One Last Nightmare Before Christmas

 As Baketober draws to a close, I knew I needed to create one last Nightmare Before Christmas, so to speak.You could argue literally everything about this year has been one big fat nightmare before Christmas, so my final spooky bake is firing on all cylinders, really...if you've got it, haunt it, I say. Many years ago when I first got into baking, I was commissioned to make a Jack Skellington birthday cake for a friend. To this day, it remains my most popular Pinterest creation, and every October, the repins go off the charts. I have come a long, long way since I made that cake in 2014, so I wanted to give old Jack an even more handsome cake countenance...

He is a witch's fondest dream, after all.

Quick-witted, legs-for-days, tune-carrying Jack Skellington with that wicked crooked smile always has been one of my favorite leading men, what can I say. My newest tribute to the Pumpkin King comes in the form of an orange creamsicle cake, and it is to die for...you could say I'm gonna be goblin up this cake with reckless abandon. Compared to Oogie Boogie's rich black velvet cake tribute, this cake is extremely light and almost summery...Jack would allow it since it means exploring other holidays like 4th of July World (pretty sure that wasn't a door in the movie, but you get my point). It has extremely refreshing bursts of orange flavor in an airy sponge cake with a tangy and sweet cream cheese frosting. It most definitely tastes exactly like an orange creamsicle in cake form, so mission accomplished, and at only 229 calories a slice (10 slices total), bone appetit, everyone, it's completely guilt free.

Orange you glad to see such easy ingredients?

Seriously, this is a very quick and easy cake recipe, I promise. All you need to make the cake layers are:

• 1 box sugar free yellow cake mix
• 3 egg whites
• 3/4 cup fresh-squeezed orange juice (I needed 2 large oranges)
• 1/2 cup of fat free or 2% skim milk (I use Fairlife fat free)
• 1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1-2 teaspoons orange extract (I used 2, and I love that there's no mistaking this is an orange-flavored cake)
• 1 box of sugar free orange Jell-o (they come in tiny boxes, but you really only need 1)

Preheat your oven to 325 and grease 3 6-inch round pans with cooking spray and bake even strips. Dump all your ingredients into a stand mixing bowl, blending on low for 30 seconds, then bump the speed up to medium-high for 2 minutes. Thanks to the orange Jell-o, you don't need to add any food coloring to make this cake pop with orange coloring. 

Now, evenly pour your batter between all 3 pans.

Bake at 325 for 25-28 minutes, until a toothpick comes out of each cake round clean. Leave your cakes in the pan on top of a cooling rack for 10 minutes so they're easier to handle. Then, with the help of some tea towels, flip each round out of the pan and leave on the cooling racks to finish cooling completely. I placed mine into the fridge to speed this process up. If you don't have bake even strips, you will probably need to level your cakes once they're fully cooled.

Orange like a Pumpkin King should be!

Now, there are a few things to accomplish while those cakes cool:

1. Make chocolate skulls.
2. Cut out Jack Skellington's face.
3. Mix and try not to eat all the orange cream cheese frosting.

I will use these skull molds for any and all reasons I can come up with.

I have a detailed account of how to make these skulls in this blog post from last Halloween. Head there to get the specifics!

And say hello to my little friends.

I believe I made 20 of these skulls for Jack's "crown," and only used 14. I made these last week and kept them in a single layer in a Tupperware at room temp. I actually hate the way chocolate melts taste, so I don't ever eat these (they also add 13 calories a pop to the calorie count above), but damned if I don't love how absolutely creepy they look.

Once again, I did not cut off a finger, X-acto knife win!

Much like Oogie, I used an X-acto knife and a template on Parchment paper to create Jack's face. I found this pumpkin carving template online, resized it to fit my cake (I used Canva to resize it, but you could copy and paste into Word or Paint and scale the size up or down as needed), and with the help of my X-acto knife and a cutting mat, I cut out what was needed:

I can't say no to a devilish smile.

I actually did this twice, because Jack's face is on two sides of my cake, so no matter what angle he's sitting at in my fridge, he's smiling at me every time I open it. I'm almost as love-struck as Sally.

