Ghostly Chocolate Cupcakes.. Mummies, Ghosts and Bones Oh MY!

• To make the ghosts, use a large round frosting tip. Hold tip close to cake and squeeze until desired size is achieved, release a bit and squeeze again creating another "level," release again a bit, squeeze and pull up to create point. Use gel or mini chocolate chips to create eyes.
• To create mummies, use the leaf tip and draw lines back and forth over the cupcake leaving room for the eyes. Use thin small candy discs for the eyes or colored icing. I used green gel with a dot of black gel but the green was not intense enough to show up really well.
• The "mound" of bones would have been really great if I had coated the frosting in oreo cookies to create a mound of bones in dirt but I was out of oreos! If you try this, be sure to link me to a picture. I would love to see how it comes out!

Chocolate Cupcakes (from Joyofbaking.com)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup (50 grams) Dutch-processed cocoa powder
• 1 cup (240 ml) boiling hot water
• 1 1/3 cups (175 grams) all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly butter, or line 16 muffin cups with paper liners.

In a small bowl stir until smooth the boiling hot water and the cocoa powder. Let cool to room temperature.

In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Then in the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and beat only until incorporated. Then add the cooled cocoa mixture and stir until smooth.

Fill each muffin cup about two-thirds full with batter and bake for about 16-20 minutes or until risen, springy to the touch, and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Once the cupcakes have completely cooled, frost with icing. You can either spread the frosting on the cupcakes with a small spatula or if piping, use a large Wilton 1M open star tip to make lovely swirls.