Treats & Trinkets: Zombie Cupcakes #SundaySupper

It was a quiet Halloween night at the local Spooky Cemetery...

...but there was a strange chill to the air that left an uneasy feeling in the heart of Joe, the caretaker's son.

"There's something wrong," Joe said to his father.

"What? Is it those kids again?" They always had a problem with teenagers breaking in each Halloween. "Let me get my shotgun. We'll scare them off once and for all."

"No it's--" Joe hesitated. "It's probably nothing. I'm just going to take a walk, make sure everything's okay."

The cemetery was silent, as it should be, but Joe couldn't shake the feeling that maybe it was too quiet. Shouldn't he be able to hear trick-or-treaters in the distance? Shouldn't there be birds or crickets or other nocturnal creatures about? Maybe all these years of living on a graveyard had finally gotten to him, Joe chuckled nervously.

Then Joe spotted something moving out of the corner of his eye. There was something rustling in the grass. It's probably just a rat, Joe thought, his feet moving forward almost of their own volition. I wanted nocturnal wildlife.

There was something rustling in the grass. Joe could hear his heart pounding in his ears as he knelt to take a closer look...

... when a hand burst out from beneath the soil, gray and emaciated, stinking of rot and decay.

Joe stumbled back. It occurred to him that he should scream, but the sounds were lodged in his throat.

The ground shifted beside his foot, and Joe moved just as another hand clawed its way to the surface.

The dead were rising. And they hungered.

Though flesh of any kind would satisfy them, the morsel that they craved the most was the brain.

There was flesh aplenty in the graveyard, but it was rotted, worm-infested fare.

No, what the dead truly wanted, what they had clawed their way out of their graves for, was fresh, healthy, human brains.

And poor Joe, tenant in the land of the dead, was in possession of just such a tasty morsel.

Joe finally found the voice to scream briefly, drawing out his father with the shotgun.

It didn't do him much good.

Cast (In order of appearance)
Cupcakes- Chocolate Almond Cupcakes (recipe below)
Tombstones- Biscoff cookies and writing icing
Spooky trees- Tootsie rolls warmed until pliable, then shaped.
Grave dirt- Crushed Oreos
Grass- Shredded coconut, dyed green
Zombie fingers- Marzipan, with slivered almonds for the fingernails, and red gel icing.
Brains- Vanilla frosting (recipe below), colored with food coloring and piped with a round tip in zig-zags. (If you don't have a round tip, just put the frosting in a zip-top bag, and snip the corner)
Blood- Raspberry Red Wine Sauce
Extras- Gummy worms, candy pumpkins, and skull and spider sprinkles (Wilton brand)

Chocolate Almond Cupcakes
Yield: 30 cupcakes

Ingredients
2½ cups flour
¼ cup cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
3 eggs
¾ cup sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract
½ tsp. almond extract
6 oz. semisweet baking chocolate, melted and cooled
½ cup almond milk

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a medium mixing bowl, mix together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer, or in a large mixing bowl with electric beaters, beat the butter and sugar together at medium speed until fluffy. Add the eggs, beating well after each addition. Add the extracts and sour cream, and mix until fully combined. Add in the melted chocolate. Fold in half of the flour mixture. Mix in the milk and then the other half of the flour mixture. Beat until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.

Line a muffin tin with paper liners. Fill about ⅔ of the way (about 2 tbsp.) with batter. Bake 15-20 minutes, until an inserted toothpick comes our clean. Cool completely on wire racks.

Recipe by Kim

Vanilla Frosting

Ingredients
¾ cup unsalted butter, softened
6 tbsp. shortening
2½ cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Pinch salt

Directions
With an electric mixer, beat the butter and shortening on medium speed until smooth. Reduce the speed to low and gradually add the powdered sugar. Add the vanilla and salt and gradually increase speed to high. Whip on high until smooth and fluffy.

Recipe by Kim

This week the #SundaySupper crew is celebrating Halloween with plenty of tasty, ghoulish dishes. Thank you to Kathia of Basic N Delicious for hosting. And be sure to check out the rest of the terrifyingly tasty treats the rest of the group has in store for you...

...If you dare.

At least they don't have hungry zombies waiting to feast on your brains. :D

COCKTAILS