Sunday, November 14, 2010

Halloween Treats Part 2- Ghostbusters Cupcakes


This post is SO late, I'm really sorry. (As soon as I finish it I'm writing up 2 more.)

As previously mentioned, I made these showstopping Ghostbusters cupcakes for our annual Halloween party. Everyone seemed really impresssed, at first by the adorable white chocolate logos and then by the surprise "slime" filling.

The original recipe is here, but of course changes have been made.

I cheated, as much as I love making things from scratch, but then I've got 3 other things to make and the party is quickly approaching, I turn to the boxed cake mix. Boxed cake mix is great, and with the homemade slime filling, no one could tell the difference.

The logos might seem a little daunting (and I wish I had more pictures of steps), but if you give yourself enough time and work slowly, they'll turn out great.

Ghostbusters Logos
(makes 24)
14oz of red candy melts
about a 1lb of white chocolate or white candy melts

Line two trays with parchment paper. Find a smallish cup about the size you want the logos to be. Trace the bottom twelve times onto each sheet with a marker. Flip the pieces of parchment (you don't want to get ink on the chocolate.)
Melt about half of the red candy melts (it's a lot easier to it in batches) in the microwave (30 second intervals will work). (I always use sandwich bags).
Pipe circles onto the parchment, using your tracing as a guide. Then put a slash through each like the Ghostbusters logo.
Let the red circles set completely, if you're impatient put them in the fridge/freezer.

Once they have set, melt some of the white chocolate and pour the chocolate into a pastry bag or a disposable plastic baggie. Fill in both sides of the circles and 4 lines on each side (for the hands). Next to each logo pipe out and fill in a tear drop shaped head. Let everything set up. Then take each of the heads and using a little white chocolate adhere them to the logos.
And that's it.
Now to the cupcakes!
"Slime" Lime Curd Filling
3 eggs
1/3 cup juice from about 8-10 Key limes
1 t. finely grated or chopped lime zest
3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
green food coloring

Combine the lime juice, sugar, and eggs in a metal bowl. Heat up a couple cups of water in a medium saucepan over medium heat, and place the bowl on top of that, heating up the mixture and stirring constantly. Keep stirring until the mixture starts to thicken. Remove the mixture from the heat and immediately pour it into a fine mesh strainer to remove any pulp or eggs that could have curdled. (Never skip straining!)

Stir in the butter and the zest, and then add in a couple drops of green food coloring until you get the desired shade of “Slimer” green. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to cool in the fridge.

Mix up your favorite vanilla boxed cake mix (or if you're feeling ambitious your favorite from scratch batter).

Put cupcake liners in your baking trays and then fill each with 1/3 of the way with cake batter, then add about a teaspoon of the lime curd. Then fill it up with more cake batter, to about the 2/3 mark.

Bake as directed for the cake mix.

Frosting time! The Ghostbusters recipe called for a buttercream frosting, but I felt like using my old standby frosting recipe.

Vanilla Frosting
1 cup of Crisco (vegetable shortening)
6 cups of powdered sugar
a few tablespoons of milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Cream Crisco in mixer and slowly add powdered sugar and vanilla. Add milk to smooth it out then let the frosting whip for a few minutes to get airy.

To assemble the cupcakes, just frost and top with the candy logos.
Drizzle extra lime curd over the cupcakes just before serving.

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