Introduction: Bloody Broken Candy Glass Cupcakes for Halloween

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 Bloody Broken Glass Candy Cupcakes for Halloween

This is best as a 2 day project for cooling and futzing. It will take a few hours to do right. You can save time buying the cupcakes and icing, but the candy glass you will have to make (but it is really fun) chemistry is like magic. The last page has the ingredients and short version on one page to refer to while making everything.

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Ingredients

Cupcake Base:
1 Can white frosting ( or make your own from icing sugar, a bit of crisco, and water)
1 Box Red Velvet Cake Mix (or other flavour)
3 Eggs
Water
Oil


Sugar Glass:
2 cups water
1 cup light corn syrup (the clear white one, not golden)
3 1/2 cups white sugar
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
(some sort of grease or spray to grease the cookie sheet)

Edible Blood:
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 cup water, or more as needed
15 drops red food colouring
1 drop blue food colouring


Tools:
Various measuring cups and bowls
Candy Thermometer that goes to 300F (or bowl of cold water to do it the risky way)
Cookie sheet
Cupcake pans and cups
Hammer or heavy implement
 Whisk or wooden spoon
Large sauce pan
White tray for display
Toothpick or pin to pop bubbles in the hot candy glass
Spatula to scoop out corn syrop from measuring cup
Tongs ideally to avoid fingerprints in candy


Step 1: Making Cupcakes

You can buy ready made cupcakes to save time or make them from a box or scratch. My partner and I bought a red velvet cake mix at the store and just followed the instructions. Box made 20.

Fill the cups 1/2-2/3 full to get cupcakes that just fill the paper cups without making "muffin tops" overflow. White cups work the best as they show the red cake through and look more medical. The drips look better on them too.

We just used a can of frosting..but it would have been a bit better thicker. Next time I would make it from scratch and thick. It kind of melted being beside the warm oven. Best to do the next day, on a cool day.

Step 2: Making Candy Glass

Making candy glass is not technically difficult with the right tools, just takes timing. Cook too long and it turns yellow, cook too short it wont set. Done right it is awesome.

Sugar Glass:
2 cups water
1 cup light corn syrup
3 1/2 cups white sugar
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

This is enough to make a whole cookie sheet almost 1/4 thick...which is actually a little thick, feel free to pour some extra in a second cookie sheet.


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NOTE
If you have a candy thermometer, this is fairly straight forward, we didnt, so had to keep testing it by dropping the mixure in a bowl of cold water. At first it just disappears in the water, then gets little strings on the bottom, then a soft lump when you pull it off the bottom with a spoon from your testing waterbowl. Eventually it will form a fairly ridgid ball that is fairly solid when you pull it apart See pic of what a dollop in cold water looks like when you pull it out and it is done. (...thermometer is better though, the one we had only went to 220F) Dont set the thermometer on the bottom of the pan.

300F is very hot, and it is very sticky. DO NOT GET ON YOU. Oven mitts recommended for pouring. An apron too.
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Make the sugar glass:

Grease your cookie sheet, preferably with a clear substance, we used PAM but it is a little yellow.

Mix 2 cups water, 1 cup corn syrup, white sugar, and cream of tartar in a large saucepan.
(A rubber spatula helps get all the corn syrop out of the measuring cup).

Bring to a boil. (We did this on Lowish 2 on the dial, and it took 50 minutes, a higher temperature will be less time but risk turning yellow.)

Use a candy thermometer and boil sugar syrup until temperature reaches 300F degrees (hard ball), stirring regularly.
The mixture will thicken as water evaporates (it will take longer than you want to) it will be less than half the volume you started with and very very bubbly.

When sugar reaches 300F degrees, quickly pour onto a greased metal baking pan. (Tool long and the glass with turn yellow)

Tilt the pan to get even coverage.

Use a pin or toothpick to pop as many bubbles as you can to make it clear glass.

