Chocolate Ghost Cupcakes Recipe | Halloween Bakes!

Hello lovelies,

Back in my Cheesecake Graveyard recipe I posted a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that two of Jane Patisseries recipes from her new book ‘Celebrate’ had caught my eye. First being the cheesecake graveyard (https://ellegracedeveson.com/2022/10/09/chocolate-cheesecake-graveyard-recipe-halloween-bakes/) and second being todays bake, these Chocolate Ghost Cupcakes.

The picture of Jane’s meringue ghost cupcakes caught my attention straight away and my baking obsessed soul couldn’t physically let Halloween pass without giving these spooky, yet incredibly cute, ghost cupcakes a whirl myself.

Now, this was my first ever attempt at making italian meringue and I won’t lie, I was nervous AF. Only this year have I finally mastered the french meringue so I honestly didn’t see my first attempt at italian meringue being all that good given my previous history with the french… let’s just say, I couldn’t have been more wrong.

My italian meringue worked out beautifully FIRST TIME (I know, I know, I’m honestly as shocked as you are). I actually found it very easy to make and I can defiantly see why Jane used this meringue to create her ghosts. It’s soft, it’s gooey, it melts in your mouth and tastes ridiculously good – I’m sold, are you?

Anywho, if you couldn’t already tell, todays recipe is completely inspired by Jane’s ghost cupcake recipe which features in her new book. That being said, it wouldn’t be a bake of mine if I hadn’t of added my own little spin onto these cupcakes now, would it?

The addition of chocolate buttercream came to the forefront of my mind when seeing these cupcakes in Jane’s book. Why? I’m not 100% sure. In my mind I thought that the ghosts would stand out more if they where sitting on black coloured buttercream and damn, am I happy that I went ahead and added the buttercream as I truly believe it worked blooming beautifully with this recipe.

So, without further ado, let’s get creating these spooky cupcakes:

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Category: Sweet Treat

Serves: 14

Prep Time: 10 Minutes

Cook Time: 18-20 Minutes

Decorating Time: 30-40 Minutes

Overall Time: 60+ Minutes

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Ingredients You Need For Cupcakes:

• 226g Of Butter / Stork
• 226g Of Caster Sugar
• 4 Large Eggs
• 226g Of Self-Raising Powder
• 30g Of Cocoa Powder
• 1tsp Of Baking Powder

Ingredients You Need For Buttercream:

• 150g Of Unsalted Butter
• 300g Of Icing Sugar
• 20g Of Cocoa Powder
• 2-4 Drops Of Black Food Colouring

Ingredients You Need For Italian Meringue:

• 185g Of Caster Sugar
• 85ml Of Water
• 100g Of Egg Whites
• 20g Of Milk Chocolate

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How To Make Cupcakes:

• Firstly, gather together your equipment and ingredients, line a cupcake tin with 14 cupcake cases and preheat the oven to 180C / 160C Fan / Gas Mark 4.
• Secondly, in a large bowl, using an electric whisk, beat together the 226g of butter with 226g of caster sugar until light in colour and fluffy in texture.
• Next, beat in your 4 eggs, one at a time until well combined.
• Now, fold 226g of self-raising flour, 30g of cocoa powder and 1tsp of baking powder into the wet ingredients until fully combined.
• Using a tbsp or ice cream scoop, place your cupcake batter into the cupcake cases and place into the oven for around 18-20 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer placed into the centre of the cupcakes comes out clean.
• Once baked, take out the oven and leave in the cupcake tin to cool for 10 minutes before removing from tin and placing onto a wire rack to cool down completely.

How To Make Buttercream:

• Once the cakes have cooled down, it’s time to make the buttercream.
• In a large bowl, using a wooden spoon or electric whisk, beat the 150g of unsalted butter until lighter in colour.
• Next, a little at a time, add in the 300g of icing sugar and 20g of cocoa powder until a chocolate buttercream forms.
• Add in 2 drops of black food colouring and mix (TIP: the amount of black food colouring you need to add may vary due to brand and the pigmentation of the food colouring).
• Now, place a star shaped nozzle into a piping bag and add the buttercream into the piping bag.
• Pipe your buttercream onto the cupcakes (TIP: I made sure it was piped as a rosette as it makes the perfect base for the Italian meringue ghosts).

How To Make Italian Meringue:

• Once all the steps above have been completed, it’s time to make your Italian meringue ghosts.
• In a heavy-based saucepan, place 185g of caster sugar and 85ml of water and bring to the boil, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon.
• When the mixture begins to boil, place a sugar thermometer into the pan and closely monitor the mixtures temperature until it reaches 120oC.
• Whilst the sugar mixture is heating up, in a spotlessly clean bowl (this is a MUST!), whisk the 100g of egg whites till stiff peaks form.
• Once the sugar has reached 120oC, start to slowly, like a trickle, pour the sugar syrup at the edge of the bowl into the stiffened egg whites. Making sure you are continuously whisking whilst the sugar syrup is trickling into the bowl.
• When all the sugar syrup has been fully incorporated into the egg whites, continue to whisk for a further 10 minutes, until the mixture is silky smooth and has cooled down.
• Now that your italian meringue has been made, transfer over to a piping bag which is fitted with a large round nozzle (for reference I used a 22mm extra large round nozzle).
• Pointing the nozzle downwards, pipe the meringue on top of the buttercream to create a wide bottom. Then, pipe a slightly smaller blob on top of the wide bottom, making sure you lift slightly when doing the smaller blob to create a stiff peak (this will give the ghosts some height).
• Repeat the step above for each cupcake.
• Next, in a microwaveable bowl, add 20g of milk chocolate, place into the microwave and in 30 second blasts, blast until the chocolate has completely melted.
• Finally, place the melted chocolate into a piping bag, snip the very tip of the piping bag off and pipe three little circles on the front of the meringue, this will create the eyes and a mouth of the ghosts.

This is your Chocolate Ghost Cupcakes prepared, baked, decorated and ready for you to enjoy!

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Can we just take a moment to appreciate these cupcakes… how amazing do the meringue ghosts look alongside the chocolate cupcake & buttercream? Proper chuffed.

I don’t know about you, but when I think of italian meringue, I automatically think it’s going to be hard to make. I hope that today I have proved that actually, these meringue ghosts are ridiculously easy to achieve and have such a great effect! So, don’t go worrying about making this meringue, as long as you follow my tips and instructions – you’ll be fine, I promise.

Well guys, unfortunately this is the end of my Halloween bakes for 2022. I really hope you love them as much as I have loved creating them. I’ll see you back here next year for some more Halloween goodness!

Happy Halloween my loves! Whatever your up to, please stay safe and most importantly, enjoy yourselves.

Sending you all tons of love & hugs as always,

Elle xo