Monster Chocolate Cupcakes for Halloween
Description
These chocolate cupcakes are baked from scratch and easily turned into Halloween monster muffins with green food coloring and candy eyes.
Ingredients
•
1/2 cup milk
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1 tablespoon white vinegar
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1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
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10 tablespoons white sugar
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2 teaspoons vanilla sugar
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2 large eggs
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3/4 cup all-purpose flour
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1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
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1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
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1/2 teaspoon baking powder
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1/4 teaspoon baking soda
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1 pinch salt
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1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
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1/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
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1 teaspoon vanilla extract
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1 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
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2 drops green food coloring
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24 candy eyeballs
Directions
1
Combine milk and vinegar in a bowl. Let stand until milk curdles, about 5 minutes.
2
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 12-cup muffin tin or line cups with paper liners.
3
Combine 1/2 cup butter, white sugar, and vanilla sugar in a large bowl; beat with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
4
Mix 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Alternate adding flour mixture and curdled milk to the creamed butter mixture, mixing until batter is well blended. Spoon batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling each 3/4 full.
5
Bake in the preheated oven until tops spring back when lightly pressed and a toothpick inserted in the center of 1 cupcake comes back clean, about 14 minutes. Cool in the muffin tin for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely, about 1 hour.
6
Combine cream cheese and 1/4 cup butter in a bowl; beat with an electric mixer until well combined. Mix in vanilla extract. Stir in confectioners' sugar gradually. Color frosting green with a few drops of food coloring.
7
Place green frosting in a pastry bag fitted with a grass tip. Hold the pastry bag at a 90-degree angle 1/8 inch above the surface of a cupcake. Squeeze bag to form green 'fur' by pulling tip up and away when the icing strand is about 1/2 inch high. Repeat to cover cupcake evenly with fur. Add 2 eyes to each cupcake.