Happy Halloween! This year for Halloween I decided to make some beautiful cupcakes with purple and orange swirls along with some spooky ghosts. I love to decorate cupcakes and holidays provide the perfect excuse for baking and experimenting and decorating fun creations! I used Swiss Meringue Frosting for both cupcakes along with Fondant for the ghosts. I used a full batch of Swiss Meringue frosting and less than half a batch of the fondant. You can use whatever type of cupcake you like. I used a recipe that made about 30 cupcakes. I made 16 ghosts and 14 swirled cupcakes.
For the swirled cupcakes I used orange and purple gel color to mix into the frosting. I usually go light on the colors but if you prefer darker colors just add more gel a little at a time until you have the shade you want. I used around 1/3 of a batch of frosting for the orange and another 1/3 of the batch of frosting for the purple. Once the colors were mixed I put each color into a 12 inch piping bag without a tip on it. I twisted the end of each bag to close them. I prepared a bigger 15 inch piping bag with a large closed star tip. (Ateco 846) I next snipped the tips off the two bags of purple and orange frosting and carefully placed them both inside the larger bag.
It was now time for two toned swirled cupcakes! For Halloween I went with orange and purple which were also the colors I chose for the cupcake liners. Beautiful and Delicious!
Ghost Cupcakes!
Next, I decorated the ghost cupcakes! For these I used the remaining 1/3 batch of the Swiss Meringue Frosting. I left this frosting white and placed it into a piping bag with an extra large round tip. I didn’t cover the entire cupcake. I wanted to build up about 1 1/2 inches or so for the ghosts from the center of the cupcake. The base needs to be just a little thicker but the goal is to have some height right in the middle of the cupcake. Once the cupcakes were done I let them chill in the refrigerator for the frosting to firm up. This makes it easier to add the fondant ghosts as the frosting isn’t too soft. I let mine sit overnight but if you are making them the same day you can plan around 45 minutes or so.
Once the cupcakes had chilled I rolled out some white fondant. It is important to roll it thin and keep checking as you roll it to make sure it is not sticking to the counter top. Keep a little confectioner sugar next to the counter in case you need a little more.
Once the fondant was rolled out I used a 4 inch (10 cm) round cookie cutter to cut circles. (You could also use a round biscuit cutter)
Next, I carefully lifted a circle and placed it on the top of the frosted cupcake. Each one will be a little different. The great thing about these is that the fondant doesn’t need to be smoothed out or placed perfectly.
I gently patted down the fondant a little around the top and middle. Next, I used a black food marker and drew eyes and a mouth.
These cupcakes are spooky and cute and you will love them! Happy Halloween Everyone!