Ah black cocoa, we meet again.

No, this isn't a black cocoa cream cheese frosting for the third blog in a row. Sort of...part of the frosting that needed to be black is, but the vast majority of the frosting is a plain orange cream cheese icing. To make, you need:

• 1/2 cup low fat butter 
• 8 ounces reduced fat cream cheese
• 1 tsp orange extract
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (optional: omit this and use 2 tsp orange extract if you want more orange flavor)
• 4 cups of Lakanto powdered monkfruit sweetener
• 3 tsp of skim milk, divided
• 1 TBS black cocoa
• Orange and black gel dyes
• Orange Spooky Sprinkles 
• 3 piping bags
• 1M or 2D piping tip

Start by mixing the butter and cream cheese on medium high for 2-3 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add in 2 cups of Lakanto, orange and vanilla extracts, and blend on low until fully mixed. Then add in the remaining 2 cups of Lakanto and 2 tsp of milk. Blend fully, and then take a heaping amount of frosting (I used 10 ounces), and set it aside in a medium bowl. Once this is done, add several dollops of orange gel dye to the frosting left in the stand mixer bowl. Mix well, and turn your attention back to the reserved frosting. Add the black cocoa, final teaspoon of milk, and some black gel dye to this, mixing by hand. Now, we're ready to assemble!

It smelled like a citrus factory at this point.

Put your first layer of cake face down on a cake board. Add a decent layer of frosting to the top of it smooth out, and repeat with the next layer. Add the final layer on top, then cover the cake completely in orange cream cheese frosting. Be sure to reserve some orange frosting for the swirls on top. I ended up with a bunch of leftover frosting (both orange and black), and I have it in Ziplocks in the freezer for the next time I just need to eat frosting and nothing else (I refuse to believe I'm the only person who does this).

EVERYTHING. GETS. SPRINKLES.

Once you've smoothed out the sides and top of the cake, very carefully pour the orange sprinkles on top, using light pressure with your fingers to get it to stick in place. This is a crusting frosting, so you can use the paper towl trick to smooth out imperfections once you've chilled your cake for 30 minutes.

I'm ahead of the carve here...

...you will need to chill it for 30 minutes anyway to help your black frosting layer from mushing into the orange completely. Once my 30 minutes was up, I smoothed out a few areas and then placed my templates on each side of the cake. I used a paintbrush and some small palette knives to make sure no edges of the template were sticking up. This will keep frosting from leaking through to the rest of the cake, so do not skip this step. I got sidetracked at some point (it was by food), so I put my cake back in the fridge for 15 minutes and came back to it to do my painting:

I am a messy artiste.

With the cake chilled, now you can use a small angled spatula or small palette knives to brush the black frosting over the template. You will want to use a bench scraper or the side of the angled spatula to smooth out this layer of frosting so it is evenly distributed and the layering isn't wonky.

A scare is born...

Once you've evened out the black frosting, carefully peel away your template, revealing the one and only Jack Skellington. You could call it a day, but I'm extra, so I wanted to give him a skull crown, too.

This is Halloween, everybody make a scene!

I placed my remaining orange frosting in one piping bag and the black in another. Then in a larger piping bag fitted with a 1M tip, in both of these bags went. I piped out a few dollops on a paper towel until the colors were both coming out evenly.

Spooookkkkyyyyy!

I simply piped stars around the top of the cake, but honestly, there's enough frosting to do larger swirls if you'd like.

Don't forget about my little friends.

Then I gently placed a skull into the top of each star.

And all was frightful.

And more sprinkles. Because it's me.

...and also because I forgot to clean off my cake board after frosting, so I wanted to hide some blotchy orange and black stains, and sprinkles are a great way to do this. While the outside of the cake is ORANGE (it might even glow in the dark?), the inside is a bit more subdued:

A nice, mellow orange. Sorry for the flashback, my photo takes potato-quality photos in evening light.

