Cafe

Post Updated: 11.03.24

Gothic Chic Cupcakes have been my favourite Halloween dessert idea since 2017! Moist vanilla cupcake base topped with a very chocolatey black cocoa fudge frosting, these are perfect for any special occasion during the year and absolute showstoppers especially at Halloween.

The first cupcake recipe on my blog was for Chocolate Cobweb Cupcakes for Halloween 2016. Check that one out too for a fun but sweetly spooky Halloween cupcake recipe.

The first Halloween cupcake recipe had a chocolate cupcake base topped with vanilla frosting. The Gothic Chic Cupcake recipe is the other way around – my favourite moist vanilla cupcake recipe with a very old fashioned and very delicious cocoa fudge frosting.

As mentioned in my previous Halloween post, I did not grow up celebrating Halloween except for one year in the ’90s. As an adult now, I have been getting more and more excited about Halloween each year.

Instagram and Pinterest with their fabulous Halloween related food, decor and craft posts are definitely to be credited for making Halloween popular in parts of the world where it isn’t really celebrated as such.

I had decided that along with food, I would do some sort of Halloween DIY craft or decor project as well this year.

I had a very clear idea of something very chic and very minimalistic Gothic in mind hence the black, gold and silver theme for my Halloween.

Not being very “crafty” as such, I wanted to do something simple but effective so I chose the very aptly titled Creepy Black Twig Wreath – thanks to Earnest Home Co. for the fabulous idea and the easy tutorial.

I collected the branches and twigs off a basil plant and a rose bush – both from my garden and both completely dried up. I then put the twig wreath together bit by bit according to the step by step tutorial.

My brother says the finished wreath looks like something out of the horror movie “The Ring” – target achieved!

Pumpkins were next and after trawling through various pumpkin ideas on Pinterest, I decided on simple painted pumpkins for Halloween 2017.

Pinterest has a photo of a large pumpkin painted matte black sitting on a chair and as soon as I saw it I knew I had to have a black pumpkin this Halloween. I was finding gold and silver painted pumpkins on Pinterest quite appealing as well.

So my sister-in-law and I spray painted a few pumpkins black, gold and silver. I could not get hold of perfectly shaped pumpkins but after they were painted and were sitting in all their beautiful painted glory, I felt the irregular shapes, indents and imperfections here and there somehow added to the Gothic appeal that I was after.

And lastly, the Gothic Chic Cupcakes. I adore this moist vanilla cupcake recipe so much and for the life of me I can’t find the link to the original recipe because I wrote the recipe down the old fashioned way in my crumbling old recipe diary.

Like a fool, I completely forgot to write down the name of the blog where I took the recipe from. I am trying to search for that particular blog and hopefully if I find it I will update this blog post with proper credit to the original creator of this wonderful recipe.

The frosting recipe comes via My Gluten Free Kitchen with a deep cocoa flavour and dreamy pipeability. The idea was to dye the cocoa fudge  frosting a jet black with food colour.

As I was adding the black food colour to the frosting and mixing it in, I stopped when the icing reached a deep dark charcoal gray. It looked incredible and very broodingly sexy – so much cooler than the flat black I had intended to achieve.

I used gold and silver cupcake liners / paper bake cups for my Gothic Chic Cupcakes.

I wanted the vanilla part of the cupcake to show very clearly so instead of covering almost the entire top of the cupcakes with frosting, I opted to pipe rosettes that would leave room for the vanilla part to show.

I have been ‘piping partially’ this way lately and liking it. You can obviously cover the entire tops of your Gothic Chic Cupcakes in frosting like it is usually done.

Happy baking and frosting and a very happy Halloween to all!

Gothic Chic Cupcakes

Recipe Type: Dessert    Author: Alice In Eatland

Prep Time: 30 Minutes    Cook Time: 20 Minutes    Total Time: 50 Minutes

Serves: 8 – 10

Keyword: Gothic Cupcakes Recipe, Goth Cupcakes Recipe, Halloween Cupcakes,

These moist & fluffy Gothic Chic Cupcakes are perfumed with vanilla & frosted with a dark & intensely chocolate cocoa fudge frosting – so tasty & so chic!

INGREDIENTS FOR MOIST VANILLA CUPCAKES

• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 1/4 cup + 1/8 cup cream
• 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon flour
• 1/8 cup cornflour or cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon + 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon oil
• 1/4 cup + 1/8 cup + 1 tablespoon caster sugar or superfine sugar
• 1 medium egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or essence
• 1/8 teaspoon almond extract or essence (optional)

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C / 350 degrees F.
2. Line a standard size muffin pan / cupcake pan with gold and silver paper baking cups / cupcake liners. Set aside.
3. Stir the milk and vinegar together to make buttermilk.
4. Add prepared buttermilk to the cream and stir together to make sour cream. Set aside.
5. Combine the flour, cornflour or cornstarch, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Set aside.
6. Beat the oil and sugar together for 30 – 60 seconds.
7. Add the egg and extracts and beat until combined.
8. Beat in the combined dry ingredients until smooth.
9. Lastly beat in prepared sour cream until just mixed.
10. Pour batter into a glass measuring jug.
11. Fill the paper baking cups in the muffin pan between 1/2 – 3/4 full.
12. Bake 18 – 20 minutes or until the cupcakes turn slightly golden and a wooden pick inserted into the centre of cupcakes comes out nearly clean. Do not overbake.
13. Remove baked cupcakes onto a wire rack. Cool completely before frosting.
14. Store cool unfrosted cupcakes airtight until ready to frost.

INGREDIENTS FOR COCOA FUDGE FROSTING

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup cocoa
• 1 1/2 cups + 1/3 cup icing sugar or confectioner’s sugar
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or essence
• Black gel food colour (prefereably from Wilton or AmeriColor)

METHOD

1. Put butter in a microwave safe bowl and microwave uncovered on high 10 – 20 seconds or until almost melted.
2. Remove bowl from microwave and stir until butter is completely melted.
3. Whisk in the cocoa and then microwave uncovered again on high for 30 seconds.
4. Remove from microwave and beat in icing sugar and milk alternately until creamy.
5. Beat in vanilla.
6. Lastly add the black food colour, a little at a time while beating until desired colour is achieved.
7. Frosting dyed with black food colour deepens in hue as the frosting sits, so wait 10 or so minutes after adding food colour to see how much the colour of the frosting darkens before adding more.
8. Make sure the frosting is completely cool before piping onto cupcakes.
9. Use a Wilton 1M tip to pipe rosettes of cocoa fudge frosting onto the cupcakes.
10. Store your Gothic Chic Cupcakes airtight. These can be refrigerated but make sure you bring the cupcakes completely down to room temperature before serving.