Cooking with Kids: Edible Cats for Halloween
Editor's Note: To continue our Halloween coverage, Matthew Amster-Burton shares this holiday cupcake idea for the kids: black cat cupcakes.
"My corporate overlords at Serious Eats have demanded a Halloween post," I told my daughter, Iris, 4. "What's something we could make together to eat for Halloween?"
"How about an edible cat?" she replied.
"That sounds hard."
"We could use cupcakes." This is her solution to everything.
We wanted them to be black cats, of course, but my wife Laurie reminded me that black food coloring tastes terrible, so we decided on dark chocolate frosting. (Chocolate is my solution to everything.) For tails and whiskers, we'd use black licorice whips. For the ears, wedges of York peppermint patties. And for the eyes, white M&M's. At the party store near our house, they have one of those M&M's displays where you can choose from over a dozen colors. "We should get a few blue, just in case," said Iris.
Nobody had black licorice whips in stock. Frankly, I'm glad stores sell black licorice at all. I'm the only person I know who likes it. We bought licorice twists and I cut them into thin slivers.
We baked and frosted a batch of cupcakes. Iris popped a peppermint patty wedge into her mouth. "Water! Right now!" she cried. I poured her some. "Okay, I'm going to eat the rest of this patty," Iris announced, "and I'm going to have the water right next to me."
The cats came out pretty good. On an objective 1-to-10 scale of cupcake art, well, cupcake books have gotten so crazy that these would probably rate about a 1.7. But Iris loved them. I noticed that she was extending her pinkies in fancy tea party style while eating her cat face. "That's because my thumbs are in the cake," she explained.
Next time, I told Iris, I thought maybe we should just make cat faces, since the way we did it, someone (me) gets stuck with a cat butt. Iris said no, if we did that, they'd only be half as big.
About the author: Matthew Amster-Burton lives in Seattle. His work appears frequently in the Seattle Times and Seattle magazine. He also maintains the blog Roots and Grubs. His favorite food is pad Thai.
View other entries from Cooking With Kids.
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11 Comments:
So where's the photos??
veggiesattva at 9:32AM on 10/16/08
@veggiesattva: Sorry for the delay; photo is in now!
And Matthew, the cat butt is a funny touch. ;D I usually just see cat faces when it comes to cat themed cupcakes. PEOPLE FORGET ABOUT THE BUTT!
roboppy at 10:05AM on 10/16/08
I laughed as I have a 4 yr old who would completely agree with your daughter. But in the cuteness scale I say 7 as they are adorable and look fun as a kid product. If i wasn't a martha fan I would have given them a 10 :) she raises the bar to high!!!!
luv2cook">http://luv2cooktoomuch.blogspot.com/">luv2cook
love2cook at 10:38AM on 10/16/08
I think most kids would be thrilled to eat them! They are adorable.
izzy's mama at 11:57AM on 10/16/08
no green eyes?
csbrown at 2:17PM on 10/16/08
Very cute!
Tonecat at 7:55PM on 10/16/08
You're not the only person you know who likes black licorice. Wendy and I both love it.
You should visit Holland. They love it there and you can get it in virtually whatever shape you want. Some of it is salted though, so if Iris ate it, she might want some water nearby. =)
nsilkton at 10:00PM on 10/16/08
Our friend Chris brings us salted licorice from Denmark. Iris hates it. I love it.
mamster at 2:58PM on 10/19/08
Don't like getting stuck with the cat butts? Put a peppermint patty between the cupcake and the icing. Yum! I'd make the cupcakes in my muffin tops pan for bigger kitties. More yummy chocolate frosting per bite!
kateinmo at 3:18PM on 10/26/08
Love this--you are spot-on about black food coloring--ew. The only thing more vile than a bunch of retirement celebrants black-gumming a cupcake is a preschooler doing the same.
"Look Mommy, we can play Bubonic Plague!"--sick, even by our household standards, so dark chocolate is the panacea for ALL once again.
Iris's logic seems very clear on cat-butts.
You COULD bypass the food-coloring issue & put a spin on cupcakes by going savory...my 5 and 2 year-old helped come up with these Turkey Meatloaf & Sweet Potato Puree Spiders (also in cupcake pans):
http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/dining/bal-fo.halloween29oct29,0,7915253.story
That sounds awfully healthy, but I can assure you we went straight back to the candy bowl.
Thanks for these ideas!--we'll make some cats (both ends).
PS: I love that salted licorice too. I once had a German brewery heiress in my Kindergarten class and ended up eating all of the forlorn Halloween party candy. Now I'm an addict.
HappyHoarfrost at 11:04AM on 10/29/08
I LOVE cupcakes! And, I LOVE kitties! I don't have kids, but I want to make this for my friends!
Linnea Covington at 10:33PM on 10/30/08