I have always been fascinated with the thought of witches. Blame should probably go to Elizabeth Montgomery and her portrayal of Samantha in Bewitched. Or subsequently my mother, for letting me watch it.
Bewitched completely bewitched me in my youth. Samantha was beautiful, blonde and had magical powers. I wanted to be her. Oh my God I wanted to be her, who wouldn’t!? Clever, articulate, attractive and she could turn a person in to a toad with the twitch of her nose. If only I could do that today, frog legs would be readily available in Sydney. But I also want a Mario Cart to drive around in, to help appease my road rage……... It’s all good, I’m working on my anger issues, promise.
Samantha's only downfall, in my very young mind’s opinion, was that she married an absolute dick of a husband. No wonder Endora didn’t particular like him and called him everything under the sun but Darren.
Watching Bewitched led to a long life obsession to wanting to visit Salem, and I recently did when I was in the USA last month. I had my photograph taken with the Elizabeth Montgomery statue and enjoyed a lot of really touristy witchy things. I’ll share my Salem adventures with you sometime in the not too distant future.
It was the combination of my witch obsession and recently made iced side down cup cakes that conjured the witches’ cauldron cup cake idea in my mind. I thought by icing your cup cakes from the bum up it would create a great fire effect. Then the rest was just making it look like a witches’ brew.
The cup cakes are light and rich. I use raw cacao powder in the recipe, only because that is what I have on hand. Cocoa is a fraction of the price and will give you the desired result.
There is enough icing on and under these witches cauldron cup cakes to induce diabetes, and enough food colouring to have your child climbing the walls. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. But hey, they’re a sometimes food, go for it, live dangerously.
Or get your own back on the neighbourhood. Hand them out to the visiting kids on Halloween. Not that it’s something I would ever do or condone. Who am I kidding, of course I would.
I will admit I am not 100% happy with the result of how these witches cauldron cup cakes look, but I am sharing them anyway. As I sat pouting at their decorated non-perfection I was reminded, gently, why I started Belly Rumbles in the first place. It wasn’t to share perfect food, with perfect photos, though I do try. The real reason why I started this blog was to share my culinary journey, and I’m not perfect by any means. I state this loud and proud in my first ever post.
So there you go, these are my iced side down, iced on the top and sure to enduce diabetes witches cauldron cup cakes for Halloween. You won’t have any problems recreating these at home. Hell, your six year old would do a better job than I did.
Sara xxx
Printable Recipe
Witches Cauldron Cup Cakes
Ingredients
- 100 grams butter room temperature
- ½ cup caster sugar
- ⅓ cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup raw cacao powder you can use cocoa, sifted
- ½ teaspoon bicarbonate soda
- ½ cup milk
- 3 cups icing sugar
- 2 tablespoons cacao extra or cocoa
- red black and green food colour
- Various lollies to make the witches brew and pretzels or wafer biscuits to make the stirrer.
Instructions
- Preheat oven 180° C (350° F). Place 10 large cupcake papers (muffin size) in 10 muffin holes in a muffin tray.
- With electric beaters or using your stand mixer, cream butter with caster and brown sugar until creamy and slightly “fluffy”.
- Add eggs one at a time, continuing to beat after each addition until incorporated.
- Mix through sifted flour, cacao powder, bicarbonate soda and milk until completely combined.
- Evenly distribute batter between the cupcake papers and bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes until cooked through, test one with a skewer.
- Once you remove the cupcakes from the oven, remove them from the cupcake papers immediately, don’t allow them to cool in the papers or the papers may stick to the cupcakes.
- Leave to cool thoroughly on a cake rack before icing.
- Once the cupcakes have cooled they are ready to ice.
- Brush any loose crumb from the cup cakes, where the papers were removed.
- Brown icing: Sift ½ cup icing sugar and 3 tablespoons of cacao in to a bowl. Add a little water and stir well. Add a dash of black food colouring, mix well with a little more water if needed. You want a thick icing, which can be piped. Place brown icing in an icing bag. Twist the opening of the bag to seal it, leave to the side until required.
- Green icing: Sift ½ cup icing sugar in to a bowl. Add a little water and stir well. Add a dash of green food colouring, mix well with a little more water if needed. You want a thick icing, which can be piped. Place green icing in an icing bag. Twist the opening of the bag to seal it, leave to the side until required.
- Red icing: Sift 2 cups of icing sugar into a medium size bowl. Add ½ teaspoon of red food colouring with a little water and start to mix. Continue to add a little water and red colouring until you reach the desired colour and consistency for the icing. You want it to be fire red and rather thick, but still runny enough to dribble down the sides of the cupcakes.
Snip the tip off your brown icing bag. It is best to snip a little off and then make the piping hole bigger if needed. Pipe a brown circle of icing around the edge of the top of each cup cake. Leave to dry. You are doing this to keep your yet to be drizzled flames from being covered with icing in the final stage.
Once chocolate icing has dried on the tops of the cup cakes, turn the cupcakes upside down and ice from the bases so the icing drizzles down the sides.
With both brown and green icing bags, squirt splodges of icing on the top of the cup cakes, being careful not to ice of the red icing. With a knife smooth out the icing and smear the colours together a little.
- Sprinkle the top of the cup cakes with lollies that look like they would be part of a witches’ brew and insert a wafer or pretzel in to the cup cake as the witches’ stirrer.
Measurement Notes
All measurements are Australian metric standard. All measures are level, and cups are lightly packed unless specified. 1 teaspoon = 5ml / 1 tablespoon = 20mls / 1 cup = 250ml /4 teaspoons = 1 tablespoon.
NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION
The recipe's nutritional information is an approximation based on an online calculator. It is meant solely for reference purposes. If you're looking for precise details, be sure to double-check with your own research.
Helen | Grab Your Fork
Such a cute idea! And lol I do wonder whether Bewitched was so popular because so many women identified with Samantha stuck with a bumbling husband. Haha.
Sara
Thanks Helen. I seriously just wanted to smack Darren at the best of times.