7 DAYS FOOD & DRINK
METHOD
To make the cupcakes: 1. Preheat oven to 180°C/fan 170°C)/350°F/Gas Mark 4. 2. Place 12 cupcake cases into a cupcake tin. Put all the cupcake ingredients except the hot water into a bowl and fold until everything is evenly mixed. 3. Carefully add the boiling water and mix with a hand whisk, until the mixture is smooth. 4. Put the cupcake mix into the cases – this is a very liquid batter so pour with a jug. 5. Bake for 30 minutes, once cooked the cupcakes should be well risen and firm to touch. Leave to cool. To make the meringues: 1. Preheat oven to 220°C. 2. Place 120g of caster sugar on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper and heat for five minutes. 3. While sugar is in the oven, make up the egg white powder as directed on the packet whisking until it forms stiff peaks. 4. After five minutes remove sugar from oven and turn temperature down to 100°C. Whisk the hot sugar into the egg whites 1tbsp at a time. Once all sugar is added whisk meringue mixture until stiff and glossy. 5. Divide the meringue mixture into four bowls – add a few drops of black gel food colour to one bowl to make a grey colour, add lime green gel food colour to another bowl, ultra violet gel food colour to another and leave one bowl uncoloured. 6. Carefully fold in the gel food colour. Place each meringue mixture into a disposable piping bag and cut the end off each bag no bigger than a 5p piece. 7. Pipe your decorations on a flat baking tray lined with greaseproof paper. 8. For the tombstones, pipe an arch then a straight line to join. Fill in the middle with more meringue, with the grey meringue mix. 9. For the snakes, pipe a wiggly line with green meringue mix. 10. For the bones, pipe two dots then a straight line, then two more dots at the other end, using the white meringue mix. 11. For the ghosts, use the purple meringue mix, cut a larger hole in the bag (around 50p piece size) and pipe a large kiss then a smaller kiss on top (for the head). 12. Bake your meringues for 30 minutes or until they come off the tray in one piece. To decorate: 1. Once meringues are cooled, use the red writing icing to pipe oval eyes and mouths on the ghosts, eyes on the snakes and ‘RIP’ on the tombstones. Using the green writing icing, pipe zigzag lines down the snakes. 2. Crumble two cupcakes into a bowl. Using easy swirl chocolate icing, pipe swirls onto each cupcake. Then add some chocolate cake crumble ‘soil’ to each and stick in your meringue tombstones/snakes/ ghosts into the top.