Even the Little Kids.

I love baking for a good themed party, so when we were invited to an undead birthday celebration, I clicked my heels in the air and threw myself into a zombie tizzy cupcake fest.

Cue Theme Music:



Here's the best, first. Money shot!

1. I made 24 chocolate cupcakes with espresso.
2. Then holes were poked in each one and stuffed with blackberry fluffy cream (powdered sugar was whipped with non-hydrogenated shortening, a little extract and a few tablespoons of homemade blackberry freezer jam).
3. Then they were topped with chocolate mousse (half were also filled with this instead of the blackberry fluff). Y'know the recipe: blend a box of firm aseptic tofu with a bag of melted chocolate chips, some sort of extract and maple syrup or agave nectar to taste. Chill to set.
4. I chilled them good and prepared a poured fondant.*
5. I also decorated a bunch of choco roll out cookies. You can make the cookies stand up by using some fondant to glue a cookie to a little flat cookie base. I made a royal icing by blending a tiny bit of agave nectar with powdered sugar and then added water to get a spreading consistency. Once the cookies were fancied, I jammed a few on top of the cupcakes.

*Notes about the fondant:
1. I followed these instructions, but in these proportions (for 24 cupcakes):

• 3 3/4 cups unbleached granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup water
• 6 tablespoons agave nectar

I am very happy to report that agave nectar makes a perfect substitution for gross corn syrup, and nothing pleases me more, as I hope to never purchase that shit again. Agave also works great as fake blood, just dye it red and add the tiniest amount of water to thin.

The fondant was a dream to work with. Seriously, it's magic stuff. You can seal almost anything under it, and the process is extremely fun and rewarding. The trick is to keep it warm over a double boiler so it stays in a liquid state, then once you dip, the fondant immediately sets at room temperature. So just to explain clearly, once you beat the fondant in your food processor (with coloring if you want), it will turn into a thick paste. Scrape the paste into a heat proof bowl and warm over a double boiler, stirring all the while until it's smooth and loose. Keep it fairly hot until you've dipped everything (or double dipped if you're like me). You can store leftovers in the fridge, just reheat when you want to use it.

Fakin' it since these weren't XgfX.

For the record, there are two groups of creatures featured in the photos below. Group A are poor animal victims, their little brains have been ravaged by hungry undead men. Group B are the scary and starving zombie men. They have their arms out in front of them the way zombies are always shown walking in movies (who knew groom cookie cutters could come in so handy?). I have been unfairly accused in real life and on the internet of making pornographic undead cookies. I refute this accusation, they have bloody hands from ripping out the sheep brains.

Behold:

Poor de-brained sheep.


The zombie guys were spreading some weird version of swine flu.


I swear my thoughts were pure.

Pixiepine is getting Primal Strip#2. Comment if you want one, I have about 16 more!

xo
kittee