Halloween this week! Eeep! Did you decorate your house? Did your kids finally decide on a costume? Desmond changed his mind and wanted to be scarier than a Firefighter – so now he’s going as a Vampire. When Halloween falls on a weekday it gets pretty busy around here – daycare pick-up, quick dinner, last minute costume adjustments and off we go in search of treats.
If you want a cute treat this week that you can have after school, or even bring to school – this meringue ghosts will make any store bought cupcake ready for the spooky holiday. These ghosts can be made in advance and store well in an airtight container.
Choose your favourite cupcakes or buy some at the grocery store. Flatten the frosting a little and dip the cupcakes in a shallow bowl filled with black sprinkles – you can use any flavour you like, but I find chocolate frosting works best with the dark sprinkles. Once your meringue ghosts are done, just add them to each cupcake by gently inserting a toothpick in each ghost.
Have a spooktackular Halloween!
Ingredients
- 3 large egg whites, room temperature
- 3/4 cup sugar
- Large pinch of salt
- 2 squares of chocolate
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Combine egg whites and sugar in a heatproof bowl. Set bowl over a pot of simmering water, and stir until sugar dissolves and mixture is warm, about 3 minutes. Add salt
- Beat with a mixer on medium-high speed until stiff, glossy peaks form and meringue is mostly cooled, about 7 minutes.
- Fill a a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch round tip with meringue and pipe ghost shapes (rounded A's) onto parchment lined cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. As you finish piping each shape, apply less pressure to pastry bag, and swirl the tip off in a circular motion.
- Bake meringues until crisp on the outside but still soft inside, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack.
- In a shallow bowl melt chocolate in microwave in 10 second intervals. Once meringue ghosts are completely cool, dip a toothpick into the chocolate and dab two round eyes on each ghost. Let chocolate harden. Gently insert toothpicks into the bottom of each ghost and add to cupcake of choice.
