Tombstone cupcakes for Halloween - these impressive chocolate graveyard cupcakes with gingerbread tombstones, cookie dirt and royal icing bones are seriously spooky, utterly delicious and totally vegan! Step by step photos included.
I realised last week that although I have made a lot of Halloween cakes for the blog, and various other small spooky things; I hadn't done a single Halloween cupcake recipe! I have plenty of ideas for cupcakes, just none that I had gotten round to actually making.
Obviously that needed to be fixed so I ticked one of my ideas off the list by baking these spooky Halloween tombstone cupcakes.
I adapted my ever popular and seriously delicious vegan chocolate fudge cake recipe to turn it into cupcakes, which worked perfectly (it is a very adaptable cake recipe).
They are topped with a light and fluffy vegan chocolate buttercream which is then coated in crushed chocolate sandwich biscuits. I used chocolate filled Oreos, but Bourbon's would also work; or just use your favourite variety of vegan chocolate biscuits.
The tombstones are made from my easy, crisp vegan gingerbread, and are decorated with vegan royal icing which is made with aquafaba (the liquid drained from a tin of chickpeas) rather than egg whites. It is really easy to whip up and even if you aren't vegan, it means no more worrying about eating raw egg whites!
I also used some of the royal icing to make little bones to top the cupcakes with. It dries out really well but it can take about 4-5 hours to dry so I recommend making these cupcakes over two days. You can do it all in one day provided you start early however!
On day one (or early in the morning), bake the tombstones biscuits, make the royal icing and pipe the bones. Outline and flood the tombstones.
On day two (or in the afternoon), pipe the cobweb and writing details on the tombstones, bake the cupcakes (you can also bake the cupcakes on day one if you prefer), make the buttercream and assemble the cupcakes.
Don't be put off by the long list of instructions, everything is very easy to make and the only time-consuming part is decorating the tombstones. If you want to make it a little quicker, you could just make a half batch of the royal icing, skip colouring the tombstones grey and just write on them instead.
The tombstone cupcakes are best eaten on the day they are assembled but they will keep in an airtight container for a couple of days.
How To Make Tombstone Cupcakes:
(For ingredients and full instructions see the recipe card below)
*For the best results make sure that you follow the recipe closely. As always, I highly recommend using the gram measurements (with a digital scale), rather than the cup conversions. Cup measurements are simply not accurate enough for baking and I cannot guarantee the best results if you use them.*
Gingerbread Tombstones:
Start by making the gingerbread tombstones. Melt coconut oil, sugar, golden syrup, treacle and water together in a pan. Whisk in cinnamon, ginger, cloves and bicarbonate of soda then stir in plain flour.
Cover the pan and refrigerate for about an hour until firm. Shape into a ball then roll the dough out thinly on a floured surface.
Use a sharp knife to cut out tombstone shapes. They need to fit on top of cupcakes so make sure that you don't cut them too big; but they also need to be tall enough to push some of the length into the cupcakes - about 7-7.5cm tall by 4cm wide is what I went for.
I have a tombstone cookie cutter but it was too big so I just used it as a guide to cut the more detailed shapes. Don't worry about getting them all the same; it is good to have some different shapes and sizes.
You will need 12 tombstones for the cupcakes but it is best to make a few extra so that you can pick the best ones.
Place the tombstones on two baking sheets lined with baking parchment and freeze while you preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Bake the biscuits for about 10 minutes until lightly coloured around the edges.
Vegan Royal Icing:
To make the vegan royal icing, whisk the aquafaba with an electric mixer until foamy then add the icing sugar and whisk until thick and glossy. It can take a little longer than egg whites to thicken up but it is possible to over-beat it so be careful.
The perfect piping texture is thick and smooth but still very slightly fluid. If it is too runny then you can stir in some more sugar; and if it is too thick then you can add a drop of lemon juice or water.
Keep the icing covered at room temperature so that it doesn't dry out.
Place a few spoonfuls of the royal icing in a piping bag fitted with a very small round nozzle (about 1-2mm) (or a disposable piping bag with just the very tip snipped off).
Pipe small bone shapes onto a piece of baking parchment - use a little of the icing to stick the corners to a baking tray to make it easier to pipe.
You will need about 3 bones per cupcake so I made about 50 of them to be safe (don't worry, they are very quick to pipe once you get the hang of it). Set them aside to dry at room temperature; mine took about 4 hours to dry out but it will depend on the temperature and humidity where you are.
Place a few spoonfuls of the icing in a bowl and stir in a little vegan black gel food colouring to colour it grey. Bear in mind that the colour will deepen as it sits so aim for a couple of shades lighter than you want it to end up.
I used Sugarflair black extra which is vegan, but it turned out more purple than grey so I would use a different shade next time (Sugarflair licorice maybe).
