Last year, I had the distinct pleasure, and an incredible sugar high, judging the Cupcake Competition at the Inland Empire Cupcake Fair. This year, I’m excited to be doing it all again! The 3rd Annual Inland Empire Cupcake Fair & Baking Expo will take place on Sunday, October 4, 2015, at the Riverside Convention Center. Subtitled “Cupcakes for a Cause” this year the event will donate proceeds to Epilepsy Education Everywhere – a local non-profit organization whose goal is to educate the public about epilepsy and provide resources for those living with epilepsy.
Partnering with IEShineOn.com has been a blessing. They have been working so hard to make this event even bigger and better than last year. I can’t wait to see it all come together! This year guests can expect dessert tastings, a cupcake eating competition, live demonstrations, giveaways, entertainment, activities, shopping and more! There will be both professional and amateur categories for Best Overall Cupcake and Most Unique Cupcake (judged by an epically awesome panel of people!) The Most Popular category will include all baked goods and desserts at the event and voted by event guests! So you’re going to want to be there to taste and vote! C’mon! Who doesn’t love cupcakes on a Sunday afternoon?
As the event is taking place in October this year, the theme will be Halloween! Halloween is my favorite baking season, so I’m stoked to see what participants of the Cake Decorating Contest will come up with to showcase their talents! Yes, there will be pictures on my Instagram account, so be sure to follow along if you can’t be there in person.
To get us all in the spooky spirit of Halloween (and cupcakes) here’s a simple recipe for a classic chocolate cupcakes you can decorate with the kids!
The heads are just marshmallows dipped in green Wilton Candy Melts and then decorated with chocolate jimmies, Wilton candy eyeballs and some colored piping gel! It takes a little time to let the marshmallows dry between steps, but they are so much fun to put together, it’s totally worth it! Plus, you can make the faces with any expression you like!
Classic Chocolate Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons butter softened
- 1 1/2 cups white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup milk
- To make Mini FrankenCake heads:
- 24 extra large marshmallows
- 1 package Wilton Green Candy Melts - Vanilla Flavor
- 1 package Wilton Candy Eyeballs
- 1 tube each Wilton Piping Gel - Black and Sparkling Red Colors
- Approx 1 cup Chocolate Jimmies
- Hershey Chocolate baking chunks - approx 48 pieces
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
- Line a muffin pan with paper or foil liners. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition, then stir in the vanilla.
- Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk; beat well. Fill the muffin cups 3/4 full.
- Bake for 15 to 17 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.
- Frost with your favorite frosting when cool!
- Directions for decorating Franken-Cake Heads:
- Line a baking sheet with wax or parchment paper and set aside.
- In a medium bowl melt Wilton Green Candy Melts per package directions.
- Carefully coat marshmallows with melted candy coating and set on prepared baking sheet to dry - approx 30 minutes
- Place chocolate jimmies in a small bowl.
- Spread a thin layer of additional candy coating on the top of each marshmallow (you may need to re-heat the candy melts to thin it out again)
- Dip the wet marshmallow tops into the bowl of jimmies to coat. This will make the hair for the FrankenCakes.
- When the hair is set, dip the backside of each Wilton Candy Eyeball in green candy coating and “glue” them to one side of the marshmallows.
- You can use tweezers to do this, so you have a bit more control over where you want to place the eyes.
- Use the Black Wilton Piping Gel to create eyebrows, nose and mouth on each marshmallow. Be creative!
- Use Sparkling Red Piping Gel to make scars, if desired.
- Use remaining melted green candy to adhere Chocolate Baking Chunks to the bottom of the marshmallows to create the “knobs” on the sides of FrankenCakes neck.
- When finished, frost Chocolate Cupcakes lightly with your favorite Chocolate Icing and place the Frankenstein Heads on top of the icing.
- Makes 24 Franken-cake Cupcakes
Want to try this recipe? I’d love to see how you decorated your cupcakes! Send me pictures or leave me comments! Thanks everyone! See you at the Cupcake Fair!
These are just too fun, Sara! I need to make these!!! I’ve loved watching all the foodie events you’ve been involved in lately. Glad to see things happening for you.
Thanks Maria!! They’re fun to make! Hope all is well with you too, my friend!
I’m making these right now. So fun! I put the eyes and chocolate chunks on while the green coating was still wet…saved me a step! And I stuck candy sticks in the marshmallows to make dipping easier. Can’t wait to take these to work for this week’s pot luck. Should be a hit!
How fun, Maria! Please share pictures when you’re done!