Green Gobble-'Em-Up Goblin Cupcakes

There’s no trick to making these ghoulishly cute Halloween treats. A box of cake mix, a little green food coloring, a few chocolate googly eyes, black decorator icing, and some red tines from a plastic fork and you’ve got a pretty thugly cupcake creature. Vanessa Bush, the extraordinary writer and food enthusiast behind the MyBrownBaby blog favorite Food Lovers Like Me cooked up this spooky good Halloween cupcakes recipe, the perfect pre-trick-or-treat activity for you and your little ones. Let them go wild with the decorating—they’ll get a kick out of helping—and then eat ‘em up!

What You’ll Need:

• 1 box vanilla cake mix
• 1 package 2 1/2" foil baking cups
• 1 can vanilla icing
• 1 small tube green food coloring
• 1 package red licorice rope
• 1 package chocolate candy googly eyes
• 1 package mini M&Ms
• 1 tube black cake decorating icing

How To Make It:

• Prepare vanilla cake batter according to box directions. Add 7 drops or more of green food coloring to batter and mix thoroughly to achieve desired shade.
• Remove white paper separators from foil cups; pour batter into baking cups and bake in 350-degree oven for 17 to 20 minutes, or until you can stick a toothpick into the center and remove it cleanly.
• Remove cupcakes from oven and let cool completely.
• In a small bowl, add 5 or more drops of food coloring to icing and mix until desired shade of green is achieved. Top cupcakes with colored icing.
• To assemble cupcakes: Add googly eyes to top of cupcake. Cut red licorice rope into smaller strips to use as hair and small pieces to use as teeth. Add green M&Ms to make the nose; use decorating icing to make a mouth. Top black icing with red licorice pieces.

If You Need A Substitute:

Use mini-Oreos or white Lifesavers as eyes instead of chocolates; use black licorice rope instead of red to create hair and mouth.



How your kids can get their ghoulish goblin on:

• Let them add the green food coloring to the mix and the icing
• Let them ice the cupcakes
• Let them add on toppers like the licorice teeth and hair



About our MyBrownBaby contributor:

When Vanessa Bush isn't playing chaffeur to her two kids or yin to her husband's yang, she's a freelance writer, a writing instructor, and a mommyblogger at Food Lovers Like Me.