Halloween has never been a big celebrated holiday for me. As a child growing up in the church, most halloweens were celebrated as "harvest festivals" dressed up in recycled costumes bobbing for apples and such. There were a few occasions as I got older where I was allowed to trick or treat and I definitely took advantage of the free candy. I was never interested in all the commercialism and fluff associated with the holiday. Although I'm not going to lie, I was always thrilled for all the goodies that came along with Halloween.
As an adult, I have found my own ways to celebrate Halloween and more importantly fall. I love being creative and being able to create fabulous homemade costumes every now and then and of course treats. I love dressing up and passing out candy to the little kiddies in their cute costumes. I also love being able to gather with friends and celebrate the holiday in a mature way.
This year I'm not dressing up because honestly Halloween came too fast and I wasn't prepared. Since I'm not dressing up in a costume I thought I would be fancy and dress up some cupcakes. These cupcakes are definitely not kid friendly and are made for those adults who still want to partake in the celebration. These fabulous chocolate stout cupcakes are made with a blood orange hazelnut ganache and a perfect balance of orange Grand Marnier buttercream. What makes these cupcakes even more grown and sexy is the decoration with our Scary Spice Sprinkle Mix. The cupcakes are then topped with Cosmic Sprinkles covered blood orange dark chocolate caramels from Sconza Chocolates. You can't get any more amazing than that.
Get the complete recipe and step by step video for these cupcakes below. You'll definitely want to make these at least once this season. Your tastebuds won't regret it!
Makes approximately 18 cupcakes
Ingredients
Cupcakes:
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup stout beer
¾ cup cocoa powder
2 large eggs, room temperature
¾ cup greek yogurt
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
½ tbsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. table salt
Blood Orange Hazelnut Ganache:
1 cup cocoa hazelnut spread
3-4 tbsp. blood orange flavored vodka (I used Skyy Vodka)
Orange Grand Marnier Buttercream:
¼ cup. Grand Marnier Liqueur
zest of one orange, approximately 1 tsp.
1 tbsp. fresh orange juice.
Black food gel
Violet food gel
Directions
Make buttercream first. Follow directions for Swiss Meringue Buttercream. Substitute the vanilla extract with orange juice. Add additional Grand Marnier Liqueur to the recipe. Refrigerate buttercream until ready for use.
Preheat oven for 350F. Line cupcake pan with cupcake liners.
Using a medium saucepan, on medium heat melt butter and add stout. Whisk in cocoa powder and let mixture come to a simmer. Once mixture starts to simmer, whisk again and remove from heat. Allow mixture to cool slightly.
In a medium sized bowl, mix together flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In a large sized bowl, using stand or hand mixer, add eggs and sour cream and beat until smooth. Beat in sugar on medium speed until dissolved. Lower speed on mixer and add flour mixture.
Slowly pour in cocoa/stout mixture until large bowl on low speed. Mix until just combined.
Use ice cream scoop to place mixture until cupcake pan, filling up each cup ¾ full.
Bake cupcakes for 18-20 minutes or until tester comes out clean. Allow cupcakes to completely cool.
While cupcakes are baking make ganache. In a small mixing bowl stir together cocoa hazelnut spread and blood orange vodka until combined. (If your vodka is too cold and your ganache is not becoming smooth microwave for 1 minute on 50% power.)
Once cupcakes have completely cooled, using rounded part of pipping tip cut center out of cupcakes. Spoon or pipe ganache into the center of each cupcake. Pipe buttercream frosting on top of each cupcake.
Decorate cupcakes using Scary Spice Sprinkle Mix.
Use Cosmic Shimmers to decorate blood orange chocolate caramels. Top each cupcake with blood orange chocolate caramels.
Devour and enjoy!