Halloween Trilogy: Mummy Cupcakes

As well as makeup, clothes and sleeping, I also have a passion for baking yummy cupcakes. After scouring Pinterest one year for some halloween treat ideas, I came across some awesome looking mummy cupcakes. The thing I love most about these is that they are so simple to make. Icing can get a little tricky but this is a really simple process that gives amazing, spooky results.

Take a look at the video below if you would like a visual guide on how to make these mummy cupcakes. Or, if you prefer to go it alone, you can just follow the instructions below! 

Vanilla Cupcake Ingredients:

150g (5 oz) Butter

150g (5 oz) Caster Sugar

175g (6 oz) Self-Raising Flour or 175g Plain Flour + 1 tsp Baking Powder

3 eggs

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Buttercream Icing:

140g (5 oz) Butter

280g (10 oz) Icing Sugar

2tbsp Milk or Water

Mummy Decoration:

Rollable White Icing

Black Writing Icing or Black Food Dye

Method:

- Set oven to 180°C (356°F)

- Line a muffin tin or baking tray with 12 cupcake cases.

- Whisk sugar, flour, eggs, butter and vanilla extract in a medium sized bowl until smooth and thick.

- Spoon a tbsp sized amount of mixture into each case and pop them in the oven for 15 minutes.

- Once the cakes are cool to the touch, cut off any peaks that may have formed on the cakes to create a smooth, flat surface.

Buttercream Icing:

- Grab a clean bowl and whisk 140g of butter and 280g icing sugar together, adding the icing sugar a bit at a time to prevent a massive amount of mess. Add in 2 tbsp milk or water, to create a smooth but spreadable buttercream icing.

- Spread on a layer of buttercream icing over the top of each cupcake, it doesn't need to be neat.

Mummy Decoration:

- Cut off a small amount of white rollable icing and start to roll into small white balls to use as the eyes, stick 2 onto each cupcake.

- Take your black writing icing or dyed rollable icing and apply black dots to the centre of each 'eye'. 

- Take another chunk of rollable white icing, flatten it out into a thin layer and cut out strips, sticking them onto the cupcake and working around the eyes. The buttercream needs to be completely covered.

- Cut off any over hanging icing so that the icing fills the cupcake cases.

Don't forget to tweet (@lilacghosts1990) or Instagram me (@lilacghosts1990) pictures of your mummy cupcakes!

Happy Fourth of July From a Brit

As I am of the British persuasion, I can't claim to really know much about the 4th July. All I know is that it is Independence day and our American cousins like to celebrate the fact they broke free from us Englishmen. Despite the fact that I don't celebrate Independence day, I will never pass up an opportunity to make big, thick, American style pancakes for breakfast (purely to show my support of course). 

Luckily I happened to have an array of berries in my fridge that turned out to be red and blue, mixed with a splodge of Greek yogurt and a drizzle of honey and I had semi-patriotic pancakes. This recipe is from the most glamorous female chef alive, Nigella Lawson and they are the best breakfast pancakes I have ever had! They are so thick and fluffy and the stack of yumminess you see in the image was actually only half the batter the recipe makes!

So from here in the UK to all of you Americans, have a great 4th July and I hope you get to watch lots of fireworks and eat lots of food with friends and family. 

If you would like to make Nigella's delicious pancakes you can find the recipe here, if you think you have the best American pancake recipe, then post it in the comments and I'll give it a whirl!