DIY: GraveYard Plot Cupcakes

A easy, fun DIY Halloween cupcake activity that the kids can participate in! As you can see above we got a little tired of writing RIP on all the headstones so we got imaginative and put some ghost and pumpkin faces on some of them. Hey its Halloween, you can be as creative as you want.

The Plots ( Chocolate Cupcakes)

Ingredients:

• 1 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

How To:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a muffin pan with paper or with butter and a little bit of flour. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa and salt. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk; beat well. Fill the muffin cups 3/4 full.
3. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. 

The Dirt ( Frosting & Topping)

Your plot (cupcake) will be topped with soil (frosting & oreos). I went with a cream cheese frosting which is really easy to work with. Once its time to top each cooled cupcake with the frosting you can put your frosting into a ziplock bag and zip the corner edge off for easy frosting. This works wonders and no expensive piping bag  is needed.

4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

About 20 oreos, with filling scraped out. Take your oreos sans filling and put them in a ziplock bag. Crush them up into a fine texture (its ok to have a few chunky pieces left).

Beat cream cheese with your mixer until smooth and creamy. Add in butter and vanilla. Mix this at a medium to high speed. Lastly, add in your powdered sugar a little bit at a time and voila you have homemade frosting. Frost your cooled cupcakes and generously douse each one with your crushed oreos...errrr dirt.

The Headstones

You will need a bag of Milano cookies and a black gel icing tube. Cut 1/4 end off of each Milano cookie. Use your black gel icing tube to write on each headstone. Place cookie firmly into the icing. Voila!

Place finished cupcakes on a cupcake stand or on a platter and garnish platter with remaining crushed oreos for a very earthy graveyard appearance.

I had left over chocolate cupcake batter, so I quickly whipped up a vanilla cupcake batter, dyed it orange with food coloring (yellow + red) and created a Halloween themed marbled cupcake. Those are the ones you see below mixed in with my extra GraveYard Plot cupcakes.

Eat & Enjoy.

Happy Haunts.