When Matthew (our biggest kiddo) was only a little bitty kindergartner, we made these awesome Frankenstein cupcakes.  Then Jose and I took them to the school to surprise him.  It was the first time I ever made treats for a classroom.  :)

So, today, I decided that we needed to make these cupcakes.  Yes, today.  Not when I’m done with school.  Now.  And so we did.

They didn’t turn out as perfect as I remember them being the first time.  And they don’t exactly look like the picture on the Family Fun website (I got the recipe from the Oct. 2001 magazine).  But they are cute, they were fun, and the whole family chipped in.  Definitely a winner in our book.

Again, the recipe is from Family Fun.  This is just a little description of how the project played out around here.  :)

Ingredients:

2 dozen cupcakes (you can make these from scratch or from a mix)

3.4 oz. box of vanilla instant pudding

green food coloring (I know, I know, but this is a special occasion)

1 c. of green melting candy (like Wilton Candy Melts–we got ours at Walmart)

24 large marshmallows

Mini M&Ms or Reese’s Pieces

Chocolate frosting

black decorating gel

green Tic Tacs

*You will also need wax paper and skewers, just in case you don’t usually keep those things on hand*

1. Make your cupcakes and allow to cool.

2. Prepare the vanilla pudding.  Add green food coloring until you like the shade.  Chill in refrigerator.

3. Melt your candy melts in a double boiler or the microwave.

4. Using the skewer, roll the marshmallow around in the melted candy until coated.  Spear the marshmallow with the skewer to transfer it to the wax paper.  Do this with all 24 marshmallows.  (The picture looks like I have these directly on the counter, but I don’t.  And I don’t recommend that you do, either.  Wax paper is your friend.)

5. IMPORTANT: Put the Reese’s Pieces/Mini M&Ms on each marshmallow RIGHT AWAY.  As in, immediately after pulling them out of the melts.  We did not do this and that’s why there is so much extra chocolate around our Frankensteins’ eyes.  We realized later this was important, so I’m giving you a heads up.  After you put your eyes on, put these in the refrigerator to chill.

6. While the marshmallows are chilling, you can work on frosting your cupcakes.  But before frosting, you will want to cut a small hole in the top of each cupcake.

7. Using a teaspoon (I found it was easier to use the kind you eat with, not the kind you measure with), fill the cupcake holes with the green vanilla pudding.

Like so:

8. Frost with chocolate frosting.

9. By now, your marshmallows should be cool.  Take them out of the refrigerator and, using black decorator’s gel, add the pupils to the eyes.

We did not have black decorator’s gel because we waited until four days before Halloween to buy it.  Can’t find it anywhere.  So, we melted dark chocolate.  Again, lots of extra chocolate hanging out on our Frankensteins that you don’t really need to have on yours.

10. Use the decorator’s gel to add the mouth, as well.

11.  Use the chocolate frosting to add the hair.  You can use a fork to make it spiky, if you’d like.  That’s what we did.

12.  Place the marshmallows on top of the cupcakes.

13.  Add green tic-tacs for the “bolts” (we couldn’t find the dark green ones…went to THREE stores…).

And there you go!  :)