Graveyard Cupcakes

I hate cupcakes. Despise them really. I think because I have to make them perfectly. I spend far too long frosting to make sure all of the edges are smooth then run out of frosting before I can complete 12.

Plus, baking them requires far too much time. With only 2 pans of 6 cupcakes each, I can make 12 cupcakes at a time. TWELVE people. That guarantees me a full hour of sitting in front of the oven before they're even all baked. Ugh.... That's why I rarely have a cupcake recipe on my blog and it's only when I'm really feeling ambitious.

And if you ask me, I would give these cupcakes a 2/10. They're sloppy...

But, they're for my kids. And while I try to perfect the art of them, they're also going to feed their little bellies. And while they relish in the idea of a pumpkin candy sitting on a cupcake and a tree made of chocolate, I need to get over myself.

So alas, I will post my sloppy Halloween cupcakes. Hopefully someone finds them useful. And on the upside, they are easy peasy!

You will need:
12-2 1/2 inch chocolate cupcakes, baked and cooled (I used a box mix... shh, don't call the blog police)
1 container vanilla frosting
1 bag of pumpkin shaped candy corn
chocolate wafer cookies
1/2 cup chocolate or chocolate melts, melted

1. Frost prepared cupcakes with a coating of vanilla frosting and set aside. 
2. In a Ziploc bag, crush 10 chocolate wafer cookies (not frosted) and sprinkle the tops of the cupcakes to make it look like "dirt".
3. Fill a piping bag or Ziploc bag with the melted chocolate melts and snip the bottom so the piping will be thin. On a piece of wax piper, pipe of the shape of your trees. I used squiggly lines coming out of the ends, use your imagination here. Place the chocolate "trees" in the fridge to harden.
4. Taking one wafer cookie, use a serrated knife to cut 2 of the ends off of the cookie to make the shape of the grave stone. 
5. Fill a Ziploc bag with a quarter cup of white frosting, snip the end to make a small pipe, and write on your stones. Use your imagination here as well but the words I chose were "RIP", "Boo", and "AH!". Set aside.
6. Once your trees are set, working fast, gently stick a tree into the top of the cupcake, a gravestone into the other side and place a pumpkin candy corn on top.
7. Use your creativity and have fun! (I sometimes forget to do that)

 I hope you enjoy my perfectly imperfect cupcakes this Halloween season! Stay tuned for plenty more Halloween recipes to come..... After all, it is my favorite season!