Recipe: Cupcakes Blacker Than Your Soul {No Food Dye Black Chocolate Halloween Cupcakes}

Summary: We all know that Halloween is my favourite holiday and cupcakes are my go to dessert, so no surprise that I made some spooky cupcake goodness! I wanted to make something really easy but still a little macabre. Haunting enough for an adult party but child appropriate. Spectre(acular) but easy enough that anyone could whip them up. Black chocolate cupcakes are chic and yet quite unnerving. Despite looking intense, this is truly an easy recipe! It all starts with packet chocolate cake, store bought jam makes a sweet yet gory filling and a lush chocolate frosting made with melted chocolate – delicious! But the real freak out is that both the cake and frosting are a vibrant black. In fact this was kinda strange to make, it feels weird to be spooning up paper liners filled with black sludge! Unbelievably, this uses no food colour at all! Yep, this uses food grade activated charcoal powder from the health food store. Charcoal power is basically tasteless and is behind many of those black desserts you’ve seen on instagram.

I am so in love with how creepy and amazing these cupcakes look! There is just something alarming about black food, which makes them perfect for Halloween. These cakes are bizarrely beautiful in their inky blackness. Of course they taste like the fabulous chocolate cupcakes they are but the black is so visual. Aside from colouring everything black, I used a mix of black cupcake liners which I found in Spotlight and some silver ones from the supermarket. I also added some sparkle to cupcakes with black edible glitter I already had on hand (buy from baking stores or online). The glitter isn’t obvious in the pics but really does add something specific in real life.

Note: If you have any concerns about using activated charcoal or edible glitter in your baking, please research the ingredients and decide on what’s right for you. I’m happy to use both.

Ingredients

Cakes

• 1 packet Coles 75c Chocolate cake mix
• 2/3 cup sour cream
• 2 eggs
• 1 tblsp cocoa powder
• 1 tblsp food grade activated charcoal
• 3 tblsp vegetable oil

Frosting

• 125g salted butter, softened
• 500g icing sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 100g dark chocolate, melted and slightly cooled (see recipe note)
• 1-2 tblsp food grade activated charcoal
• Milk or cream, to thin (optional)
• Edible glitter (optional)

Filling

• 1/3 cup raspberry or strawberry jam
• Piping bag or snap lock bag

1. Preheat the oven to 160C and line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper patty pan liners.
2. In a large bowl, add the cake mix followed by sour cream, eggs, cocoa, activated charcoal and oil. Whisk together until smooth and glossy. Divide the batter between the 12 patty pans.
3. Bake for 15-18 minutes (mine are always perfect at 17 mins) or until a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool completely on a rack before filling and frosting.
4. Add the jam to a piping bag (or snap lock) and microwave for 30 to 60 seconds or until the jam is loose and easily pipeable. Snip of the tip of the piping bag or corner of the snap lock.
5. Use the open end of a piping tip or an apple corer to make a hole in the cake, fill with jam and replace the cake piece or sneakily eat it as a bakers treat.
6. For the frosting, using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment (or electric beaters), beat the butter alone until slightly paled and fluffy. Add half the icing sugar beating on low until combined and then on high until smooth and slightly fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes.
7. Stop mixing and add the vanilla and melted chocolate. Resume mixing on low speed to combine, mixing until the chocolate leaves no streaks. Add the  charcoal and the remaining icing sugar, half a cup at a time, until the mixture reaches the desired consistency. You may not use all of the sugar.
8. Pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes, if you need help piping I have a super old video or if piping isn’t your thing, you can go with my ice cream scoop plonk! Sprinkle with a little gitter and your creepy cupcakes are done!