Graveyard Cupcakes
Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate buttercream, cookie crumb soil, a gray cookie tombstone and candy pumpkins.
Recipe in testing: I'm cooking it in my TM7™ and will update the steps and the photo with my own.
A spooky little graveyard on every cupcake: chocolate cake, chocolate frosting, a thick layer of cookie crumb soil and a smooth gray tombstone standing up in the dirt, with candy pumpkins growing around it. The tombstones are left plain, so they look like old weathered stones and the cupcakes stay fun for every age.
The Thermomix® TM7™ grinds the chocolate sandwich cookies into soil in a few seconds, then mixes the chocolate batter in the same bowl without washing it. Later it whips a chocolate buttercream with the butterfly whisk. The tombstones are plain cookies dipped in gray candy coating, melted in the microwave while the cupcakes cool.
Made in the Thermomix® TM7™
Graveyard Cupcakes
Makes: 12 cupcakes
- Prep45 min
- Cook20 min
- Total2 h 5 min
- Serves12
Ingredients
Cookie soil
Chocolate cupcakes
Chocolate buttercream
Tombstones and pumpkins
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) and line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.
- Place the sandwich cookies in the mixing bowl and chop 8 sec/speed 5, until they look like crumbly soil. Transfer to a shallow bowl; there is no need to wash the mixing bowl.
- 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.
- For the tombstones, melt the white and black melting wafers together in a small, dry bowl in the microwave in 30-second bursts, stirring until smooth and evenly gray. Dip each plain cookie, let the extra drip off and lay it flat on parchment paper to set, about 20 minutes.
- 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, cocoa, 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, until fluffy.
- Spread a domed layer of chocolate buttercream on each cupcake, then dip the tops into the cookie soil, pressing gently so the crumbs stick.
- Push a tombstone upright into the back half of each cupcake, about 1 cm (1/2 in) deep, and set 1 or 2 candy pumpkins beside it.
- Serve, or keep the cupcakes in a closed container in the refrigerator and take them out 20 minutes before serving.
Tips
- Candy coating thickens if a drop of water gets in. Keep the bowl and spoon completely dry; if it turns thick anyway, stir in 1/2 tsp of vegetable shortening or coconut oil.
- For extra fun, tuck a gummy worm into the soil so it looks like it is crawling out.
- The cookie soil keeps 1 week in a closed jar, and the tombstones keep 3 days at room temperature, so both can be made ahead.
- Florida heat softens buttercream fast. Decorated cupcakes keep 2 days in the refrigerator; the tombstones soften a little after that.