I'm giddy with delight at how cool this cake looks. It's a huge departure in style from the cake a novice baker tried her hand at 6 years ago. I enjoy baking in October so much because I can let my inner Wednesday Addams shine and come up with creepy cool cakes I'd love to bake every month, but I realize it wouldn't be as fun or unique if I did this ALL THE TIME. And in a year as useless as Halloween Town's mayor, it's been a ton of fun to have something to actually look forward to...especially when the end result is a delicious citrusy-orange cake with a heavenly smooth cream cheese frosting that I'm sad I have to share, but my husband definitely deserves cake after making it through shoulder surgery earlier this week *and* being married to my spooky self (he's gotta deal with all this spookiness 365 days a year). I'm already churning out new ideas for next October because I truly can't help myself. 'Til next time, my fellow eaters!

"And I just can't wait until next Halloween 'cause I've got some new ideas that will really make them scream..."

"Well, Well, Well, What Have We Here?"

I think we're all painfully aware at this point that 2020 is pretty much a sack filled with horrors (all things considered, I'm extremely glad murder hornets didn't become a bigger problem). I also happen to be a huge fan of another stitched up sack of gross curiosities- Oogie Boogie from Nightmare Before Christmas. I found myself singing "Oogie Boogie's Song" last week and realized that it's probably THE theme song for this year...for a multitude of reasons. Anyway, when a giant sack filled with worms and spiders tells you to watch out, you should definitely take heed. And while Jack Skellington will always own my heart (no, it's not weird that I have a lifelong crush on a cartoon skeleton- he's suave, creative, and smartly dressed), I feel like if any year deserves to be the year of the Boogie Man, it's this one.

This is not filled with spiders--just topped with them. Big difference.

Guys, it could realistically be none more black than this...and that's thanks to the magic ingredient: black cocoa powder. I can finally give you a visual reference to the color of my heart and soul, and it's thanks to chocolate. This is both the definition of irony and totally appropriate. This black velvet cake and tribute to the Oogie Boogie Man is filled with black cocoa powder both in the cake and in the chocolate cream cheese frosting (I am addicted to it). It tastes EXACTLY LIKE A GIANT OREO. I am convinced the folks at Nabisco have been harboring this as a secret, but black cocoa gives a richness that truly tastes exactly like everyone's favorite sandwich cookie--except mine is in cake form (and gluten free), making it at least 75% better than an Oreo. It's also only 280 calories a slice (9 slices total), or the equivalent of a meager 4 Oreo cookies. Black velvet cake is now a staple recipe in this house.

The hardest part of baking this cake is finding black cocoa powder.

It's awesome that this is so easy to throw together because I'm going to need to make one of these a month until I die. You need:

• 1 1/4 cups Lakanto monkfruit or Swerve Granular
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
  
• 2 eggs at room temp
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
  
• A dash of salt
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup + 2 TBS buttermilk (omit the 2 TBS if you're using regular flour; the gluten free flour needs a little more moisture)
• 1/2 cup of hot water (I used my Keurig to brew hot water, but a sauce pan or microwave will work)
• 1/2 cup of black cocoa (link above to purchase on Amazon) 
• 1 1/2 cups of Bob's Red Mill 1:1 Gluten Free Flour Blend (or All Purpose if you're fortunate enough to not have a stomach that revolts near bread)

Start by preheating your oven to 350 and greasing two 8-inch round or square pans and lining with Parchment paper...I tried making this in only one 8-inch square pan, and it took forever to cook and my edges got dry and crumbly, so definitely split this into two pans. Blend the applesauce and sugar on medium-high in a stand mixer for 2-3 minutes, until the mixture looks a little fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, blending til fully incorporated. Then add in the extract, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.

While things are mixing together, in a separate bowl, whisk together the hot water and buttermilk. Then whisk in the black cocoa powder until absolutely no lumps remain. Measure out your flour in another bowl.

