Ghost Cupcakes
Chocolate cupcakes topped with tall, glossy marshmallow frosting ghosts with little chocolate faces.
Recipe in testing: I'm cooking it in my TM7™ and will update the steps and the photo with my own.
These friendly ghosts are tall swirls of glossy white marshmallow frosting on dark chocolate cupcakes, with two little chocolate eyes and a surprised O for a mouth. Lined up on a table, they look like a crowd of tiny ghosts saying boo, and they are much more sweet than scary.
The frosting is a Swiss meringue made right in the Thermomix® TM7™: the butterfly whisk whips the egg whites and sugar while they heat to 70°C (160°F), then keeps whipping until the meringue is thick and holds tall peaks. It has no butter, so it stays bright white and pipes clean ghost shapes. Pipe it as soon as it is ready.
Made in the Thermomix® TM7™
Ghost Cupcakes
Makes: 12 cupcakes
- Prep40 min
- Cook28 min
- Total2 h 10 min
- Serves12
Ingredients
Chocolate cupcakes
Marshmallow frosting
Ghost faces
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 and butterfly whisk and wipe both with a paper towel dampened with lemon juice or vinegar. Insert the butterfly whisk, add the egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar and whip 8 min/70°C (160°F)/speed 3.5.
- Remove the measuring cup and whip 8 min/speed 4, until the frosting is very thick and glossy and holds tall, stiff peaks. Add the vanilla and whip 10 sec/speed 4.
- Right away, spoon the frosting into a piping bag with a large round tip, about 1.5 cm (5/8 in). Holding the bag straight up, pipe a wide mound that covers most of each cupcake, keep squeezing as you lift to stack a smaller mound on top, then stop squeezing and pull up to shape the ghost's head.
- Press 2 mini chocolate chips, pointed side in, into each ghost for the eyes.
- Melt the semisweet chocolate chips in a small bowl in the microwave in 20-second bursts, stirring each time. Spoon into a small zip-top bag, snip a tiny corner and pipe a little O mouth under the eyes.
- Serve the same day, kept in a cool, air-conditioned room.
Tips
- Marshmallow frosting is at its best the day it is made. In humid weather it turns sticky by the next day, so pipe the ghosts close to the party and keep them in air conditioning rather than the refrigerator.
- Separate the whites from fresh eggs and keep every trace of yolk and fat out of the bowl, or the meringue will not whip up tall.
- Pipe a test ghost on a plate first to find the right pressure, then scrape it back into the bag.
- Bake the cupcakes a day ahead and keep them in an airtight container at room temperature.
