Natalie Slater’s Halloween Candy Bar Cupcakes

Continuing on my Halloween theme, I have a delicious cupcake recipe that’s perfect for your Halloween party. These cupcakes may not be super-healthy, but it’s still better than a real candy bar full of unpronounceable things given out by people you don’t know. Plus you made them yourself!

I am pleased to be part of Natalie Slate’s Halloween blog tour. Natalie is the author of Bake and Destroy and has given me an awesome recipe to share with you along with a little Halloween advice:

“There are over 7 billion people on this planet. We speak over 6,500 different languages and we have as many varying opinions as there are stars in the sky. But there’s one thing we can all agree on, that that’s the fact that people who give out boxes of raisins for Halloween are the absolute worst. “Worse than people who give out pennies?” you ask. Yes, worse. You can throw a penny into a well and wish for candy, but if you threw raisins into a well, the well would just throw them back at you because nobody wants raisins for Halloween. In honor of everyone who knows better, I give you this cupcake which tastes an awful lot like a certain candy bar that “really satisfies.” Death to all raisins.”

Halloween Candy Bar Cupcakes

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Ingredients

CARAMEL SAUCE

• 1/2 cup vegan margarine
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup soymilk
• 2 tablespoons arrowroot starch
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

CUPCAKES

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• a pinch of salt
• 2 1/2 Tbs ground flaxseeds + 3 Tbs of water
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup vegan margarine
• 1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup non-dairy milk

CHOCOLATE DRIZZLE

• 1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips
• 1 tablespoon Earth Balance Natural Shortening

CARAMEL FROSTING

• 1/2 cup vegan margarine
• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
• 3 & 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
• 1/4 cup caramel sauce (see instructions)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

ADDITIONAL

• Roasted, salted peanuts

Instructions

1. Make the caramel sauce first: In a large measuring cup, whisk arrowroot starch into the soy milk and set aside. In a large saucepan over medium-low heat, cook the margarine, maple syrup, sugar and salt. Stirring constantly, cook until the margarine melts and the mixture begins to bubble. Add soy milk mixture, and turn the heat up to medium. Cook, whisking often, until the mixture bubbles again. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract. Cool in pan for 15 minutes, then transfer to preferred storage container and set aside.
2. Then, make the cupcakes: Pre-heat the oven to 350 F and line a cupcake pan with paper liners. In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. In a separate small bowl or measuring cup, mix together the ground flaxseeds and water until it’s thick and gooey, set aside. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat together the white and brown sugars and margarine until combined. Add peanut butter, beating until smooth. Add the flaxseed mixture and vanilla, beating well. Alternately beat in the flour mixture and the soymilk, making two additions of milk and three of the flour mix, beating until smooth.
3. Scoop the batter into the prepared pan and bake 20-25 minutes, or until the tops spring back when lightly touched with your finger. Place the pan on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes, then remove the cupcakes from the pan and cool completely.
4. Make the chocolate drizzle: Set up a DIY double boiler and melt the chocolate chips and shortening, stirring it together. Transfer the fixture into a zip-top plastic baggie and set aside to cool.
5. Make the frosting: Beat the margarine and shortening together until well combined. Gradually beat in the confectioners sugar on low speed, then increase speed to medium and beat three minutes until fluffy. Add caramel sauce, salt and vanilla extract and beat to incorporate.

by Kathy Hester

Recipe Notes

Here’s where you can get creative - I like to use a small knife to cut a cone out of each cupcake, filling it with caramel sauce before frosting. Or, you could use a long, thin frosting tip to fill each cupcake. Alternatively, pipe a ring of frosting around the top of each cupcake, and fill the middle with a spoonful of caramel sauce. Frost each cupcake as desired, and top with peanuts. Snip the corner off the zip-top bag containing the chocolate drizzle and zig-zag over each cupcake. Messy is OK because the chocolate will set up in a few minutes.