Eyeball Cupcakes
Chocolate cupcakes with a bright green buttercream swirl and one big candy eyeball staring out from the top.
Recipe in testing: I'm cooking it in my TM7™ and will update the steps and the photo with my own.
One big eye staring out of a swirl of slime-green frosting: these are the cupcakes kids point at first on a Halloween table. Underneath is a dark, moist chocolate cupcake, and a few sprinkles make it a party. Draw thin red veins on the eyeballs if you want them a little creepier, or leave them clean for the youngest guests.
The Thermomix® TM7™ mixes the chocolate batter, whips the buttercream with the butterfly whisk and tints it lime green right in the bowl. From there it is one swirl and one eyeball per cupcake, so they are quick to finish, even for a whole classroom. Large candy eyeballs are sold in the Halloween and cake decorating aisles.
Made in the Thermomix® TM7™
Eyeball Cupcakes
Makes: 12 cupcakes
- Prep35 min
- Cook20 min
- Total1 h 55 min
- Serves12
Ingredients
Chocolate cupcakes
Buttercream
To decorate
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) and line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.
- Place the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt in the mixing bowl and mix 10 sec/speed 4. Add the egg, milk, oil and vanilla and mix 15 sec/speed 4. Add the hot water and mix 10 sec/speed 3, then scrape the bottom with the spatula; the batter is thin.
- Divide the batter among the liners, about 2/3 full, and bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs. Cool 5 minutes in the pan, then completely on a rack, about 1 hour.
- Wash and dry the mixing bowl. Insert the butterfly whisk, add the butter and whip 2 min/speed 3.5, until pale. Add the powdered sugar, milk, vanilla and salt, put the measuring cup in place and whip 1 min/speed 3, then whip 2 min/speed 3.5, scraping down halfway. Add a little yellow and green gel color and whip 20 sec/speed 3.5, until bright lime green.
- Spoon the buttercream into a piping bag with a large open star tip. Pipe a tall swirl on each cupcake: start at the outer edge, go around twice and lift up in the center.
- If you like, draw thin red veins on the white part of each eyeball with the food marker. Press one eyeball onto the top of each swirl, tilted a little toward the front.
- Scatter a few nonpareils over the green frosting.
- Serve, or keep the cupcakes in a closed container in the refrigerator and take them out 20 minutes before serving.
Tips
- No large candy eyeballs? Make your own: stick a dark candy-coated chocolate in the middle of a round white mint or half a large marshmallow with a dot of frosting.
- For a brighter lime green, add the yellow first, then the green a little at a time.
- Bake the cupcakes a day ahead and keep them in an airtight container at room temperature; frost them on party day.
- Florida heat softens buttercream fast. Decorated cupcakes keep 3 days in the refrigerator in a closed container.
