Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween Everyone! In the spirit of getting spooky, I decided to whip up some yummy Halloween inspired cupcakes. As weird as this sounds, I've had a craving as of late for a Hostess Snoball Cake. There is definitely some nostalgia there for me. It has that nice soft feeling against your lips when you bite into it, and that fun almost spongy elasticity of the marshmallow frosting. And, lets not for get the coconut!

My Hostess craving, became the inspiration for my spooky cupcake affair. These cupcakes are a very moist chocolate devil's food cake, filled & topped with a homemade marshmallow frosting, and dipped in a light angel flake coconut--yummm! I heart coconut.

To bring in some festive cheer I dyed the coconut orange with a mix of food colorings (red & yellow to be exact--I know--duh right?) and topped them with the ever delicious and oh so sweet treat--Peeps!

What was really the challenge on this batch was the frosting. I love a good challenge so this was fun for me.

I used my own chocolate devil's food cake recipe, but I found a really great recipe on Baking Bites for a marshmallow type frosting. You melt sugar, water and cream of tartar in a saucepan over medium heat. Once you bring this to a boil, you reduce the heat to 242 degrees. Meanwhile, in an electric mixer, you beat 6 egg whites until stiff peaks form. When the sugar mixture as reached it cooled temperature, you slowly add to the egg whites, add some vanilla and mix this for about 10 minutes--until it reaches room temperature.

These spooky guys came to work with me for a little Halloween cheer. All my CW's raved about the frosting. It was very light and brought out the flavor of the coconut. I truly felt like I was eating a Hostess Snoball Cake...only better! (Because it was fresh!)

All right gals & ghouls, I hope you have a rockin' Halloween ;-)

Until my next cupdate,

LN