites for me was enough-however the two boys that I gave them two asked for seconds
The hacking of the arm felt very Halloween indeed!
What a great idea!
Duckey x
Hi Duckey-I couldn’t resist!
Post a Comment