October 29, 2013

Decorating Halloween Cupcakes…on Daytime Blue Ridge

cupcakes, holidays, Kid Friendly, Recipes 0

I’ve stepped way outside of my comfort zone lately, kids.

Like, way, way outside.

Me? I like to hang out in my kitchen, barefoot, communicating via Facebook, text, and Twitter. I am perfectly content to do so – I don’t really like leaving the house.

So what am I doing?

I’ve started appearing on Daytime Blue Ridge, doing cooking demos just about once a week.

That’s TV. An NBC regional show. Me. On the TV.

It makes no sense at all.

Luckily, the host, Heather Hutzler, is so sweet, and her co-host Natalie Founce is just as lovely. They keep me calm, they laugh, they play along, so it all works out.

Last Friday we jazzed up your ordinary cupcakes for Halloween, by adding things you can find at any Walmart, Food Lion or other store that sells Halloween candy. Not a baker? Use a box mix. Not into making icing? Use canned. What Halloween Cupcakes are about is the kiddos, and they LOVE sweets.

You’ve got this.

What I am going to teach you how to do is make them look like a pro made them.

But, if you want to watch the silly segment where I teach these two lovely ladies how to do it…here you go. We had fun!

WSLS 10 NBC in Roanoke/Lynchburg Va

How To Decorate Cupcakes Like a Boss:

I prefer “double icing” my cupcakes. What I mean by this is I like to put one flavor or color of icing in a piping bag with a large tip, and use another color to spread the initial icing on top of the cupcake.

Remember how mom ices the cupcakes? Just use a knife to spread a dollop of icing across the cupcake. Now comes the fun part.

Dunk that sucker in in sprinkles, glitter, jimmies, or sanding sugar. Whatever your using is great, just dunk it. I know you think “Oh, that’s going to get icing everywhere and make a mess.” But you’d be wrong. The sprinkles will just stick to the icing. Promise.

Now that you’ve got that going on, take the piping bag with the other icing in it and pipe it right on top. Make it fancy, or just whip it on there – the choice is yours.

From there, go to town with that candy.

At Halloween, you’ll find all kinds of great spooky candies in the candy aisle. I found mummies, pumpkins, vampires, witches – all without even trying very hard. No need to reinvent the wheel and make fancy toppers, the store already has them! Just choose your favorite and plop it onto the cupcake. So cute, right?

Another fun thing I found was the eyeballs, but come on now, you can’t just throw an eyeball on the cupcake. You need BLOOD! I used a spoon full of cherry ice cream topping for my “blood”, and THEN I put an eyeball on it. Voila!

The most important thing to remember is to have FUN. Get the kids involved! Use several paper plates and load them down with a variety of sprinkles and sugars. Have bowls full of topping candies at the ready. Show them how to dip the cupcakes, then you can pipe for them, and let them do the toppings of their choice. They’ll love it!