Garlic Cupcakes to Keep You Safe From Vampires This Halloween

On a dark night, just a few days until Halloween, an innocent, unsuspecting cupcake baker sat down to eat her latest creation.

Little did she know that a vampire lurked in the shadows.

The vampire was particularly interested in the cupcake baker, for her blood was extra sweet from eating lots of cupcakes.

The vampire drew closer. The cupcake baker noticed and panicked (but just for a moment).

Suddenly, things went black and white.

But, the cupcake baker had nothing to fear. The cupcake that she was eating was a garlic cupcake and everyone knows that garlic wards off vampires (unless they are Twilight vampires like Edward that you wouldn't want to ward off).

Yes, that's a chocolate covered garlic clove that you see on there.

The vampire dramatically fell to her doom.

Should you want to protect yourself from vampires this Halloween (which I highly recommend), the garlic cupcake recipe is below. While the cupcakes are deathly for the undead, humans are surprisingly fond of them. Several mortals claimed that the combination of flavors (chocolate, coffee, and garlic) actually worked quite well together. "We liked the garlic cupcakes and were surprised to find that a little hint of garlic actually does work with chocolate!" said taster Hao.

The garlic in the cake isn't all that strong, but it does leave you with garlic breath. The garlic in the frosting, however, is quite intense. Jonathan said that the frosting would be great on pasta. I'll post a video review from Bride and Groom 3.0 later in the week (I'm not expecting them to choose this one for their wedding, but you never know).

Garlic Cupcake Recipe

Yield: 18-20 cupcakes

• 2 C flour
• 1 1/2 t baking powder
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 3/4 C unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2/3 C sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 C sour cream
• 4 1/2 oz bittersweet chocolate
• 2/3 C brewed coffee
• 8 cloves roasted garlic (see my post on how to roast garlic, but skip the part about covering it in chocolate)
  

1. Whisk flour, baking powder, and baking soda in a bowl.
2. Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl for 1 minute, until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in eggs and sour cream.
4. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or the microwave.
5. Mix the chocolate into the wet ingredients.
6. Alternately fold in the flour mixture and coffee into the batter.
7. Mash garlic cloves and mix into batter.
   
8. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full.
   
9. Bake at 350 F for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out of the cupcake clean.

Garlic Coffee Cream Cheese Frosting

• 8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/4 C unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3 C powdered sugar, sifted
  
• 2 t garlic powder
• 1 t ground coffee

1. Beat cream cheese and butter until smooth.
2. Slowly mix in the powdered sugar.
3. Mix in the garlic powder and ground coffee until integrated.
   

Credits

Special thanks go out to makeup artist Jennifer from Looks by JLW for doing the makeup for this shoot. Our vampire would not have been nearly as spooky without it. Jennifer did an awesome job and, more importantly, she was willing to try the garlic cupcake and even liked it.

Thanks also go out to our vampire, my friend Christina, and, of course, my awesome in-house photographer!