Now THIS was FUN! THE kids love scary movies and that means the traditional family movie night is in full gear. For this family movie night watching this spooky children’s movie, we went all out! Ghost Cupcakes, Vortex Cookies and a scavenger hunt to find the movie first were all a part of an exciting night!
I also surprised them with not one, but 2 sweet treats to round out the family movie night. Ghost cupcakes and Vortex Cookies are SO FUN and super easy, but let’s go step by step on the cupcakes.
GHOST CUPCAKES
Start with your favorite chocolate cupcake recipe. You can even use a box mix. We used the one below because they come out tasting like fluffy brownies and my children are in love with them. You will also see the steps to create the ‘ghost’ but we will go into more detail below the recipe as well.
- ½ cup plus 1 TBSP cocoa powder
- ½ cup plus 1 TBSP hot water
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 TSP baking powder
- pinch of salt
- 7 ounces unsalted butter, softened
- ¼ cup sugar
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- for Ghost toppers
- 48 marshmallows
- chocolate hazelnut spread (you can use peanut butter as well)
- cornstarch or powdered sugar for dusting
- 3 pounds white fondant
- Cupcakes: Heat oven to 350 and add liners to mini cupcake pan. In a small bowl, blend cocoa and water together until smooth. In a separate bowl, add flour and baking soda and sift together. With your electric mixer with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy and smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time and beat until combined. Add in the cocoa and then the flour mixture slowly. Fill cupcake liners and bake 15 minutes. Set aside to cool.
- for the Ghost toppers: You will need a fondant roller, a 3" circular or flower shaped cookie cutter and a black food marker
- Using the hazelnut spread, affix a marshmallow to the top of a cupcake. We cut our marshmallows in half so that the ghost would cover better. Top the marshmallow with a dot of spread so the fondant has something to stick to. Roll out your white fondant to a thin layer, working with a little at a time to prevent dry out. Cut with the cookie cutter. Center over marshmallow and shape around to give a ghostly look. Add the eyes with the marker.
As you can see, these are SUPER cute! My girls absolutely loved them.
A few tips…
- Use the fondant a little at a time as it can dry out rapidly. We were putting about 2-3 ghosts together at a time.
- If you get hazelnut spread on the fondant – which can happen if little hands are helping – use a food brush with water to paint it off the fondant.
- Wrap the ghosts in plastic to prevent dry out if you are not eating them for a few hours to a day.
Now onto the Vortex Cookies, which will make sense as soon as you see the movie!
You can also make these from a box but I chose my favorite sugar cookie recipe to do from scratch. The Royal Icing recipe is also in this one, which you will need for the Vortex swirl!
- For cookies:
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 1 large egg
- 1 TSP vanilla extract
- ¼ - ½ TSP almond extract
- ½ TSP salt
- 2 TSP baking powder
- 2½ cups all-purpose flour
- for Icing:
- 3 large egg whites
- 1½ TSP fresh lemon juice
- 1⅔ cup powdered sugar
- gel food coloring
- for Cookies: Prehet oven to 350 and place parchment paper on cookie sheets. In a mixer with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter, sugars, and oil until smooth. Add eggs (one at a time), vanilla, almond extract, salt and baking powder. Mix in flour slowly until well blended. Roll dough into one inch balls and place on sheet. Take the bottom of a glass, dip it in water and then in sugar and then smash the cookies to ¼ inch thick. Bake for 10 minutes and completely cool.
- for Icing: In an electric mixer with the whipping attachment, add egg whites and lemon juice and beat. Add in powdered sugar and blend 10 full minutes, gentle pushing down ingredients on sides of bowl to mix completely.
- Transfer to 4 bowls immediately and add gel food coloring of your choice. Blend completely.
- On a cooled cookie, add a line of each color to the top and, using 3 toothpicks, swirl it around to complete the circle. let dry completely.
How COOL are these?
We LOVED them and they are the perfect snack for a family movie night!
Pick up your favorite scary movie and plan a movie night that will thrill everyone!
What is your families favorite scary movie?
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