Alright I’ll confess. I already have a bowl of lollies (candy) sitting on the kitchen bench ready for the trick-or-treaters. I have my low-key decorations by the front door ready to hang first thing on Thursday but I still need to decide on an appropriate outfit to greet the trick-or-treaters in.

I’m anticipating that I’ll have to be ready early as they tend to hit the streets before dinner time and before it gets dark. I’m a little bit excited can you tell?

If I knew my neighbours better – would you believe we’ve hardly met anyone yet? – I would probably offer home-baked goodies rather than store-bought rubbish. Maybe next year?

Wouldn’t you rather be given an choc hazelnut witches cupcake rather than a Fantail? I certainly would. I’ve seen a cute way of packaging them up on Pinterest where you place a single cupcake in a clear plastic cup then wrap it up with cellophane. It looks adorable and stops them getting damaged. They might even survive an hour in a bucket full of candy.

For some reason I associated hazelnut with witches. Could be form hearing witches hazel perhaps? Who knows how my brain works sometimes. It really doesn’t matter what sort of cupcake you hide below the pointy hats but I’d encourage you to make these.

They’re so light and fluffy it’s a bit like eating a ferrero rocher in cake form. I could eat the choc-hazelnut icing with a spoon (ok so maybe I did eat a little straight from the bowl, for research purposes only).

Don’t feel restricted to Halloween either. Feel free to leave the hats right off and decorate as you like for choc hazelnut cupcakes suitable for any occasion. Enjoy!

What about you? Would you rather wrapped lollies or baked treats in your trick-or-treat basket?

Choc hazelnut witches cupcakes

Yield: 18

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

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Ingredients

Cakes

• 100g dark chocolate, chopped
• 3/4 cup water
• 100g (3oz) butter, softened
• 1 cup (220g) firmly-packed brown sugar
• 3 free-range eggs
• 1/4 cup (25g) cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup (110g) self-raising flour
• 1/3 cup (35g) hazelnut meal

Icing

• 2 tbsp butter, softened,
• 2 tbsp choc-hazelnut spread
• 2 cups icing (confectioner's) sugar
• milk or water to thin the icing
• black cupcake cases for the witches hats

Instructions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 160C fan-forced and line two 12-hole muffin tins with cupcake liners (recipe makes about 18).
2. In a medium saucepan, melt the chocolate and water, stirring, over low heat until smooth.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and creamy then add the eggs, one at a time.
4. Take the bowl off the stand and fold in the sifted cooca and flour then the hazelnut meal and finally the melted chocolate mixture.
5. Divide the batter between the cupcake liners filling them about 2/3 of the way.
6. Bake for 20 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean.
7. Leave to rest in the tin for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
8. While the cakes are cooling, make the icing by beating the butter and hazelnut spread together with and electric mixer until smooth and creamy.
9. Slowly add the icing sugar and when it is mixed in, add a little milk or water at a time until the icing is spreadable.
10. Beat until fluffy.
11. When the cakes are cool, pipe the icing over the top.
12. To make the witches hats, flatten out the cupcake liners then fold them in half wrapping them like a cone shape. Use a staple to hold the two sides together then spread out the 'brim' of each hate and poke out the point.
13. Place a hat on top of each cake.

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