HALLOWEEK DAY #4 - PUMPKIN SPICED CUPCAKES WITH GHOSTLY BUTTERSCOTCH BUTTERSCREAM ICING

These little ghost cupcakes are perfect for halloween. The combination of warming pumpkin spice and sweet butterscotch make these cupcakes a perfect autumnal treat! I made six large ghostly cupcakes but you could also make 12 small ones with the recipe.

You will need:

For the cupcakes-

70g Brown Sugar

75g Butter, softened.

2 Large Eggs

150g Self Raising Flour, sifted.

1 tsp Vanilla extract

2-3 tbsp Milk or milk alternative (I used Almond milk)

2 tsp Pumpkin spice - (I used this recipe to make a batch but added a little more cinnamon than the recipe states as I love cinnamon!)

Pinch of salt

And for the buttercream Icing -

250g Icing Sugar

75g Softened Unsalted Butter

2 tsp Lyles Butterscotch Syrup
2 tbsp milk

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius (160 fan oven)

Place all of the cupcake ingredients into a mixing bowl and beat until well mixed and smooth with an electric whisk. Add a little more milk if needed so that the batter is of dropping consistency. Spoon the cupcake batter into your cupcake cases so that they are  half to 2/3rds full and then place in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until they are starting to turn golden brown and the middle is cooked (check with a skewer). Once they are cooked, transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the buttercream: Add all of the buttercream icing ingredients above to a clean mixing bowl and beat until thick and smooth. 
Add the icing to a piping bag and then to make little ghosts hold the bag steady and pipe down onto the cupcakes until it spreads out to make the base of the ghost. For the head, stop squeezing and lift up slightly and then pipe a smaller amount. To get the point, pull sharply up as you stop squeezing and then pop in two little chocolate drops in for the eyes.

I've made these twice now as they taste so good. I only like to add a small amount of sugar to the cupcake batter as the butterscotch buttercream icing is pretty sweet, but add more if you like super sweet cupcakes!

Let me know if you give these a go!