Chocolate, jam & vanilla spookcakes |

These are the ultimate Halloween treat. I wanted to make something this year that looked a little gory and spooky, and filled cupcakes are my newest obsession, so I figured that was the way forward.

I got my hands on some activated charcoal (on Amazon fyi) which not only do some people use for health benefits but also can be used as a natural black food colouring. So I did a little experimenting, and came up with some mega tasty cupcakes.

I decided to fill them with jam as it oozes out all gorily (that’s not a word is it) when you bite into them so very much on theme. I almost filled half of them with horseradish as I was taking a batch to a family dinner for people to taste test and I thought a cupcake roulette might be funny, but I don’t think it would have gone down so well and, more importantly, it would have been a waste of good cupcakes.

I made a delicious vanilla buttercream to go on top, and voila. My spookcakes are just the right amount of scary but my word do they taste good. Happy Halloween!

Makes around 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

For the cupcakes

1 cup dates
3/4 cup cacao powder
1 tbsp activated charcoal powder (optional, for colour)
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup ground almonds
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 cup almond milk
Natural fruit jam for the filling (I used St Dalfour raspberry jam)

For the frosting

1 cup cashews, soaked in hot water for two hours

1 cook coconut cream

1/4 maple syrup

1/4 coconut oil

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

To make the frosting, simply amazing blend the ingredients in a food processor for about 5 minutes until they become a smooth liquid. Place in an airtight container in the fridge for around two hours until it starts to set.

For the cupcakes, blend all the ingredients in a food processor again until you have a spooky smooth cupcake mixture, then spoon this into cake cases and bake in the oven for 20 minutes at 180C. Leave to cool completely then use an apple corer to take out the middles. Fill with jam using a teaspoon, then spoon or pipe the frosting on top! Store in the fridge for upto a week or in the freezer for upto two months.

Love, Mrs H xx