Witchy Woman Bakes Spooky Cupcakes

Let me set the scene for you..it was the sixth day of October, and almost a full week of spooky Halloween excitement filled the kitchen. "Witchy Woman" played in the background while I was cloaked in black, throwing ingredients into my cauldron, getting ready to put on one heck of a spell. Okay, so the cauldron was my stand mixer's bowl, but everything else is accurately on point. I love getting spooky during October, and I knew like any good (or bad) witch, I needed to concoct a brew that would leave its eaters speechless. And so, witches' brew cupcakes made of sinful devil's food chocolate Guinness Stout with poisoned Baileys buttercream frosting were conjured into existence with the help of a little black magic (read: booze).

It's an "eww" to "aww" situation here.

It's okay be be both slightly repulsed while simultaneously charmed by these cauldron cupcakes. I mean, there's bones and eyeballs floating around...no eye of newt or virgin's blood, so the comic elements bring a unique creepy cuteness into play. I had SO MUCH FUN decorating these (full disclosure: I had the Hocus Pocus rendition of "I Put a Spell on You" pretty much on repeat, and there's no way to have a bad time listening to that). It's actually a truly simple bake from start to finish. I knocked these out in under 2 hours on a Sunday afternoon, where the only thing truly terrifying taking place was the tanking of my fantasy football scores. Thankfully I had these delicious cupcakes, rich with chocolate flavor in a way only Guinness can make possible with the sweet bite of Baileys in the buttercream to soothe the pain. It has been a LONG time since I've made my Guinness chocolate cake recipe, so I had to health-ify it and have the updated recipe below. This makes 24 cupcakes for a mere 194 calories a piece, so you're welcome in advance because this is the best chocolate cake recipe to ever exist, and you can't eat just one of these at a time. It's simply not possible.

The only way I'm ingesting Guinness is via dessert.

 I loathe, abhor, detest how Guinness tastes on its own...but in a cake, divine intervention occurs. Trust the baking witch on this one. To make, you need:

• Devil's food cake mix
• 1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 3 egg whites
• 1 cup of Guinness Stout
• 1/4 cup of skim milk
• Black cupcake liners

Preheat your oven to 350 and mix all your cake ingredients together in a stand mixer on medium high for two minutes while you line two muffin trays with cupcake liners (black is a must because it's simply spookier).

And spooky is the name of the game this month.

I use a cookie scoop to scoop one and a half scoops of batter into each cupcake liner. Liners will be a little over halfway full. Be sure to tap the pans on the counter to even out the batter and release air bubbles. Bake for 16 minutes at 350 or until a toothpick comes out *mostly* clean. This is a very moist recipe, so some crumbs are fine. Let rest in the pan on top of a cooling rack for 10 minutes.

Oh yes, you look devilishly delish.

 Remove from the pan and finish cooling completely before frosting. Cupcakes only take about 20 minutes to cool off, so start on your frosting about 15 minutes after you set them out to cool.

My baking Baileys got a workout this weekend.

 Now, this frosting recipe is simple enough, unless you accidentally have an over-generous pour over the mixer and get a bit *too much* Baileys in the mix. I swear this was completely accidental. I was grooving too hard to the music and my tablespoon couldn't handle it. Baileys. Everywhere. To make:

• 1 cup of butter at room temp
• 1 cup of Swerve confectioners
• 3 cups of powdered sugar
• 1 TBS CLEAR vanilla
• 5 actual TBS of Baileys 
• Lime green gel dye

I used less Swerve this time since it was such a small amount of frosting going onto the cupcakes; I find Swerve actually tastes WAY sweeter than regular powdered sugar (another example of strange black magic), so I wanted to trim calories but not too much at the expense of my taste buds that have started to revolt from overly sweet flavors.

Whip the butter for a couple minutes until fluffy then add in the vanilla, two tablespoons of Baileys, and half the sugars. Blend on low until well mixed, then up the speed a bit. Scrape the bowl before adding in the rest of the sugar and three tablespoons of Baileys. Blend and finish up the frosting by adding in a decent amount of lime green gel dye to get a bright, vivid green.

You know, "Wicked Witch of the West" green.

It was about this time during the frosting mix I noticed something odd out of the corner of my eye. Above the blender floated the head of a werewolf...anxiously trying to claw her way to the counter to steal my witches' brew...

Oh hey there, hell hound.

The back of our couch is just beyond the kitchen wall, and apparently, Freyja really liked the way all that boozy Baileys frosting smelled, so she had to jump up there to peek around the corner and check it out for herself. I'm glad I already had my camera out, or I would have been laughing too hard to capture this before she got down (back of the couch is a no-fly zone for the dogs).

My other witching elements.

I also grabbed eye ball sprinkles and a creepy sprinkles mix (both by Wilton and on their website or Amazon or at most craft stores--our A.C. Moore had them). The tips I used for decoration were all round tips: a #12, #5, and #3. I placed half my frosting into a bag fitted with the #12 tip and the other half into a bag with a coupler so I could switch between the #5 and #3 tips as needed.

I started off by piping a small circle of frosting as the base with my #12 tip.

Then I came in with the #5 tip and placed random dots all over the top of this to make large-looking bubbles.

Then I switched out tips on my coupler to the #3 to make tiny little bubbles overlapping the bigger bubbles and cascading down the side of the cupcake/out of the cauldron.

Then I used my food tweezers to place bones, eyeballs, and green sprinkles on top of the cakes for a finishing touch.

NOTHING is finished without sprinkles, people. It's a magical element all baking witches use.

Guys, these are so stinkin' grossly cute and so unbelievably easy to make, that you just HAVE to try it out for yourself to add to the Halloween party dessert table. I would say school Fall Festival, but only if you can share with the teachers and not the students. Those teachers need that Baileys frosting in a way you'll never truly understand unless you yourself are also an educator.

I have an *eye* for decorating.

I am having a blast with these Halloween bakes. I'll be back with one more to top them all before the end of the month. Until then, I froze half of these cupcakes to savor at a later date. I'd keep these chilled in the fridge until about 30 minutes before you're ready to eat, then set out on the counter to soften up just a bit. Something insane happens at close to room temp with that Guinness chocolate cake and that Baileys buttercream frosting. These are my favorite two alcohols to pair together for that reason. The Guinness brings out the chocolate and the Baileys compliments this so well that it's practically, well, magic. The fact that these little babies also look like creepy cauldrons full of evil, bubbling potion is literally the icing on the (cup)cake. Stay spooky, my friends. 'Til next time, my fellow eaters!

Ever get the feeling you're being watched?