Now, add 1/3 of the flour to your stand mixer bowl, blending until fully mixed in. Scrape the sides of the bowl, then add 1/2 of the cocoa mix, blending on low so you don't make a huge mess. Scrape the sides of the bowl, then add another 1/3 of flour, blend, then the remaining 1/2 of the cocoa mix, blend, and finish with the last of the flour. Mix until things have come together nicely on medium-high. Pour into your 2 prepared pans.

See, same color as an Oreo.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, testing with a toothpick. If you only have a few crumbs, remove from the oven. If the toothpick is still very wet with batter, continue baking another 3-5 minutes. Keeping the cakes in the pans, place onto a cooling rack for 10 minutes before running an angled spatula or dull knife around the edges of the pan before turning out on the cooling racks to cool completely. I placed my cake in the freeze for 15 minutes before leveling since it domed up on me (again, too much batter for one single pan, don't make the same mistake).

It looks a little sad with half of its head cut off, but look at that black cocoa magic!

Now, set this aside to finish cooling completely while you make what is, quite literally, the best chocolate frosting that ever existed.

Seriously, my only regret is it took 33 years to find out about black cocoa powder.

For the blackest of black, so-dark-it-could-be-an-endless-void cream cheese frosting, you need:

• 8 ounces reduced fat cream cheese at room temp
• 1/2 cup of light butter at room temp (I used Land O Lakes)
• 4 cups of Lakanto powdered monkfruit (or regular powdered sugar if you aren't watching your intake)
  
• 1/2 cup of black cocoa powder
• 1 TBS of vanilla
• 2-3 TBS skim milk
• Black and lime green gel dyes

You're going to be splitting this frosting up to dye two different colors, so keep that in mind. Begin by mixing the cream cheese and butter together until fluffy, for about 3 minutes. Add in 2 cups of powdered monkfruit, mixing on low at first to avoid an explosion, then switch to medium-high until blended. Add in the vanilla extract and remaining powdered monkfruit, blending well. Now, take about 1/3 of the frosting and put it aside in a bowl, this will need to get several drops of  lime green gel dye mixed into it for Ooogie Boogie. Cover with a paper towel until ready to use. Now, turn your attention back to the rest of the frosting. Add in the black cocoa powder and at least 2 TBS of skim milk to thin this out so it is a spreadable consistency. Mix well, and if you see it's still incredibly thick (hard to stir with a spatula by hand), add another TBS of skim milk. Then add in a few drops of black gel dye to make this frosting so black you could lose an entire coven of witches in it. Now, on to the knives!

It's a Boogie Man cake, of course we're going to play with knives to create it.

A face only Lock, Shock, and Barrel could love.

For my Oogie Boogie, I sketched him out on Parchment paper with the help of an Oogie Boogie pumpkin carving template sized down to fit the top of my cake. You're also going to need an X-acto knife, scissors, fun Halloween sprinkles (Spooky Sprinkles!), and either a few palette knives or angled spatulas to make Oogie, boogie, to life. I really wanted to use some gummy worms with this cake, but I could only find Trolli's, and they look absolutely NOTHING like real worms, so consider me very disappointed. Sorry, Oogie.

He's no Jack Skellington, but he's a handsome devil in his own right.

Put your template down on a cutting mat or board, and use the X-acto knife to cut out his mouth, eyes, and the inside of the O'S and the G. Save these pieces!! You need them later. You also need to cut out the rest of the letters, but you don't need to keep these. Also cut out his silhouette (I used scissors because I considered it extremely fortunate I hadn't lost the tip of a finger to the X-acto at this point). You should pretty much have a reverse image:

"You're jokin', you're jokin'
I can't believe my eyes!"

You can set this aside while you frost the completely cooled cake with the blacker-than-a-black-hole portion of frosting. Since you'll have two layers, place one layer down on a cake board before spread a decent amount of frosting on the top of it, then add the second layer, and completely cover the entire cake in the black frosting. You'll probably use all of the black frosting (and will lick the bowl for the rest). This does crust, so if you want to smooth it out with the paper towel trick, you totally can. I kept things a little messy because this is a cake tribute to a creature that vomits worms, so neatness was not my concern.

