Homemade Halloween Brownie Cupcakes Recipe

Perfectly spooky, fudgy, chewy and insanely chocolaty 

homemade spiderweb brownie cupcakes

Your kids - and YOU too - are going to love this Halloween treat!
It's a brownie. It's a cupcake. And it's covered with a creamy chocolate frosting spiderweb. What else can one ask for?!?
These brownies are super easy to make from scratch. And they are so much better than those made from a box. It really doesn't take much longer. All you need is to quickly combine few ingredients. Yes, it's so simple!
The creamy frosting is made with good quality chocolate chips melted with heavy cream. To decorate I used store bought white icing. I know, I could have melted white chocolate, but I tried to make my job a little easier and faster.
The design is quite simple. Spoon some of the chocolate frosting on top of the cupcake, add the white icing in a spiral when it's still soft, and draw the spider web using a toothpick. It's probably better to start with one cupcake at a time. You can only draw the spiderweb when the icing and the frosting are still very soft. Once you get the hang of it, and are getting a little faster, you can probably do 3 or 4 decorations at the same time.
The design doesn't have to be perfect. Just make it fun! You can add a plastic spider ring as the finishing touch. The kids will absolutely love it!
Perfectly spooky, rich, fudgy, chewy and insanely chocolaty.

Ingredients: to make 20 cupcakes
For the brownies:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) of unsalted butter 
• 1 cup of chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli semi-sweet)
• 4 eggs 
• 1.5 cups of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1 cup of all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder 
• 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
• pinch of salt

To decorate: 

• 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup of heavy cream
• white icing for the spider web
• 20 plastic spider rings

Preparation time: 40 minutes for the brownies, plus maybe around 20 minutes to decorate

Directions:
1. Place 1 cup of chocolate chips and the butter into a microwave-safe bowl. Melt at medium-low power, checking and stirring every 10 seconds until well blended.

2. In a large bowl whisk together the eggs, the sugar and the vanilla extract.

3. Mix in the flour, salt, cocoa, eggs and melted butter/chocolate. Don't over-mix, just stir enough that all the ingredients are combined.

4. Spoon the batter into around 20 paper-lined muffin cups, about 3/4 of the way. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Check with a toothpick for readiness!

5. Melt in a double boiler 1 cup of chocolate chips with the heavy whipping cream. With a spoon, top the cupcake one at the time with the chocolate frosting. Right away, make a thin spiral with the white icing, and  draw the spiderweb using a toothpick. Simply draw lines from the center of the cupcake outward. Don't wait for the icing to dry or you won't be able to do this!

 Finish it up with a cute spider. Happy Halloween!!

Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate Mousse Frosting

Make from scratch these super easy and soft vanilla cupcakes, topped with light and creamy chocolate mousse. 

Today is my younger boy's birthday! I can't believe he's already 6. Birthdays are so exciting, especially at this age. To make this day super special for him, I baked some cute vanilla cupcakes topped with chocolate mousse, to share with his friends at school.
The recipe is quite basic and simple. You will see that it's really not a lot of work to make them from scratch. I'm sure you will be pleased with the result: deliciously soft and light vanilla cake, with a not-too-sweet, creamy and rich chocolate topping. The kids absolutely loved them!
I also had one (ahem... or two), and I'm really not a big fan of cupcakes. I generally don't like the butter nor cream cheese based frosting. And even less the store bought icing, way to sugary!
But the chocolate mousse that I prepared was phenomenal. So simple to make, with whipped cream, powder sugar and unsweetened cocoa.
The final touch of chocolate sprinkles made these cupcakes look amazing. Perfect for a room full of 6 years old!


Ingredients: to make 24 cupcakes
For the cupcakes:

• 8 oz (2 sticks, 230 gr) of unsalted butter, melted
• 2 cups (400 gr) of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1 pinch of salt
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup (235 ml) of milk (I used whole milk)
• 2 cups (300 gr) of all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder

For the chocolate mousse:

• 2.5 cups (600 ml) of heavy whipping cream
• 3/4 cups (70 gr) of powder sugar
• 1/2 cup  (40 gr) of unsweetened cocoa powder
• a pinch of salt

Preparation time:  45 minutes, plus 30 minutes to cool down, and about 15 minutes to decorate

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Melt the butter, by cutting in pieces, and placing it in the microwave at medium-low power for maybe 20 seconds. Check and add a few seconds if needed. In a large bowl, blend the butter with the sugar until fluffy.

2. Add the vanilla extract, salt and the eggs, one at a time.

3. Blend in one cup of flour and the baking powder. Add the milk, and mix again. Now you can blend in the last cup of flour.

4. Line 24 muffin tins with cupcake papers. Spoon the batter into the liners evenly, about 3/4 full.

5. Bake for about 20-25 minutes. Test with a toothpick if ready. Wait until completely cooled before frosting.

6. While the cupcakes are in the oven, let's work on the chocolate mousse. Very simple: In a bowl, whip the cream until foamy and it holds a peak. Gradually add the sugar and a pinch of salt, whip some more. Sift in the cocoa powder and fold with a spoon. Refrigerate until ready to decorate the cupcakes.

7. When the cup cakes are completely cool, pipe the chocolate whipped cream using a piping bag.

 Enjoy!!!