meringue ghost cupcake toppers

            Of all the stuff I’m afraid of, and it’s a lot of stuff, the one Halloween thing that isn’t creepy to me are ghosts.  I feel like if a ghost hurt or killed me, so what? I could then become a ghost, too, and bug the heck out of the first ghost.  And even the idea of unfinished business seems a bit silly to me.  The same thing that seems super important, something feels like it NEEDS to be completed NOW, a few months later or before, might not even be a whisper of a care.  Everything about ghosts just seems so arbitrary.    I do love cute ghosts, and yummy ghosts, so today’s blog is about meringue ghost cupcake toppers. 

            Meringue gets a bad rap, people fret over over-beating the eggs (which supposedly can result in the meringue falling? I have never, ever experienced this and I have on a number of occasions set my eggs whipping and totally forgotten about them).   Humidity can be the enemy of meringue, but I made my meringue ghosts on the first rainy day we’ve had in months and they were fine, they didn’t last as long as meringue baked on a drier day (meaning the outer layer lost its meringue bite), but it isn’t the end of the world if they don’t have the perfect crispy shell that gives way to a tender inside.  My kids still gobbled them down days later and never mentioned being disappointed in them.  I’ve been faithfully making this recipe around Christmas for decoration on my buche de noel, and it has never let me down (like for 10 years now, so I would say I trust it). So I say, let go of any fear meringue and whip these cute little ghosts up tonight!

            To pipe them out, just do a kind of swirl that builds vertically up and ends in a point.  Or, pipe a base and then slowly build up the body of the ghost with a straight up point.  You could also add little arms and longer tails if you wanted.  Once you pipe and bake these up, use black royal frosting to make little faces, friendly or scary!   If piping ghosts is not your thing, make some Halloween dyed meringue picnic bombs.  You just spoon or pipe large piles of meringue and bakes just like the ghosts.  I saw these all over Edinburgh in pastel colors and just thought they looked dreamy.  So, for Halloween, make them orange and black and make them nightmare-y!

            And for a really weird kid’s movie that might have introduced the hundreds year old but young looking ghost hooking up with a ‘tween, check out Casper (is it weird that this is even a genre now?  Like why is this even a thing?).  But, he is so sweet and cute, it’s just hard not to fall in love with him, too.  And who doesn’t adore Christina Ricci and Bill Pullman?  See if you can spot the Ghostbusters tie in!  May all your meringue turn out perfect and may all your ghosts be friendly!  happy day 13 in the Halloween countdown!