Time to get sprinkly!

Now, place your cake on a large baking tray so you don't get sprinkles EVERYWHERE. I cleaned my house the day after I made this, and not gonna lie, I found sprinkles in a 100-foot radius of my kitchen, but I sprinkle with gusto.

I needed a bigger tray, apparently.

I used a Halloween mix of sprinkles, all by Wilton and found at a craft store. I used a mix of black, purple, and green sprinkles, pouring a handful into my palm before gently pressing on the sides of the cake. Once I was done with that, I came back in and gently placed skull sprinkles at the top of the border:

I mean, look at that frosting. Black velvet, indeed.

Once you're done making a mess your dogs will be so happy to help you clean up, place your template on top of the cake.

I was giddy with delight at this point.

I used toothpicks to help nail down my template, and to help me keep track of where the smaller pieces like the eyes, mouth, and insides of the letters were placed on my cake. I also used a paintbrush and an angled spatula to push my template down into the frosting a bit. You just want to make sure there are ZERO gaps (ah Zero, easily the best character of Nightmare Before Christmas). I put my cake in the fridge for 30 minutes to allow my black frosting to crust up so it wouldn't bleed too much into the green.

I think I also found the Nickelodeon slime recipe?

Using a very skinny palette knife, I slathered a thick layer of green frosting over OOGIE, only marginally spreading to even it out. Again, a sack of horrors cake does not require smoothed perfection, but if you're feeling twitchy about that, use an angled spatula to swipe everything perfectly even...I will always make an exception for OCD.

Definitely slime. The jig is up, Nick.

Come back in with more green frosting and gently spread over the rest of Oogie's body, eyes, and mouth. You want to apply minimal pressure while you're spreading out the green frosting so you don't disrupt the template. Now comes the terrifyingly fun part!

Oh we're getting spooky, alright.

Using the toothpicks, gently wiggle the templates straight up and away so as not to disturb the green frosting. I also used a very pointy palette knife to help with larger pieces. Repeat until you unmask the Boogie Man in all his grotesque glory:

Oh heeeyyyy, nightmare fuel.

I ended up not using the Trolli's since they looked more like pencils than worms, but if you can find real gummy worms, you could stick one coming out of Oogie's mouth, and then spread some around the top of the cake. I ended up using the leftover green frosting to outfit Oogie in his second favorite critter, spiders.

He needs them to bake a special batch of his snake and spider stew.

I put a coupler on a piping bag, filled it with my green frosting, and alternated between a round 12, 5, and 2 tip to make my spiders. Starting with the #12 tip, I piped little circular blobs around the cake.

Only in the month of October do I condone "spidering" your baked goods.

Switch over to the #5 tip, then add little blobs in front of the body to make the spider's head.

But wait, there's gore more!

To finish, switch to the #2 tip and pipe 8 little legs on each spider in straight-ish lines.

He's...cute?

To make them less terrifying (I have to eat this cake after all, and I HATE SPIDERS), I used little individual sprinkles to give my spiders TWO, ONLY TWO eyes. They're far less shiver-inducing with only two ojos and not eight. Although I do admire the symmetry of having eight legs and eight eyes, this is where my respect for spiders ends.

Oh, good sir, you are delightfully awful.

I am SO happy with a multitude of things about this cake: it is so black it could use a nightlight, Oogie is so creepy he could spring off the cake to gamble with you (or your life), and it tastes like the world's greatest Oreo. *Insert any color* velvet cakes are always so dense, and this is definitely no exception. I don't make velvet cakes often since I do prefer a lighter sponge, but since this cake tastes exactly like an Oreo, it pairs excellently with a glass of milk to wash it down. I went on and on in the last blog about a regular chocolate cream cheese frosting, but black cocoa powder makes that batch the poor man's chocolate cream cheese frosting for sure. This is silky, creamy, and deeply chocolately. It isn't like a light cocoa vs dark cocoa flavor; black cocoa frosting is not at all bitter like a bar of dark chocolate. It gives a real richness that pretty much makes the frosting and cake party on your taste buds. Since trick-or-treating is probably out this year (the true horror here is 2020, not my terrible puns), you could just make this cake instead and reluctantly share it with your children. Definitely keep your cake in the fridge for as long as it lasts to keep the cream cheese frosting firm.