Spoon the icing into a piping bag fitted with a small round nozzle (about 1-2mm as before) and carefully pipe a border around the edges of the tombstones.
Colour a couple of spoonfuls of the icing grey as before, but this time stir in a little lemon juice or water so that the icing forms a flooding consistency.
Carefully spoon some of the icing inside the piped border of the tombstones. I use a small teaspoon to nudge it towards the edges so that the entire surface inside the border is covered.
Set the tombstones aside to dry at room temperature for about 4-5 hours (or overnight).
Once the tombstones are dry, spoon some of the leftover white icing into a piping bag fitted with the same small nozzle (I had some left in the bag from making the bones so I just used that). Pipe cobwebs onto the tops of the tombstones and your choice of lettering in the middle.
The royal icing may become a little runnier if it has been left overnight; if it is too runny to pipe (mine was fine) then you can stir in a little extra sifted icing sugar to thicken it up again.
Use a fine paintbrush dipped in black gel food coluring to paint some little cracks on the edges of the tombstones.
Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes:
To make the vegan chocolate cupcakes, preheat the oven to 180C/350F and line a 12 hole muffin tin with muffin cases.
Whisk together dairy-free milk, vinegar, sugar, oil and vanilla extract. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt and instant espresso powder (it doesn't make the cupcakes taste like coffee, it just deepens the chocolate flavour a bit.)
Whisk the wet and dry ingredients together, being careful not to over-mix as that can make the cakes tough.
Divide the batter between the liners and bake for about 20 minutes until a skewer inserted into one of the cupcakes comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Vegan Chocolate Buttercream:
Melt some chopped dark chocolate and set aside. Whisk together vegetable shortening and dairy free margarine until smooth then whisk in sifted cocoa powder followed by sifted icing sugar and vanilla extract.
Beat for a good few minutes until light and fluffy then beat in the melted chocolate a little at a time.
Assembly:
To assemble the tombstone cupcakes, spread a generous dollop of the buttercream on top of each cupcake. There is no need to be neat.
Coat each cupcake in crushed chocolate sandwich biscuits to make the soil. the easiest way to do this is to put the crushed biscuits in a wide bowl, hold the cupcake over the bowl, pick up handfuls of the crumbs and gently press them onto the buttercream.
Use a sharp knife to cut a slit into each cupcake where you want the tombstone to sit then carefully push a tombstone biscuit into the slit. Add more crushed Oreos around the tombstone and top each cupcake with a few of the dried bones.
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Tombstone Cupcakes Recipe:
Tombstone Cupcakes For Halloween (Vegan)
Ingredients
Gingerbread Tombstones:
- 100 g (3.5oz) coconut oil
- 80 g (⅓ + ⅛ cup) light brown soft sugar
- 50 g (2 Tbsp) golden syrup (or light molasses)
- 25 g (1 Tbsp) treacle or molasses
- 1 tablespoon water
- 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- 250 g (2 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour
Vegan Royal Icing:
- 4 tablespoon aquafaba (the liquid drained from a tin of chickpeas)
- 250 g (2 ½ cups) icing (powdered) sugar sifted
- black gel food colouring
- a couple of teaspoons of lemon juice
Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes:
- 270 ml (1 cup + 2 Tbsp) unsweetened dairy free milk (I use soy)
- 1 teaspoon cider vinegar
- 200 g (1 cup) caster sugar
- 120 ml (½ cup) sunflower oil
- 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 180 g (1 ½ cups) plain (all-purpose) flour
- 60 g (½ cup) cocoa powder
- ¾ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon instant espresso powder (optional)
Vegan Chocolate Buttercream:
- 75 g (2.5 oz) dark chocolate chopped
- 75 g (¼ cup + 1 Tbsp) vegetable shortening (such as Trex)
- 75 g (¼ cup + 1 Tbsp) dairy free margarine (I use Stork (the kind that comes in a stick)
- 25 g (¼ cup) cocoa powder sifted
- 150 g (1 ½ cups) icing (powdered) sugar sifted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 12 oreos/bourbon biscuits/chocolate sandwich biscuits crushed - either in a food processor or with a rolling pin
Instructions
Gingerbread Tombstones:
- Start by making the gingerbread tombstones. Melt the coconut oil, sugar, golden syrup, treacle and water together in a pan over a low heat. Whisk in the cinnamon, ginger, cloves and bicarbonate of soda then stir in the plain flour to form a dough.
- Cover the pan and refrigerate for about an hour until firm. Shape the dough into a ball then roll it out thinly on a floured surface.
- Use a sharp knife to cut out tombstone shapes. They need to fit on top of cupcakes so make sure that you don't cut them too big; but they also need to be tall enough to push some of the length into the cupcakes - about 7-7.5cm tall by 4cm wide is what I went for.
