For Halloween, we decided to make cupcakes with a “blood-filled” center!

Start with a basic vanilla cupcake recipe. We used our go-to baker’s secret, the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook.

They make something called a cupcake corer, but we didn’t have such an item, so we improvised with a small, biscuit-sized cookie cutter about the size of a quarter. Using the cookie cutter and a paring knife, you can gently pop little circles out of the top of your cupcakes.

Next, whip up some fake blood by adding a little lemon juice to some raspberry jam. Fill the cupcake holes with 1-2 teaspoons of this mixture, and be sure to leave room to replace the circular pieces of cupcake that you carved out earlier. They don’t have to look perfect, because you will cover them with icing later!

We didn’t get too fancy with our icing, sticking to basic Halloween orange and purple.

Serve to nearby zombie friends who are willing to get covered with icing and fake blood!

Happy Halloween!

This post is courtesy of the talented chefs at Garlic, My Soul!  Be sure to stop by their website to see posts like this one and many more!