I, on the other hand, refuse to share.

I had to put a few slices in the freezer while my husband is out of town this week...there's no way it would still exist anywhere else but in my stomach if I didn't, and I want him to have the giant Oreo cake experience because although I am evil, I'm not mean...there is a difference. It's the thinnest of lines, but even villains have their moments of kindness. You know, like when Oogie didn't actually kill Santa Claus. He just sang about how he wanted to instead; see, thin line. 'Til next time my fellow eaters!

If I eat another slice, "I might just split a seam..."

Owl About Cupcakes

 It's October, which means I can be as creepy and weird as I want and it's just considered festive, unlike the rest of the year when my dark sense of humor and love of the color black are totally lost on most. After suffering through 2020, it's possible to be dead inside but still really excited about something, and for me, nothing brings greater joy than Halloween baking. Ghouls just wanna have fun, after all. I decided I wanted to make some cupcakes that were fun Halloween-y and not flat out creepy. You know, starting by gingerly getting my feet wet (or webbed?), but don't worry, your Hallow-queen has some tricks up her sleeve later this month. For now, take a look at these adorable black forest cupcakes with chocolate cream cheese frosting!

You could say I'm owl about how cute these are.

Aren't these an absolute hoot? I am trying so. hard. to reel in the terrible puns, but these just bring me so much happiness. They are cute but also slightly spooky, and a dozen owls make up my parliament. The other dozen cupcakes were supposed to be bats, but Oreo's prove to be extremely hard to separate while retaining pretty cream-side canvases, so before I was driven, well, completely batty by trying and failing at getting Oreos to play nice, I busted into my spooky sprinkle collection (it is large) and did simple swirls topped with ghosts and skulls. I love how they all turned out, and I assume these would be easy to make as a family with the kids for a fun treat. I mean, I have the same willpower around Reese's and Oreo's as a six year old, and I only ate a third of my body weight in candy while making these. Good thing they're VERY low cal (the owls are 191 calories each; the swirls are only 118 calories each). I swear, all treats, no tricks, with this recipe...these are a rich devil's food cake filled with sweet cherries and finished with a tart chocolate cream cheese frosting. They are to die for *cue evil laughter.*

But unlike most evil villains, I have no long, convoluted plan. These are SO easy to make.

For the black forest cupcakes, you'll need:

• 1 box of sugar free devil's food cake mix
• 3 egg whites
• 1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce
• 1 1/4 cup of fat free milk
• 1 1/4 cup of lite cherry pie filling (about half a can)

Preheat your oven to 325 and line two muffin tins with festive Halloween cupcake liners (not optional). Dump the cake mix, whites, applesauce, and milk in a stand mixer, and blend on medium-high for 2 minutes. Once well mixed, use a large cookie scoop to plop one and a half spoonfuls into each cupcake liner. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out of the center clean, then still in the tin, place on the counter for 5 minutes before removing to completely cool on a cooling rack. 

Your house will smell sinfully delicious.

You want to let these get pretty cool before coring and adding the cherries, so plop into the fridge for a half hour to speed things up. A speedy spooky timeline is a real must for busy witches like me.

Now, get ready to core!

Take a large frosting tip (I used a 1M), and gently press into the center of each cupcake, twisting until you get about 75% of the tip into the center of the cupcake. Remove, and you should have a decent hole for burying the bodies for the cherry filling.

They do look a little sinister and murdery this way. 10/10 would haunt.

I used a 1/2 TBS to scoop cherries and plop into the center of each cupcake. They should hold about 3-4 cherries each. Once done, you can try to put the cupcake cores back in, save for cakepops, or eat by the handful (you'll never guess which one I chose...). Place your cupcakes into the fridge so the filling can firm up while you make your frosting.

This recipe is a game changer.

