Soooo this post is a little later than it was supposed to be…my bad. >.>

About once or twice a month I putter through Michael’s craft store to take a peek at what kind of nifty new things they have around, be they seasonal or otherwise.  I used to do this just for yarn (I crochet, hooray), but when I realized they also carried baking paraphernalia my attendance increased dramatically.

I was on one of my bi-monthly explorations when I made another incredible Halloween find.  You may remember last year when my number one find were fantastic bone-shaped sprinkles.  This year: little candy knifes.

At the time my only real purpose for being at the store was to pick up some supplies for September’s wedding cake, but these decorations were an undisputed must – I could not physically turn them away (nor did I want to).  So into the basket they went, and they sat in my cupboards until Halloween rolled around.  Magically, I was actually able to find them again.

I had multiple ideas for these sweet little knives, including sinking them into candy skulls or skull pops shaped into skulls…but since I had other additional plans for Halloween baking, I thought I’d keep things simple and go for a basic cupcake with a few extra flourishes.

In true n00bcakes fashion, these cupcakes are excellently simple to make.  Using ganache for the frosting means no whipping up of buttercream or dealing with checking the temperature of heated eggs.  White chocolate and heated heavy cream make this nice and easy (my favorite type of baking).

And cupcakes?  Alright, there’s some whipping involved there, but still nothing you can’t do with a hand mixer.  In fact, in my case I ended up making brownie-style cupcakes, which meant no mixer at all – just melted butter and chocolate!

 

When it comes to slacking in baking, I tend to think that brownies are really on the top of the easy list.  There’s no real technique involved; it’s one of those “put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix” type of recipes, which as everyone knows are my very favorite.

Unfortunately in retrospect I wish I’d actually taken the time to make “real” cupcakes.  Ganache is something that for some reason I still find tricky, and as you can see in the pictures of the Stabby Cupcakes, because the cupcakes don’t have any real shape (they’re pretty lumpy) the ganache simply pools around them instead of pouring blood-like over top.  Alas, alas.

Still!  They ended up quite delicious!  Nothing beats a brownie with melted white chocolate on top…especially when it has a knife protruding from the top. ^_^

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween!

Stabby Cupcake Recipe

Adapted from Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes.

Makes a little over 1 dozen cupcakes.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 6 oz unsweetened chocolate
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
• 8oz white chocolate
• 1 cup heavy cream
• Red (also blue or green) food coloring

Instructions:

1. Chop up chocolate and cut butter into tbsp chunks.  Melt together over a double boiler.
2. In a separate bowl mix together the flour, salt, and baking powder.
3. Add sugar to the melted chocolate and butter and whisk until smooth.
4. Add the eggs one by one, mixing thoroughly each time.
5. Mix in the vanilla extract.
6. Slowly add the flour mixing, making sure to fold in thoroughly each time.
7. Separate into baking cups and bake at 350F for 15-20 minutes, rotating halfway through for even baking.
8. For the ganache, heat the heavy cream until almost boiling, then pour it over chopped up white chocolate.  Stir gently until they have melted together.  Add red food coloring with a few drops of blue or green to get a darkish red color.  Let the ganache cool in the fridge for awhile (but not until it’s solid) and then pour over each cupcake.
9. Consume!