Halloween is my favorite holiday (with Christmas at a close second), so I try to go all out when it comes to costumes and treats.   This year I went with a zombie theme and tried to recreate the Shirt.Woot.com t-shirt design called The Last Cupcake as well as make the scariest zombie costume I could think of.  Both turned out better than expected!

I made the zombie bodies with a template I got from Skip To My Lou and cut the tops off with my Provo Craft paper shapers. I think it was a grass design. I have to give credit to death by cupcake for giving me the idea to make the arms and weapons from paper. It really helped make the cupcakes look exactly like the shirt design.

I also made a couple other Halloween treats for the party I went to this weekend. Since I only used 13 cupcakes to make the zombie display, I divided the rest into skulls and spiders.

I decorated the skulls with white frosting, white jelly beans, M&Ms, half of a mini Oreo, and black gel for the nostrils. The spiders were decorated with chocolate frosting, candy coated sunflower seeds for the eyes, white jimmies for the fangs and metal spider cupcake stands from Target.

The last treat I made were chocolate truffles. They always go over well and are super easy to make. I found the recipe on the Kraft website once and was surprised at how few ingredients went into them.

They can be decorated with pretty much anything. I used a combination of candy melts, unsweetened cocoa, coconut flakes, powdered sugar, Halloween sprinkles and sanding sugar. To make them a little more festive for the holiday, I displayed them in little wooden coffins that I got from Michaels that I painted and decorated with glittery designs.

{Recipe}

Easy Chocolate Truffles

INGREDIENTS

• 1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
• 3 cups  powdered sugar
• 1-1/2 pkg. (12 squares) BAKER’S Semi-Sweet Chocolate, melted
• 1-1/2 tsp.  vanilla

DIRECTIONS

• BEAT cream cheese in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Gradually add sugar, mixing until well blended.
• ADD melted chocolate and vanilla; mix well. Refrigerate 1 hour or until chilled.
• SHAPE into 1-inch balls. Roll in walnuts, cocoa, powdered sugar or coconut. Store in refrigerator.

SUGGESTIONS

• For coatings: Ground walnuts, unsweetened cocoa, powdered sugar and/or flake coconut. The sky is the limit for coatings. Come up with your own toppings if you want.
• Add liqueur: Make as directed except omit the vanilla and add 2-3 tbsp. of almond, coffee or orange-flavored liqueur to the mixture. If you want to use all three, separate the mixture into thirds and flavor each third with one tbsp. of the liqueurs.

Recipe via Kraft Foods.

Happy Halloween Everyone!!

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