Chocolate cream cheese frosting might not be the traditional black forest cake topper, but this just works on so many levels. Super easy to throw together (more time for eating cupcake core remnants), all you need is:

• 1/2 cup of reduced fat butter at room temp
• 8 ounces of reduced fat cream cheese at room temp
• 4 cups of Lakanto powdered monkfruit sweeteneer
• 1/2 cup of cocoa (dark cocoa would probably also be fang-tastic)
• 1 TBS of vanilla extract
• If needed, 1 TBS of skim milk to thin out for decorating
• Brown gel dye (optional)
  

Whip the butter and cream cheese together for 3 minutes until fluffy. Add in half of the monkfruit sweetener and the vanilla, blending well. Add in the cocoa, the rest of the sweetener, and milk if you're piping and not just slathering these on top of the cupcakes. I also added several drops of brown gel dye to get the owls a little closer in color to the Oreo's. Mix well, but be careful not to over mix or it will thin out the cream cheese frosting. If this happens, just pop it into the fridge for 30 minutes to firm back up before frosting.

Thanks to this recipe, I now have enough candy to build a house in the woods with to lure children to their impending doom.

To make the owls, you will need Reese's pieces or M&M's, Oreo mini, and regular Oreo's.

Each owl will need the cream side of 2 Oreo's, two Reese's of the same color for eyes, one orange Reese's for a nose, and 1 side of a mini Oreo for eyebrows? Eyebrow feathers? You know what I mean.

Those eyes look as confused as I am right now.

Put the Reese's gently on the cream side of each Oreo, then snap a mini Oreo in half, and grab those cupcakes from the fridge. I just slathered on a layer of chocolate frosting on top of each cupcake, then placed the eyes about in the middle of the cupcake:

It is the angriest bird. Poor thing has resting owl face.

Drop the orange Reese's a little below the eyes for a beak, and position the mini Oreo's above the eyes to form what we're now calling eyebrow feathers. Let's just say how you position these can make the owl look like "Awww" or "Oh God, it wants to kill me." You could call it here, but I loaded up a piping bag with a #352 leaf tip and piped little feathers. To do this, you want to hold the bag so the piping tip is sideways, and then gently press a little frosting out of the bag while lifting back toward you to form feathers:

Yep, this bird is trying to steal my soul with its rage.

Repeat for as many cupcakes as you'd like, and then store them in the fridge to firm up for an hour before eating. The frosting will crust up a bit, so your owl's feathers will look more defined.

Let's take a look at a finished owl with eyes that say, "I would gladly tell you how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop," and not "I will haunt your every dream."

Look at his ADORABLE LITTLE OWL FACE. For the remaining dozen cupcakes, I used a piping bag fitted with a 1M tip to create a traditional cupcake swirl before topping with Spooky Sprinkles (TM).

Ghosts & Bones (sounds like the next Mumford and Son's album title) for everyone!

I had so much skele-fun putting these last dozen together. Were there sprinkles everywhere? Yes. Any regrets? No. This is why I have dogs to clean my floors.

This owl is also giving me puppy dog eyes.

Try as I might, most of my owls ended up being completely evil.

But at least there's a cherry on topish.

Delicious chocolate cupcake paired with cherry filling? There's a reason chocolate-covered cherries are a thing, and black forest cupcakes remind you exactly why. These aren't too rich or too sweet thanks to the chocolate cream cheese frosting offering a little tang to take the edge off the cherries. Everything is firing on all cylinders in this recipe, so I feel like an evil genius for concocting my first of many Spooktober bakes! It's always nice to get to share my bakes with family and friends, and these are being eaten with much fervor while my parents are visiting this weekend...I froze half to send on my parent's journey up to my brother's house for my niece and nephew, but I can hear those owls screeching my name from the other room, so I better learn to practice some willpower lest I become "the witchy aunt who literally takes candy from children." Never fear, I am just getting started...this blog will be my regular haunt all month long. 'Til next time, my fellow eaters!

I can feel it in my bones--gonna be a great month for baking.