Halloween Cupcakes

Happy Halloween… Now Let’s Make Cupcakes!

My son Wyatt received some cupcake liners and decorations as a present for Halloween. So I did the only responsible thing that a level-headed mother would do… I planned a cupcake party and made tons of frosting! Ok so maybe “responsible” is a bit of a stretch, but at least it was fun. And I will say that we gave everything away except a small plateful for us to share.

I decided to used boxed cake mixes since I opted for three flavors of frosting! The boxed stuff was actually pretty good. We used Halloween funfetti and chocolate so there would be tons of frosting/cupcake flavor combos. The real fun and yumminess was with the frostings. I made a Chocolate Buttercream Frosting which is the only chocolate frosting recipe you will ever need. I’m serious… it’s perfect. It’s delicious of course, but also super easy. You don’t even have to think ahead and soften the butter. It’s just a matter of melting a couple things together in the microwave (butter and a bag of chocolate chips) and then whipping it up in your mixer with a few other things (powdered sugar, sour cream, and vanilla).

Next I made an Orange Buttercream Frosting. This was a brand new frosting that I made up just for this occasion, and it was awesome! It’s light and fluffy with just the right amount of orange flavor. Orange zest is blended together with butter before getting the traditional treatment of powdered sugar with flavoring (fresh orange juice) and cream. It was so good! I just keep thinking of ways to get it into my mouth. I WILL be putting some of this orange frosting between some cookies at christmas baking time… it has to happen.

The orange was great on the vanilla cupcakes, but the orange frosting/chocolate cupcake combo was my ultimate favorite of the day. Check out the orange ghost on top of a chocolate cupcake that my sister Mandy made!

The final frosting recipe I can’t take credit for. It’s the best vanilla frosting I’ve ever tasted and I have Sally’s Baking Addiction to thank for it. I speak for Pinners the world over when I say that we are all extremely thankful of both Sally and her baking addiction! Her Frosted Sugar Cookie Bars have become one of my go-to crowd pleasing desserts (especially when there are children or irresponsible women involved) and it’s the vanilla frosting from this recipe that I have adopted as my favorite! It’s the only vanilla frosting I ever make now.