These Graveyard Cupcakes are TRIPLE the chocolaty fun. Chocolate cupcake, with chocolate ganache nestled inside,topped with chocolate frosting and a spooky Milano cookie decorated like a tombstone, these cupcakes are festive, fun and perfect for Halloween!
My girls are always the highlight of Halloween night, to trick or treating children who visit our house. This year Boy and I are debating what to dress our girls up as. Keeping in mind we have a big dog (Husky) and a little dog (Cairn Terrier), we thought of: The Big Bad Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood, Chewbacca and an Ewok, or A Pirate and Booty. What do you guys think? We can’t decide.
Then there are Boy and I’s costumes… undecided there too. More than likely we will go as ourselves. I will be the crazy lady covered in flour and miscellaneous crumbs of food, from recipe development in the kitchen and photography shoots. He will be the (handsome) man with furry children, who has free candy to give out.
But who knows, we might dress up as Morticia and Gomez and dress the girls as Wednesday and Cousin Itt. This would be kinda perfect because:
We’re creepy and we’re kooky
Mysterious and spooky,
We’re all together ooky,
The Bany Family….
Da-Nuh-Nuh-Nuh *snap snap*
Da-Nuh-Nuh-Nuh *snap snap*
(Please tell me you know what movie/tv show I am referencing here)
With all this indecisiveness going on around here, it is nice to have at least ONE thing decided and agreed upon. We mutually agree and insist that you all should make these little morsels of scary good, chocolaty love, Graveyard Chocolate Cupcakes, for your family. And neighbors. And co-workers. And people you may not even like… because everyone deserves these cupcakes in their life.
Because you can’t celebrate Halloween without chocolate, by the cupcakeful, these Graveyard Cupcakes are TRIPLE the chocolaty fun. You have a chocolate cupcake, with chocolate ganache nestled inside, and topped with chocolate frosting. You drooling yet? Who in their right mind could say ‘No’ to these?!
Okay, you got me… I can. But only because I have to, darn chocolate allergy. Even though I knew trying a bite of these would cause my throat to close, I had a very hard time resisting the urge. I literally had to slap my own hand and say “NO, Chey”. If that wasn’t bad enough, watching Boy slowly bite into the first (second, third and so on) cupcake… it was a very strange and cruel form of torture.
Per Boy’s description, these Graveyard Cupcakes are moist and dense, yet soft and airy. The ganache filling and frosting are creamy, rich, decadent and everything a chocolate cupcake should be.
If you read my last Halloween post, Mumm-eenies, you know I never got a chance to deliver those to my culinary Halloween muse, my niece. Rest assured, this Aunt made it up to her with these! She gave them two, smothered and covered in graveyard cupcake crumbs and ganache, thumbs up.
If Boy and Ashlynn give it their seal of approval, then they must be good (too bad I’ll never find out for myself). I wish I could pat myself on the back for developing the recipe for these, but I cannot. I adapted it from Cook’s Illustrated . They deserve the credit and round of applause for the cupcake portion. I’ll take the credit for the adaptation and creativity of turning them into Graveyard Cupcakes though. 🙂
With that said, I give you permission, and encourage you, to kill some of your loved ones with chocolate filled kindness… in the spirit of Halloween. Hope you all enjoy! Happy Halloween!!
-xoxo-
Cheyanne
- Filling:
- 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate , finely chopped*
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoon confectioner’s sugar
- For the Cupcakes:
- 3 ounces bittersweet chocolate , finely chopped*
- ⅓ cup cocoa powder
- ¾ cup hot coffee
- ¾ cup bread flour
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons white vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Frosting:
- 1¼ cups unsalted butter , at room temperature
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- ¾ cup cocoa powder
- Pinch salt
- ¾ cup light corn syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 8 ounces milk chocolate (can substitute semisweet or dark), melted** and cooled
- Graveyard Decoration:
- 12 Oreos Cookies (cookie portion only)*** – crushed
- 12 Milano cookies
- Black Decorative Icing
- Orange Decorative Sugar or Sprinkles
- Make the Ganache Filling: Place the chopped chocolate, heavy cream and powdered sugar in a small bowl. Heat in the microwave on high power until the mixture is warm to the touch, 20 to 30 seconds. Whisk until smooth, then refrigerate until just barely chilled, no longer than 30 minutes.
- Make the Cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a standard-size muffin pan with liners. Place the chopped chocolate and cocoa powder in a medium bowl. Pour the hot coffee over the mixture and whisk until smooth. Refrigerate mixture for 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl; set aside.
- Whisk the oil, eggs, vinegar and vanilla extract into the cooled chocolate mixture until smooth. Add the flour mixture and whisk until smooth.
- Divide the batter evenly between the muffin pan cups. Pour one heaping teaspoon of ganache filling in the center, on top, of each cupcake. Bake until the cupcakes are set and just firm to the touch, 17 to 19 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through cook time.
- Cool the cupcakes in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then remove the cupcakes from the pan and place on the wire rack to cool completely, about 1 hour.
- While the cupcakes are cooling, make the frosting: In a food processor, process the butter, sugar, cocoa powder and salt until smooth, about 30 seconds, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the corn syrup and vanilla extract and process until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Scrape the sides of the bowl, then add the chocolate and pulse until smooth and creamy, 10 to 15 one-second pulses.
- Make the Graveyard Decorations: Using black decorative icing, with a “pen” sized hole or attachment, write desired “graveyard message” on cookie. Set aside and continue with remaining cookies.
- To Decorate: Frost the cupcakes with desired amount of frosting. Sprinkle crushed Oreo cookies overtop of frosting. Garnish with sprinkles, if using. Gently insert a ‘graveyard’ into the cupcake frosting, slightly off from the center, with the writing facing forward.
Inactive Time: 30 minutes
--Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated
*The chocolate can easily be finely chopped in the food processor
**To easily melt chocolate: Place chocolate in a microwave safe bowl and microwave at 50% power for about 1 ½ - 2 minutes, stirring ½ way through cook time.
***For Oreo Cookie Garnish: gently twist top cookie apart from filling and bottom cookie. Use top plain cookie only. Either eat filling and bottom cookie, or put two filling and cookie bottoms together to make a double stuffed Oreo and place back in the container to eat later.
-The frosted cupcakes can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Adam says
December 8, 2014 at 3:57 pmThis cupcakes are so good looking that I’d consider eating without a fork.
Cheyanne Bany says
December 9, 2014 at 8:25 amAdam, Lol… they are good, no fork and all 😉
Brie says
October 27, 2014 at 9:17 amI like Big Bad Wolf and lil Red Riding Hood
Cheyanne Bany says
October 27, 2014 at 1:01 pmMe too! Great minds!