Baking with Burns: How to make Halloween cupcakes

As half-term draws to a close, Lisa has a spooky festive treat for you and the kids to make for Halloween!

Halloween is going to look a bit different this year.

So while there may be no treat or treating, it doesn’t mean you can’t have fun dressing up at home and making and baking Halloween treats.

Halloween is a fun time for the little ones and they love playing spooky party games.

Luckily this year Halloween falls on a Saturday in half-term, giving ghouls and ghosts plenty of time to whip up a few treats!

These days Halloween is big business - quite different from when I was little. Then we just used to dress up in an old sheet, pretend to be a ghost and have a game of apple bobbing!

Nowadays the shops are bursting with outfits, gadgets and Halloween food.

Ingredients

Makes 18 buns

175g/6oz self-raising flour

100g/4oz unsalted butter softened

100g/4oz soft light brown sugar

50g/2oz unsweetened cocoa powder

Three eggs

To decorate

Sprinkling of icing (used to roll out the fondant)

Pack of 250g green fondant icing

Tube of dark chocolate icing

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/gas mark 5.

2. Put 18 Halloween-themed cupcake cases in two bun tins.

3. Sift the flour into a mixing bowl.

4. Add the butter, sugar, cocoa powder and eggs and beat well with a wooden spoon until the mixture is thick and glossy.

5. Drop heaped teaspoons of the mixture into the bun cases.

6. Half fill any empty bun spaces with water to ensure an even bake.

7. Bake for around 15-20 minutes until the cakes have risen and feel firm to the touch.

8. Cool on a wire rack.

9. Meanwhile, sprinkle icing sugar on a clean surface and evenly roll out the green (or whichever colour you are using) fondant icing.

10. With a biscuit cutter (use one which is around the same size as the top of one of your cupcakes) cut out 18 circles.

11. Mould each icing circle on top of your cupcakes.

12. Using the chocolate icing tube, put a small dot of chocolate in the centre of each bun, then carefully draw three concentric circles around the dot.

13. Use a clean pin to draw a line from the centre dot to the edge of the cupcake case and repeat around eight to 10 times around the bun to create the spider web pattern.

14. Top the cupcakes with novelty spiders or any other decorations!