Killer Cleaver Cupcakes

I was invited to a pumpkin carving party and thought, "What would be a good, easy, and cheap dessert that would impress but also scare folks?" And then I came across this post and thought, "Those cupcakes are AWESOME! I can do that!" And so can you. It's a lot easier than you might think!

I may have cut my finger one too many times...

Here's what you need:

#1 - Red Velvet Cake Mix

#2 - Cream Cheese Frosting (either store bought or you can make it from scratch - I used this recipe)

#3 - Meat cleavers (found on Amazon - they were $7.99 when I bought them, now $10.11)

#4 - Red food coloring

I couldn't find any website that explained how to make the blood splatter so I had to improvise... I used my breath. After frosting all the cupcakes (I made 2 dozen), I dropped 1 drop of food coloring onto the middle of the cupcake and blew in whichever direction the drop wanted to go, and then blew in the opposite direction to keep the bead of liquid going.

One suggestion? Put the cleavers on AFTER the "blood" is on, otherwise you'll be blowing around it and the design won't be as cool (you can tell by the photo which were successful and which weren't).

The success of these cupcakes has gotten me involved in a decorating contest provided by Duff's Cakemix ("Ace of Cakes", anyone?). If you have Pinterest, please oh please repin my cupcakes (I'm not hesitant to beg!) - http://www.pinterest.com/duffscakemix/halloween-online-decorating-contest/



TOTAL COSTS: About $17.50
Ingredients = $7.61 at Vons in Los Angeles ($4.79 for 16 oz. cream cheese, $2.82 for Duncan Hines Red Velvet Cake Mix, and all other ingredients I already owned such as butter, oil, powdered sugar, eggs, and vanilla)


Foil baking cups = $1.93


Meat cleavers = $7.99 on Amazon



TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: About 1 hour
This includes the 25 minutes of baking time for the cupcakes, the making of the frosting from scratch, and the decorating!

EASY-PEASY SCALE: 1 out of 5
This is super easy, especially if you're not making the cupcake mix from scratch. Heck, you don't even have to make the frosting from scratch if you don't want to! Grab your friends, your kids, that stranger in the creepy house, and make these creepy cupcakes that'll definitely make an impression for Halloween!