I’ve been baking these fun vampire bite cupcakes for a decade and they’re finally on The Rose Table! I usually make these for Halloween but last night I baked them for a special occasion: a vampire watch party with my friend Irene. The Vampire Diaries is my favorite show of all time (you don’t even want to know how many times I’ve seen the entire series) and Irene has been watching it on Netflix for the last six months. She just so happened to finish the series right around the time we knew Ian Somerhalder’s new show V Wars would premiere so we decided to watch The Vampire Diaries series finale and the V Wars premiere together last night!
I use my favorite dark chocolate cupcakes as the base for these and a simple vanilla frosting. There’s no need to get fancy with piping here. In fact, the bite looks the best on smooth frosting. It’s such a simple trick – a chop stick and red food gel – but has such a cool look.
Top some (or all!) with chocolate bats. I traced a bat out of cookbook years ago and keep the paper in my kitchen but there are plenty of little bats on the internet. Just print one out that’s about 3.5″ across to use for this. These are some of the least cute bats I’ve piped – I had way more time in college for candy confections – but at least you can tell they’re bats! It doesn’t need to be perfect to look awesome.
I hope you love these as much as my friends do for Halloween or your next vampire movie/tv-watching party!
Vampire Bite Cupcakes
For the cupcakes
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup dark cocoa powder (I use Hershey’s special dark)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup 1% milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Red food gel
For the frosting:
6 cups powdered sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 Tbsp milk
To bake the cupcakes:
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two muffin cup pans with cupcake liners and spray each with non-stick spray.
- Combine sugar, flour, dark cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large mixing bowl. Add eggs one at a time and mix until incorporated. Add milk, oil and vanilla all at once and beat on medium speed of mixer about two minutes. Stir in the boiling water. Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full.
- Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.
- Frost with vanilla frosting. For best effect, don’t pipe it on. Just smooth it on old-school style. Use a chop stick or something similar to poke two holes in each frosted cupcake for your pipe. Carefully fill hole with red food gel, extending slightly down for a bloody fang look. Top with a chocolate bat (recipe below).
To make the frosting:
- Cream together powdered sugar and softened butter with an electric mixer. Start with two cups of powdered sugar and half a stick of butter, alternating additions.
- Slowly incorporate vanilla extract and milk. Beat until smooth. Add additional milk or powdered sugar if needed for desired consistency.
To make the bats:
- Print a simple bat from online. Set under a piece of wax paper. Use a permanent marker to trace desired number of bats onto the wax paper. Let dry five minutes, flip wax paper over, and set on a cookie sheet.
- Microwave a cup of chocolate chips on high for 1-2 minutes or until melted, stirring every fifteen seconds or so. Spoon melted chocolate into freezer bag and snip one corner. Pipe chocolate onto wax paper using your bat outlines. Pop cookie sheets in the freezer for five minutes, then carefully peel back wax paper.
Want more vampire watch party ideas? We ate “bloody” pasta (my Heirloom Bolognese) and red cocktails in blood bags.
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Eternally yours,
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