Ingredients

For the sponge:

• 160g milk, any kind
• 1.5 tsp apple cider vinegar, white vinegar or lemon juice
• 160g light brown muscovado sugar (or other sugar you have will work)
• 100g sunflower oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
• 80g yoghurt, dairy or plant-based
• 160g self-raising flour
• 50g cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• Pinch of salt

• 250g block butter or plant-based block butter
• Vanilla extract (optional)
• 500g sifted icing sugar
• Food colouring gel (I used purple, green and orange)

• A little white and black ready to roll icing
• You can use ready-made sugar eyes if you like too
• Icing sugar

Tools

• kMix Stand Mixer

Method

For the cupcakes:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. line your cupcake tin.
2. Mix together milk and vinegar in a jug; the milk should curdle slightly, set aside
3. In a large bowl, sift or whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt to evenly distribute all the dry ingredients
4. In another large bowl, whisk in the sugar, oil and vanilla extract together, then whisk in the yoghurt, making sure to bash in any sugar lumps, then add the soured milk in and mix together
5. Gradually whisk the wet ingredients into the dry until smooth; be careful not to over-mix
6. Divide the batter evenly between the cupcake liners and bake for about 12-16 minutes until well risen and springy and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out almost clean - it should still be a little pasty, but not wet/glistening, slightly underbaked makes for a more fudgy cake!
7. Leave the cakes to cool in their tins for 5 minutes then carefully turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Allow to cool completely before icing. If you want to speed up the cooling you can pop them outside or in the fridge once they've cooled a bit

1. While they're cooling make the eyeballs, claws and roll them out a little bit for the mouths and teeth
2. Make the buttercream by beating the butter and vanilla on high speed in a stand mixer for a few minutes until pale and whippy (or beat with a wooden spoon in a bowl vigorously)
3. Gradually add the icing sugar, beating on a slow speed to start with then turning up the speed to the max until the frosting is pale, light and creamy. Split up the mix and colour to make your Halloween shades and place into the piping bags
4. Decorate your monster cupcakes as shown, if you don’t have a piping bag you can still spread the icing over with a knife to make the monster base colour and add the decorations.