Happy Halloween!

Hey there, Cupcakers!! Looking for a sweet way to get your bake on?! Today is the day - Happy Halloween! Check out all of these week's Cupcakin' It Up blogs for good ideas and see how I executed some of them in yesterday's blog.

This morning, I found myself short on time, and I had to throw cupcakes together. With some sprinkles and left over candy, I was able to decorate these red velvet cupcakes in 10 minutes!

Red velvet is great for Halloween, not only because red velvet is a hot flavor these days but it's also a deep shade of (bloody?!) red! Perfect for this holiday, and, conveniently, Christmas too!

Whether you've been planning your cupcakes for weeks or just decided (maybe while reading this blog!) that you want to whip up a festive batch, making cute Halloween cupcakes is easy and always a crowd pleaser!

Pick Your Poison

BOO!! Three hours later, I bring you Cupcakin' It Up's own creations! It was easy-

INGREDIENTS:
yellow cake
green and yellow food dye
sugar cupcake toppers / bag of candy corn

And a little mix of poison and adorableness makes...











What you can't see here is the green dye that was blended into the batter to create that acidic feel of poison!! Muhahahaha!!

Happy Halloween!! More to come....

Spooky Cupcakes

Happy Halloween Week! Yes, yes, I know I've been MIA since the summer, but work and studying have left me too exhausted to type or bake.... However, I intend to make it up to you in honor of my favorite cupcake holiday! Halloween is such a versatile holiday for cupcakes - you can go gory and spooky or cute and cuddly, AND no matter what you decide (or have laying around in your kitchen!), you will always sweeten somebody's day by baking them!

Today's Halloween cupcakespiration focuses on spooky cupcakes. I myself have three different events that I have to bake for this year and plan to make one batch of spookily disturbing cupcakes, using the Wilton sugar skull and cross bones (right, found at Michael's or Party City) and some festive skull muffin cups (left, also purchased at Michael's). My plan (that I will post to the blog on Friday for those of you who would like to get inspired for Halloween!) is to make yellow cake with green dye dripped down the center and acid-green-colored icing for the top. Will this detour tasters from eating them?! I hope not - but if it does, more for me!! MUHAHA!

Here are some more spooky designs I found from other sites that might give you more good ideas!


Eek! Spiders!! Some black licorice, chocolate sprinkles
and red M&Ms or red hots make these spooky treats easy!


For those skilled with an icing tip and black dye,
these really make a spooky statement!


Ok, so this is arguably adorable - but with some tick-tacks,
marshmellow, and white icing, this can be done.


Christmas come early?! So cute and so easy AND all done with icing!
Or get your Oreo on for the eyes!!

Thing to be wary of... making an eyeball cupcake - I find that seeing it in person is just weird looking. It looks like you tried to make a spider but failed (or maybe that's just my cupcakes! haha). Anyway, these are super cute options to spookify your baked goods!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween, friends!! This morning, I woke up with the urge to bake. The urge to create. The urge to spread some cupcakespiration! As you can see, I created a hodge-podge of some of the inspired designs that I have features in early October - the Owls, made of Oreo eyes and chocolate chip pupils; mummies with white bandages and yellow faces, orange pumpkins, green frankensteins, and some creepy crawlers!

*Hint: at your local target, you can find "sluggy gummies" to use instead of just drawing them like I did.

This is the first year that I don't have any particular plans, and have set up my cupcake tree in the hopes of getting some trick 'r treaters in my building. Or someone to come over and eat my cupcakes!

Have a spooktacular, cupcakefull night!

Real Estate for the Dessert-Lover!

Talk about a room with a BOO! t-hehe! Who says that gingerbread houses are only for Christmas?! With all the cute sugar candies they have these days, the options for sweet Halloween fun are endless. Last year, I thoroughly enjoyed a pack of candied spiders and ghosts on my cupcakes - why not use them on a house? Ghosts deserve, a home too! I felt really inspired by the options I found online recently. Can you image how cute a candy-corn picket fence would be?! Adorable.

Check out some of the sweetest real estate around!


I'm loving the candy corn roof top.
Courtesy of Baking Bites


I think Kit Kat shingles could be equally as delicious...
Courtesy of Savvy Halloween


How about Kit Kat paneling and oreo shingles! YUM!!
Courtesy of About.com


Although I don't see how realistically, one could make the cookie this perfect, I did like that the roof is off-kilter a little bit. You could do that with graham crackers easily!
Courtesy of Solvang Bakery

A Halloween candy house will make an excellent centerpiece at any party table and plus, you must eat the construction scraps after all! It's the green thing to do... ;-)

Leaves change, Cupcakes bloom!

By popular demand from comments on Monday's post... I give you a sneak peak of fall cupcake ideas! Now, I'm not going to do the big super awesome Halloween blitz of the ones that I've discovered quite yet - I mean, it is still September ;-) But, I will give you some cupcake design ideas that will inspire your creativity and tickle your taste buds!


Whooooo is ready for Fall?! These are adorable and so doable with the cashew nose, sliced almond feathers, and chocolate chip eyes! This is truly GENIUS!
Courtesy of Catching Fireflies


What I like about these is the simple, very Fall-neutral pumpkin made with orange sprinkles (conveniently reusable for Halloween with some glitter gel!) as well as the earth-tone flowers. It would be a fun way to play with my new icing tips...


These little pumpkin candies, sold seasonally in grocery stores as well as at Michael's Crafts now, are adorable and can be used in both Thanksgiving and Halloween cupcake designs.
Courtesy of Bee's Treats

Ok, ok, I have little self-restraint when it comes to sharing cute cupcakes... here's a couple of the particularly awesome ones I found!


Talk about arachnophobia! Some black licorice for legs, red M&M minis for eyes, and chocolate sprinkles can make this fear come to life. Yet oddly, it makes me hungry...
Courtesy of Bakerella


I LOVE these mummies!! It looks like they executed the bandages with a thin, long icing tip. Maybe I would do candies for eyes. So cute!!
Courtesy of Le'Gateaux

On to other edible options in the next post! More fun Halloween designs to come! Isn't the holiday season fun?!