- Don't worry about getting them all the same; it is good to have some different shapes and sizes. You will need 12 tombstones for the cupcakes but it is best to make a few extra so that you can pick the best ones. Re-roll the scraps and cut out more shapes (there is enough dough to make some extra biscuits)
- Place the tombstones on two baking sheets lined with baking parchment and place them in the freezer for 15 minutes while you preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4.
- Bake the biscuits for about 10 minutes until lightly coloured around the edges. Transfer them to a wire rack and leave to cool completely. Once cool, store in an airtight container.
Vegan Royal Icing:
- To make the vegan royal icing, whisk the aquafaba with an electric mixer until foamy then add the sifted icing sugar and whisk until thick and glossy. It can take a little longer than egg whites to thicken up but it is possible to over-beat it so be careful.
- The perfect piping texture is thick and smooth but still very slightly fluid. If it is too runny then you can stir in some more sugar; and if it is too thick then you can add a drop of lemon juice or water.
- Keep the icing covered at room temperature so that it doesn't dry out.
- Place a few spoonfuls of the royal icing in a piping bag fitted with a very small round nozzle (about 1-2mm) (or a disposable piping bag with just the very tip snipped off).
- Pipe small bone shapes onto a piece of baking parchment - use a little of the icing to stick the corners to a baking tray to make it easier to pipe.
- You will need about 3 bones per cupcake so I made about 50 of them to be safe (don't worry, they are very quick to pipe once you get the hang of it). Set them aside to dry at room temperature; mine took about 4 hours to dry out but it will depend on the temperature and humidity where you are.
- Place a few spoonfuls of the icing in a bowl and stir in a little vegan black gel food colouring to colour it grey. Bear in mind that the colour will deepen as it sits so aim for a couple of shades lighter than you want it to end up.
- Spoon the coloured icing into a piping bag fitted with a small round nozzle (about 1-2mm as before) and carefully pipe a border around the edges of the tombstones.
- Colour a couple of spoonfuls of the icing grey as before, but this time stir in a little lemon juice or water so that the icing forms a flooding consistency.
- Carefully spoon some of the icing inside the piped border of the tombstones. I use a small teaspoon to nudge it towards the edges so that the entire surface inside the border is covered.
- Set the tombstones aside to dry at room temperature for about 4-5 hours (or overnight).
- Once the tombstones are dry, spoon some of the leftover white icing into a piping bag fitted with the same small nozzle (I had some left in the bag from making the bones so I just used that). Pipe cobwebs onto the tops of the tombstones and your choice of lettering in the middle.
- The royal icing may become a little runnier if it has been left overnight; if it is too runny to pipe (mine was fine) then you can stir in a little extra sifted icing sugar to thicken it up again.
- Use a fine paintbrush dipped in black gel food coluring to paint some little cracks on the edges of the tombstones.
Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes:
- To make the vegan chocolate cupcakes, preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4 and line a 12 hole muffin tin with muffin cases.
- Whisk together the dairy-free milk, vinegar, sugar, oil and vanilla extract. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt and instant espresso powder.
- Whisk the wet and dry ingredients together until smooth but be careful not to over-beat the mixture.
- Divide the batter between the liners and bake for about 20 minutes until a skewer inserted into one of the cupcakes comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Vegan Chocolate Buttercream:
- Melt the chopped dark chocolate, either in a heat-proof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water (don't let the base of the bowl touch the water), or as I do in short busts in the microwave, stirring every 10 seconds. Set aside.
- Whisk together the vegetable shortening and dairy free margarine with an electric mixer until smooth, then whisk in the sifted cocoa powder followed by the sifted icing sugar and vanilla extract.
- Beat the buttercream for a good few minutes until very light and fluffy then beat in the melted chocolate a little at a time.
Assembly:
- To assemble the tombstone cupcakes, spread a generous dollop of the buttercream on top of each cupcake. There is no need to be neat.
- Coat each cupcake in crushed chocolate sandwich biscuits to make the soil. the easiest way to do this is to put the crushed biscuits in a wide bowl, hold the cupcake over the bowl, pick up handfuls of the crumbs and gently press them onto the buttercream.
- Use a sharp knife to cut a slit into each cupcake where you want the tombstone to sit then carefully push a tombstone biscuit into the slit. Add more crushed biscuits around the tombstone and top each cupcake with a few of the dried bones.
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature.
Notes
Sally Hossack
Very clever Hannah
Jessica
I won best tasting cake at my work’s Bake Off competition with your recipe, and people were shocked when they found out it was vegan! This is now my go-to chocolate cupcake recipe. Thank you so much!!