Haunted House Cupcakes
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 60 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes
Makes 11-12 cupcakes
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1/2 cup/125ml/4flozs milk, with a squeeze of lemon juice to curdle it
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2 cups/300g/10.6ozs plain all purpose flour
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1/3 cup/50g/1.7ozs cornflour/cornstarch
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4 teaspoons baking powder
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3/4 cup/165g/2.2ozs caster or superfine sugar
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125g/4ozs butter, melted
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2 eggs, at room temperature
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1/3 cup/50g/1.7ozs dried blueberries or other dried berries
For ganache
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300g/10 ozs white chocolate, finely chopped
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1/2 cup/125ml/4flozs cream
For topping
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Yellow or orange fondant
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black edible ink pen (I use Kopykake ones)
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black colouring powder or gel (I used 2 tablespoons vodka with a Corella black colouring powder)
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small paintbrush
Step 1 - Preheat oven to 180C/350F and line a tray with liners. Mix the flour, baking powder and sugar in a bowl. In a jug mix the milk, butter, blueberries and eggs and whisk together. Then add these wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Scoop into the prepared liners and bake for 25-30 minutes until a skewer inserted inside comes out clean. Allow to cool.
Step 2 - Make ganache. Combine chocolate and cream in a small heatproof bowl; stir with metal spoon over pan of simmering water until melted and smooth. Cool in fridge for about 30 minutes until it reaches a spreading consistency and spread over cupcakes. Allow to set for about 10 minutes and then using a small palette knife dipped in a cup of cold water, tap the knife a little and then smooth over the ganache. This is to provide a smooth surface on which to place the coloured fondant.
Step 3 - To decorate, roll out the yellow orange coloured fondant and cut into circles large enough to cover the entire top of the cupcake to the edge of the paper (to keep the cake part covered and fresh). Adhere the fondant to the cupcake using a little water. Smooth it over with a rectangle of overhead plastic sheet and allow to set for as long as possible (fresh fondant is hard to draw on as it is very soft).
Step 4 - Now the best thing is to practice drawing haunted house silhouettes on paper first. Trust me, I free handed it once and it looked terrible. Once you have your designs ready trace them into the fondant with the edible pen and then fill them in with the black edible colouring and a small paintbrush. Draw bats, full or crescent moons, tombstones, cats, pumpkins and trees along with your houses!
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