For this Halloween-themed dessert, you can use any chocolate cupcake or muffin recipe. These scary skull cupcakes are always a hit at any party I bring them to. I was inspired by the movie "Night of the Living Dead" when I created them.
Ingredients
- devil's food cake mix (such as Duncan Hines): 1 pack (15.25 ounce pack)
- water: 1 cup
- eggs: 3 piece
- vegetable oil: 0.33333 cup
- ½ (16 ounce) packages prepared vanilla frosting: 1 piece
- pouch prepared chocolate frosting: 1 piece (7 ounce)
Metric Conversion
Stages of cooking
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Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line two 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners, preferably dark-colored or Halloween-themed ones.
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Combine cake mix, water, eggs, and oil in a large bowl; beat with an electric mixer on low speed until moistened, about 30 seconds. Beat at medium speed until batter is smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Spoon batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling each 3/4 full.
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Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven and cool tins on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Remove cupcakes from the tins and cool them completely on a wire rack before decorating, about 1 hour.
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Frost each cupcake with a thin layer of white vanilla frosting and refrigerate for 30 minutes to make decorating easier.
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Remove cupcakes from the fridge and apply a second layer of white frosting. Fill a piping bag outfitted with a small round tip with chocolate frosting and draw a skull face on the cupcakes: pipe large ovals for the eyes, two dots for the nostrils, and a large "stitched" smile for the mouth.