Cool until completely hardened (we let it set in the fridge overnight)

When you are ready to do the blood spattering:
We took the entire sheet out cold and wiped off the grease with a cloth. It gets sticky if you wet it with hot water, avoid that.
Break into "shards" using a meat mallet or heavy utensil. Best to do a little at a time, starting 1/4 down the pan with a good whack.
Use tongs to prevent fingerprints on the glass. We used a fork, knife, and tongs, and held the glass by the edges. Long shards look best. Try to use pieces with the fewest bubbles and smoothest surfaces.


Cleanup:

The candy will want to stick to itself, and the pan if it warms up or gets wet, or is handled much.
You can dissolve it in hot running water to cleanup. It might take a bit of time to loosen left overs off the cookie sheet , use a knife to unstick it during cleanup if you have to, or a flipper.


Step 3: Blood

Make the edible blood:

Mix together 1/2 cup corn syrup and cornstarch in a bowl or measuring cup.

Slowly stir in the 1/4 cup of water, adding more if necessary, until the corn syrup mixture has thickened to the consistency of blood, thicker is better.

Stir in the red food coloring.

The BLUE food colour is really strong, we put too much in orginally.
The second try we added the blue to a spoon full of already red blood, and then stirred it in with a second spoon.

We had a nice large white tray, and tested flicking and drizzling onto the surface. It is lighter on the white background. Experiment.

The blood works best cold, so put it in the fridge until ready to use it.

ALTERNATIVE METHOD:

If you dont have all the ingredients, there is nothing like the real thing, and you have all that glass sitting around.  :)



Step 4: Spattering Blood and Fun Stuff

NOTE: dont use small pieces for young kids, they could choke.

Summary:
Stab each frosted cupcake with a few shards of broken sugar glass.
Drizzle on drops of "blood" to complete the effect. Less is more here.

Display Instructions:

Since we were doing one for a cool display, we set up the whole tray before touching the cupcake.

We spattered the tray a bit with blood for practice.

Placed some larger shards flat on the tray, some on the blood, some not.

Then we spattered a bit more on the tray and shards. Feel free to drip it off your wrist for a real flow effect.

Then literally throw on some small and tiny pieces of glass.

(try not to THINK about your placement. Do it randomly, conscious thought makes it look fake. If you need to practice, get some broken potato chips and toss them on another tray. Then try to repeat that pattern with your glass.)

When the tray looks good place your first cupcake.

Put three large shards deep into the cupcake. Try to use the most sharp edged pieces that are flattest.

Drizzle a tiny tiny bit of blood at the bases of each piece.

Toss a few smaller shards on, making sure that some touch the large pieces.

Drizzle a bit of blood around, trying to make it drip over only one edge. Less is more, dont overdo it. thick blood works best. A trial cupcake on a separate plate works best.

You will have lots left over to play with, so do some imaginative photography when your main tray is done.


Happy Halloween
Craig

Step 5: Quick Instructions on One Page Recap

Broken Glass Cupcakes

Ingredients
1 Can white frosting
1 Box Red Velvet Cake Mix

Sugar Glass:
2 cups water
1 cup light corn syrup
3 1/2 cups white sugar
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

Edible Blood:
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 cup water, or more as needed
15 drops red food coloring
1 drop blue food coloring


Directions
Prepare Red Velvet Cake Mix According to box, line cupcake tins with paper cupcake liners.

Divide cake batter between lined cupcake tins, about 20  1/2-2/3 full.

Bake according to box instructions. Let cool and frost cupcakes with white frosting.

Make the sugar glass. Mix 2 cups water, 1 cup corn syrup, white sugar, and cream of tartar in a large saucepan; bring to a boil. Use a candy thermometer and boil sugar syrup until temperature reaches 300F degrees (hard ball), stirring constantly. The mixture will thicken as water evaporates. When sugar reaches 300F degrees, quickly pour onto a metal baking pan. Cool until completely hardened. Break into "shards" using a meat mallet or heavy utensil.

Make the edible blood. Mix together 1/2 cup corn syrup and cornstarch in a large bowl. Slowly stir in the 1/4 cup of water, adding more if necessary, until the corn syrup mixture has thickened to the consistency of blood. Stir in the red and blue food coloring.

Stab each frosted cupcake with a few shards of broken sugar glass. Drizzle on drops of "blood" to complete the effect. Less is more here.

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