Bat Cupcake for Halloween Treats

A monkey on a cupcake

I love fun and festive ways to celebrate a holiday! As much as I love cakes, cupcakes are much easier to serve to a crowd, especially for serving to children. These simple bat cupcakes are super easy to make and assemble — you can “cheat” and use a boxed cake mix if you want to save a little time.

–1 3/4 C flour 2 C sugar 1 C dark cocoa 1 1/2 tsp baking soda 1 1/2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp salt 2 eggs 1 C whole milk 1/2 C oil 2 tsp vanilla 1 C boiling water

CUPCAKE INGREDIENTS:

1 C of unsalted butter (softened) 4 C powder sugar 4 TBSP heavy whipping cream Orange, purple & black gel food coloring Halloween sprinkles

HALLOWEEN FROSTING INGREDIENTS:

2 egg whites 1 C powder sugar ½ tsp cream of tartar Gel food coloring, black 1 roll wax paper

 INGREDIENTS TO CREATE BATS:

CUPCAKE PROCEDURE:  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Next line each cupcake tin with paper liners. Begin mixing the flour, sugar, dark cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt together in a bowl. In a second bowl add the eggs, whole milk, oil, and vanilla. Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients.

Begin to beat all of the ingredients together for three minutes on medium. After these ingredients are mixed slowly begin to add the boiling water, a little amount at the beginning, stirring as you add, then pour the remaining boiling water in.

This may cause the batter to be a little runny but that is okay. Now scoop the batter into the lined cupcake tins until about 3/4rds filled. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Remove the cupcakes from the oven allowing them to cool for 10 minutes. Finally, remove each cupcake from the pan placing them on a wire rack to completely cool.

MAKING THE FROSTING:  Cream powder sugar and butter until mixture is light and creamy. If for some reason it doesn’t cream you can add a few drops of heavy whipping cream until it creams. Test to see if the frosting can form and hold a stiff peak by getting a spoonful of frosting and turning the spoon upside down to see if the frosting stays on the spoon or falls off. If it stays on the spoon, you’re in good shape if not, add more powder sugar 1/4 cup at a time and mix well.

Divide the frosting equally into three bowls. Add several drops of each of the gel food colorings into each of the bowls. One color per bowl. Mix well until the color is thoroughly blended. Once frosting is ready, you can place it into a pastry bag with a large tip (we used a 13-inch tip) Scoop one color of your frosting at a time, putting it on one side of the bag. Add the other two colors of frosting to the two other sides of the pastry bag.

Twist the open end of the pastry bag and push the frosting to the top, test to make sure that the colors are mixed together, and frost the cupcake edges inward to the center of the cupcake. Top each cupcake with your Halloween sprinkles. Set the cupcakes aside.

MAKING THE ROYAL ICING:  Combine all ingredients except food coloring in a mixing bowl mixing on medium speed for 4 minutes. If icing isn’t still enough, you’ll want to add 1/4 cup powder sugar until stiff. Add several drops of black gel food coloring into the bowl, mixing well. Spoon the colored icing into a piping bag using a #2 tip.

MAKING THE BATS:  Using a Halloween coloring book locate individual flying bats, outline the bats with a magic marker. At this point, you may want to enough copies of the bat to fill your cookie sheet. Taped these bats to the cookie sheet, tape the wax paper covering the bats. Using the black icing, begin by outlining all of the bats. Set aside.

With the remaining icing add several drops of water and stir well. This should allow the icing to become more fluid. Using a small spoon, drizzle a small amount of the icing into the center of the outlined bat. Using the same spoon spread this icing throughout the bat making sure that it is fully covered. Set aside until totally dried from 4-5 hours to overnight. Test to make sure that the bats are fully dried by pressing your finger slightly on one of them. If it gives then it isn’t totally dried if no indention then it is dried.

Cut away the tape and cut around the wax paper around each of the bats. Gently and carefully begin to peel the paper off of the back of the dried bat. Place the bat in the center of each cupcake.

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