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!

Halloween Mason Jar Treats

While looking online for some fun Halloween gifts to make with mason jars (since they're all the rage), I came across this fun and easy post (which originally came from Alicia at A Beautiful Mess).

Note "Trick Or" is crossed out on purpose. Only treats here!

Seemed simple enough - buy the ingredients, eat some ingredients, put in jars, wrap with ribbon, eat more ingredients, write witty label and give to friends before jar is empty. Here are a few tips to make it easier on yourself that they don't mention:

#1. Put all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl - that way you don't have to worry about the treats not being thoroughly mixed.

#2. Pour the ingredients from the bowl to the jars with a slotted spoon. Why slotted? Because inevitably when you poured out the bag of pretzels into your bowl, a lot of crumbs and salt probably fell out as well. The slotted spoon can ensure those crumbs aren't included in the jars.

#3. Put the labels on the ribbons before wrapping around the jars. And use a hole punch. Otherwise, you're just making things harder on yourself. I had to use a sewing needle and poke 8 times until I got a hole big enough for the ribbon!

#4. Leave some breathing room at the top of the jar. That way your goodies aren't smooshed and it makes a fun noise when you shake it! Yes, I'm as easily amused as a 3 year old.

#5. The labels (originally found posted by Elizabeth at Oh!Nuts) probably took the most time, as they are an intricate design to cut out. However, if you pop in a podcast, you'll have 8 cut out in 30 minutes or less without realizing it.

SUPPLIES:
Scissors
Hole punch
Ribbons
Mason jars
Goodies (I included Cheeze-Its, pretzel squares, salted peanuts, Honey Nut Cheerios, Reece's Pieces, candy corn, and candy pumpkins). If you wanted to make it a little more healthy, you could add in raisins or craisins, granola, and dried fruit but c'mon, it's Halloween time! Make your dentist work for their money!

TOTAL COSTS: About $30
Ingredients = $20.75 at Vons in Los Angeles ($2.99 Cheese-Its, $3.49 pretzel squares, $2.99 salted peanuts, $2.99 generic Honey Nut Cheerios, $4.29 Reese's Pieces, 2 for $4 candy corn and pumpkins)

Ribbons = $2.58 at Vons (they didn't have orange so I bought one spool of red and one of white)

Mason jars = $8.49 at Target (though their website says $16.99) and I only used 8 jars

Labels = Free (so long that you have printer paper, color ink, and scissors)

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: About 1 hour
From ripping open the bags to tying the final label, it took me 1 hour. As I said, cutting out the labels took the most time and if I had put the labels on the ribbons first, rather than after they were already on the jars, I could have saved some time as well.

EASY-PEASY SCALE: 1 out of 5
No harder than going grocery shopping. Grab the kiddos and make some fun gifts (maybe for their favorite teachers, coaches, friends, etc.). Enjoy!