Spook season is here - Trick or Treerrt - Cupcakes Galore!!

Halloween season was around the corner, when the witchy woman, Mother Nature came up with her bag of spooktacular surprises! First there was rain, some hail, and then what do you know - we got our first snowfall.. Ok, it won't stick we thought, but that turned out to be a Halloween Nor'easter with about 12" of snow, and that of course, came with its price.. 
Trick or Tree! Over 3 million people in the East coast area lost power due to the vast downing of trees with power lines affected as a result. 

Yes, we did lose power, but luckily for us, we had invested in a generator, so it was manageable. We were careful about conserving power though but using switches and devices only as needed.

Trick-or-treating for the town has been postponed by a week, and I decided to make nice Halloween goody bags for neighbors and friends with some frosted Halloween cupcakes and Cat-themed cookies.

This year, I decided to use a good old brownie mix and some chocolate cake mix, and incorporate some tweaks to suit it to the Halloween theme.  I have followed some tips and tricks from Giada De Laurentiis, awesome baking chef from Food Network.

Chocolate Orange Cupcakes with Orange Sugar frosting

Recipe ideas from Giada De Laurentiis

Prep Time: 10 min
Cook Time: 35 min
Serves: 24 cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

• 1 box chocolate cake mix and/or Brownie mix
• Orange juice (instead of water in cake mix), eggs, oil ( as much as box recipe demands)
• 1 cup diced candied orange peel (about 8 ounces)

Frosting:

• 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons limoncello (you can substitute with 2 tablespoons lemon juice for minors)
• 2 tablespoons orange juice
• 1 orange, zested
• 1/4 cup finely diced candied orange peel, for garnish
• Special equipment: cupcake liners, 2 muffin pans

Directions

To make the cupcakes: mix the chocolate cake mix according to package instructions, substituting orange juice for the water. Fold the the candied orange peel into the chocolate mixture. Line the muffin pan with the cupcake liners. Fill and bake the cupcakes according to package instructions. Let the cupcakes cool for 1 hour on a wire rack before frosting.

To make the frosting: combine all the ingredients except the candied orange peel in a medium bowl. Using a hand mixer, beat until smooth, about 2 minutes. Using a small spatula, place about 1 tablespoon of frosting on top of each cupcake. Top with a small sprinkle of candied orange peel.