Island Bites: Halloween Cupcakes (recipes and decorating ideas)

Cupcakes are a great way to celebrate any occasion. This time, we are going to dress them up to spook everybody. Let's make some Halloween cupcakes!

First of all, let's bake some cupcakes...

• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1 stick of butter, softened
• 2 cups confectioners sugar
• 1/2 tsp almond extract

In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and butter and almond extract, until smooth. Add sugar and mix until light and fluffy.

1. You could make any cake flavor you like and add food coloring to the batter for decorative purposes. I prefer a dark chocolate cake.
2. Make sure you use black cupcake liners. You could also buy Halloween themed cupcake liners, but remember that most designs won't be as pretty or colorful after baked.
3. Add orange food coloring to your frosting. Don't even try to make it black. Too much food coloring will make your food taste funny.

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Tips to make professional looking cupcakes

How to decorate your Halloween Cupcakes:

There are a lot of options to decorate your cupcakes. You can make them more kid-friendly, or you could totally make them the star of a spooky adult party.

• Halloween sprinkles are an economic and easy option to make pretty cupcakes. You can find sprinkles in the shape of bats, pumpkins, ghosts, cats, bones, etc. You could also use jimmies or nonpareils.

• Make fondant decorations. You can make any Halloween shape, decoration or figurine you want. You will need fondant, food coloring and edible markers. Let them dry for a couple of days to make sure they are hard enough to keep their shape.

• For kid-friendly decorations, you could make fondant pumpkins, witches hats or even ghosts. It can be a fun activity to do with your children.

• Fondant tombstones: Add black food coloring to white fondant to make gray fondant for the tombstones. Do not mix it completely to get a natural marbled look. Roll out the fondant (1/4 to 1/8 inch thick) and cut it with a paring knife, pizza cutter or cookie cutter. Let them dry for a couple of days. Use a black edible marker to write any message you want. Crush oreos to make dirt. Using white fondant, you could make skulls and bones.

• Eye balls: To make eye balls, make balls of white fondant. Roll out (green, blue or brown) fondant and cut small circles. Then roll out black fondant and cut smaller circles. Press a black dot to a colored circle to make pupils. With the tip of your finger or a small brush, wet a side of the white ball and glue a fondant circle to the eyeball. Let it dry completely. With a red edible marker, draw little veins.

• Severed fingers: Get a ball of flesh colored fondant. Roll it into a long log shape. Cut in the middle to make two fingers. With a toothpick, create creases in the fingers. You could use sliced almonds as the nails, or you could use fake nails to make an imprint where your nails would be. Glue little pieces of fondant in the shape of nails if you want. Let it dry. Add red coloring to look like blood.