Batty For Our Halloween Block Party

In my neighborhood, we love Halloween! We (the kids and the adults) want to prolong the night as long as possible by having several "events." The first part of the evening is a parade around the block. Everyone dons his/her costumes (even the dogs) and noisemakers and joins the parade. Afterwards, we have cupcakes and cookies and get ready for a night of trick-or-treating. For most people, trick-or-treating marks the end of the night, but not for our neighborhood. We block off our street (from cars) so we can continue the night’s festivities, right in the middle of the road. Everyone brings something fun to eat and drink and we bring out the fire pits and apple cider.

This year, my kids want to do "scary" themed activities. They want me to buy zombie gravestones and skeletons for our yard, and make foods that resemble vampires and bats. I’m a little hesitant to buy the goods for the yard (secretly, I don’t like decorating for holidays, I’m a cook, not a decorator). I searched for a scary recipe that would be fun for all of us to make, we could bring it to our Halloween festivities, AND it would taste good!

We decided to make Chocolate Batty Cupcakes. My daughter said they looked, "scary and cute." I thought they looked easy enough for her to make, and I never say no to chocolate.

Since the recipe is really a three-step process (making the cupcakes, then the frosting, then decorating), I decided to do the first two steps while the kids were at school so they could decorate when they got home.

To start the cupcakes, pour the ingredients for the cupcakes into your mixing bowl. Heat your oven to 350°

Stir until all the ingredients are mixed together.

Get your cupcake pans ready and line them with paper liners (I used white, but black or silver would look good too). Don’t worry if the liners don’t stay in place very well. They will be fine when you pour the batter into them.

Pour the batter into the cupcake liners - fill them 2/3rds full. I didn’t measure the batter for this recipe since I didn’t need the cupcakes to be "exactly" the same size.

Put them in your preheated oven and set your timer for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, stick a toothpick or knife into the center of one of the cupcakes. If it comes out clean, remove them from the oven. If there is batter on your toothpick/knife, cook them for another two minutes. Repeat this step until the cupcakes are done.

Let the cupcakes cool for five minutes in the pan.

Remove the cupcakes from the pan and put on a cooling rack. Let the cupcakes cool completely while you make the frosting.

To make the frosting, start by melting the butter in a saucepan.

When the butter is melted, remove from the heat and mix in all other frosting ingredients. Stir well. If the frosting is still a little warm, let it cool before you frost the cupcakes.

Once the cupcakes have cooled and the frosting is ready, gather the rest of the ingredients (and kids) for decorating.

Explain to the kids what each ingredient is and show them where each ingredient should go. Just a warning, they eat the decorations as they work!

To decorate the cupcakes, spread the frosting on the top of each cupcake. Add the chocolate kiss candy to the top of the cupcake, for the bat’s face. Add two drops of decorator gel and then attach red-hot candies to make the bat’s eyes. Put 2 almond slices behind the face for the bat’s ears. To make the wings, spread decorator gel on the long edge of the broken-in-half-cookies (you may need to look at the picture rather than relying on my explanation. This one’s a little hard to write instructions for). Dip the cookies into the non-perils. Add the wings to the bat cupcake. The cupcakes are done!

My daughter was very proud of her "cute but a little scary" cupcakes!

The cupcakes look great for a party!

Since Halloween is a few days away, I can’t show you a picture of this year’s festivities. I can however, show you one from last year (I’m the one with the pink hair) I’m sure there will be more people than last year and I think our cupcakes are going to be a big hit with this crowd!

What do you like to make for Halloween gatherings? Give these Chocolate Batty Cupcakes a try and make sure to rate and review the recipe.

Come back on Halloween when Tami will share a quick meal to serve on Halloween before the trick-or-treating festivities.

Bridget is paid to write for the Recipe Buzz® Blog.