Scary graveyard brownie cupcakes are a real Halloween treat for your favorites little ghosts and goblins! Dense brownies topped with chocolate buttercream.
ingredient
- 8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, or bittersweet, 60% cocoa recommended
- ½ cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces, room temperature, 1 stick
- 1 cup sugar
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 large eggs
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup cocoa powder, unsweetened, sifted
- 6 tablespoons butter, softened
- 2 ⅔ cups powdered sugar, sifted
- ½ cup cocoa powder, unsweetened, sifted
- ⅓ cup milk
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 6 speculoos cookies, cut in half
- ½ cup powdered sugar, plus more as needed for glaze and writing
- black food coloring, to achieve gray-colored tombstones
- ¼ cup crushed cookies, or gingersnaps
- skull candies, optional
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a standard muffin tin with paper liners. Place chocolate and butter in a double boiler or heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Stir occasionally just until melted, 4 to 5 minutes. Remove bowl from the heat.
- Whisk in sugar and salt until mixture is smooth; whisk in eggs to combine. Gently whisk in flour and cocoa just until smooth (do not overmix).
- Fill each cupcake to about ¾ full with batter. Bake, rotating halfway through until a toothpick inserted halfway in centers comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached, about 25 to 30 minutes.
- Transfer to a wire rack and cool for 10 minutes, then remove cupcakes and allow to cool completely on the rack.
- Using the whisk attachment on a mixer, beat butter until light and fluffy. In a separate bowl, sift together powdered sugar and cocoa. Whisk together to combine. Whisk in sugar mixture with butter, alternating with milk, beating well after each addition. Beat until smooth. Blend in vanilla. The buttercream will be light and fluffy. Transfer to a piping bag.
- In a small bowl, whisk together ½ cup powdered sugar and milk; add milk a ¼ teaspoon at a time until a glue-like consistency is reached. Add more powdered sugar if needed to thicken the glaze. Place 2 tablespoons of the white glaze in a small plastic bag or bottle to use for writing on the tombstones and set aside.
- In the remaining glaze, add a small amount of black food coloring to color the tombstones gray. Cover with plastic wrap if not using immediately.
- Dip the halved cookie into the gray glaze, scraping off excess glaze. Allow glazed tombstones to dry fully on a sheet pan.
- For the white writing glaze, cut off a small portion of the tip of the plastic bottle (if using), and write the letters on each dried tombstone. Set aside.
- Pipe a generous amount of buttercream in the shape of a circle on top of each cupcake. Sprinkle about a teaspoon of crushed cookies evenly on top of the piped buttercream. Add the tombstone to the center of each cupcake. Add a few candy skulls if desired.
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