Halloween Cupcakes

Hello food lovers!

Halloween is just around the corner and what better way to celebrate than to dive into a recipe as terrifying as it is delicious?

We offer you chocolate cupcakes filled with caramel, topped with mascarpone whipped cream, all decorated with bloody isomalt shards! Halloween wouldn't be Halloween without a little scary touch! ;-)

Let's get started with the recipe!

To make 12 cupcakes you will need:

Chocolate muffins

- 50g milk chocolate

- 50g dark chocolate

- 80g butter

- 80g sugar

- 2 eggs

- 125g milk

- 100g flour

- 25g almond flour

- 7g baking powder

Isomalt decorations

- 250g isomalt (1 bag)

- 50g water

- 1 tube of red iridescent ready-to-use icing

Filling

- 1 jar of creamy caramel

Mascarpone whipped cream

- 300g heavy cream

- 150g mascarpone

- 45g icing sugar

First, we will prepare the chocolate muffins.

Chocolate muffins

Start by melting 50g milk chocolate and 50g dark chocolate together in the same bowl in the microwave for 1 minute at 600W.

Set the chocolate aside for a moment.

In a large bowl, pour 80g butter and 80g sugar. Whisk together for 5 minutes at medium speed.

Add 2 eggs and whisk again for 30 seconds at medium speed.

Pour in 125g milk and mix again for 30 seconds, still at medium speed.

Add 100g flour to the mixture.

Finally, fold in 25g almond flour and 7g baking powder. Use the balance spoon to add the baking powder precisely. It's great for small quantities. :-)

Whisk everything for 1 minute at maximum speed.

Finally, fold in the melted chocolate prepared at the beginning of the recipe.

Mix until you get a smooth and homogeneous muffin batter.

Preheat your oven to 180°C, fan-assisted.

Transfer the muffin batter into a large piping bag. Use a pitcher to fill it neatly.

Place the black metallic cupcake liners in the cavities of a cupcake tin.

Fill the liners with muffin batter up to 3/4.

Bake the muffins for 20 minutes in the middle of the preheated oven.

Once baked, carefully remove them from the tin and immediately place them on a cooling rack to prevent the liners from peeling away from the muffins.

While our muffins are cooling, we can make the isomalt decorations.

Isomalt is a sugar particularly popular in pastry making, especially for creating decorations that are resistant to humidity.

Isomalt decorations

In a saucepan, pour 1 bag of isomalt (250g) and 50g water.

Heat the isomalt and water over medium heat, up to 150-160°C. Monitor the temperature with a thermometer.

Once the right temperature is reached, pour the isomalt onto a silicone mat. I recommend sliding a baking sheet underneath so you can move it easily afterwards.

Let it cool for about 1 hour at room temperature until it becomes brittle.

Once the isomalt is completely cooled, break it into shards using a small rolling pin.

Do not try to break it by hand as this could cause injuries.

Once the isomalt decorations are ready, we can fill the cupcakes.

Filling

To easily fill our cupcakes, we will first hollow out their center using a cupcake corer.

To do this, insert the corer into the center of the cupcake while making a rotating motion, until you reach the bottom. Carefully remove the corer, making sure the extracted piece stays inside. Use the pusher to extract the content.

Cut the extracted piece in half and place one half at the bottom of the cupcake.

Keep the other half, as we will use it to close the cupcake afterwards.

For this recipe we chose to use ready-made creamy caramel to simplify the preparation. :-)

If you prefer to make homemade caramel, check out our salted butter caramel recipe. Make sure to prepare it in advance. ;-)

Pour the jar of caramel into a piping bag and fill the cupcakes up to 3/4.

Take the remaining inner piece, cut it in two and place it on top of the caramel to close the cupcake.

The leftover piece won't last long before being eaten. ;-)

Finally, we will make a mascarpone whipped cream to decorate the cupcakes.

Mascarpone whipped cream

In a large bowl, pour 300g heavy cream and 150g mascarpone.

Add 45g icing sugar and whip everything into a firm whipped cream.

Place a 1M nozzle in a large piping bag. Pipe a beautiful mascarpone whipped cream rosette on each cupcake.

For a bloody decoration, grab a tube of red iridescent ready-to-use icing.

Apply a little red icing onto the isomalt shards.

Insert the isomalt shards into the mascarpone whipped cream. To perfect the terrifying effect, add icing both on the isomalt and the mascarpone whipped cream.

I recommend inserting the isomalt no more than 3 hours before serving. Otherwise it may melt when stored in the fridge.

And there you have it, bloody Halloween cupcakes that will make your guests shiver! ;-)

They will keep for 2 days in the fridge in a cupcake box.

I hope you enjoy this recipe!

Have a wonderful Sunday, food lovers!

P.S.: All the equipment used can be found at the bottom of the recipe.