Spooky Broken Glass Red Velvet Cupcakes

There's no shortage of Halloween spirit with these creepy yet delicious red velvet cupcakes.

Prep Time 45 mins

Cook Time 30 mins

Cooling Time 2 hrs

Total Time 3 hrs 15 mins

Course Dessert

Servings 1 dozen cupcakes

Preheat your oven to 350°F.
Into a bowl, sift the flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder.
Using a hand mixer or stand mixer on medium-low speed, cream together the butter and sugar until pale yellow and fluffy.
Beat the eggs into the butter and sugar.
Mix the vegetable oil, buttermilk, vanilla extract, vinegar, and red food dye into the wet ingredients.
Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients using low speed, ¼ cup at a time. Stir in the mini chocolate chips.
Line a 12 hole muffin tin with cupcake liners. Fill each cupcake liner about ¾ of the way with batter.
Bake the cupcakes for approximately 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Place the cupcakes onto a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, whip together the softened butter and cream cheese on high speed, until fluffy and smooth.
Using low to medium speed, mix the powdered sugar into the butter-cream cheese mixture, ½ cup at a time.
Using medium-high speed, mix the vanilla extract and salt into the icing. Whip for an additional minute until fluffy.

In a medium pot, heat the sugar, corn syrup, and water over medium-high heat.
Prepare two baking sheets by lining with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.
Use a candy thermometer to monitor the temperature of the sugar mixture. Stir the mixture constantly until it boils, then reaches 300°F (hard tack candy temperature).
As soon as the sugar mixture reaches 300°F, immediately divide the mixture between the two baking sheets, carefully pouring the molten sugar.
Quickly rotate the baking sheets so the hot sugar mixture covers the sheets in a thin layer.
Allow the sugar sheets to cool and harden, 1-2 hours.
Use a heavy spoon to hit the hardened sugar sheets, cracking them into pieces. Continue until the pieces are your desired size.

Sift the cocoa powder into a bowl to remove lumps.
To the bowl, add the corn syrup and corn starch, whisking to combine. Stir in the food dyes.
To obtain half a drop of blue food dye, first drop it onto a spoon, then dip your whisk into the drop to add slowly.
To darken the "blood," slowly add either more blue food dye or cocoa powder.

When the cupcakes are cool, use a piping bag or plastic sandwich bag with the corner snipped off to frost the cupcakes with the cream cheese frosting.
Arrange various sized "glass" pieces across the top of the cupcakes. Drizzle with fake blood.
Serve, and have a Happy Halloween!

This red velvet cake has less chocolate flavor than some varieties. If you want more chocolate flavor, replace a 1/4 cup of the flour with cocoa powder.
If you don't have buttermilk, you can substitute 1/4 cup greek yogurt and 1/4 cup whole milk, mixed.

Keyword spooky broken glass red velvet cupcakes