A Zombie Ate My Cupcake: 25 Deliciously Weird Cupcake Recipes

by Lily Vanilli

The author uses natural ingredients and edible decorating materials to design 25 Halloween-themed creations, including Eerie Eyeballs, Ghastly Ghouls, Dracula's Bite Red Velvet Cupcakes, Bleeding Hearts, Fallen Angel Cakes and more.

Genres: Cookbooks, Nonfiction, Cooking, Food, Halloween, Reference, Food and Drink

63 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many great ideas for Halloween! Lots of great ideas that will make your next party a big hit! Really like books like this because you get lots of great ideas that you can try over time. Gave a copy of this book to a friend as a gift and got lots of great treats in return! Sure to be the hit at your next Halloween party!

[Elsa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I need me some black rose cupcakes!

[Lollie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deliciously fun and fantastic recipes that are surprisingly not too difficult.

[WarmerSommerregen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sehr abwechslungsreich und ausgefallen!

Die Kuchendesignerin Lily Vanilli betreibt in London eine Konditorei. Angefangen hat für sie alles mit einem Wochenmarktstand in Swanfield. Schon bald war, so schreibt sie im Vorwort, ein wahrer Cupcake-Hype ausgebrochen. Doch während die meisten Cupcakes außen zwar sehr schön, jedoch geschmacklich nicht sonderlich überzeugend waren, hatte sich Lily Vanilli, alias Lily Jones, in den Kopf gesetzt, es genau anders herum zu handhaben: Äußerlich grotesk, aber dafür sehr lecker- so sollten ihre Cupcakes sein.
Schon bald experimentierte sie mit Zutaten und gestaltete ihre Werke mit Würmern oder Käfern. In ihrem Buch “Zombie Cupcakes- Lecker bis zum letzten Biss!” stellt sie einige ihrer Rezepte vor und gibt Tipps zum Dekorieren von Cupcakes oder Küchlein und möchte somit auch die Phantasie eines jeden Backbegeisterten anregen.
Von menschlichen Körperteilen, Würmern und Käfern bis hin zu jeder Menge (Un)Toter: Die Cupcakes sehen allesamt gruselig aus.

Das Buch ist so aufgebaut, dass zu erst die einzelnen Dekorationsvorschläge gegeben werden, die alle auf verschiedenen Grundrezepten, die anschließend zu finden sind, aufbauen. Man benötigt dann zum Beispiel einen Satz Red-Velvet-Cupcakes von Seite 58, um diese gruselig gestalten zu können. Daran lässt sich auch erkennen, dass der Fokus in diesem Buch auf dem Dekorieren und Verschönern liegt, darin, den Cupcakes ein außergewöhnliches Aussehen zu verleihen.
Im Anschluss an die Grundrezepte folgt eine Seite mit wichtigen Werkzeugen und Arbeitsmitteln, sowie Erklärungen dazu, wie und wofür man sie verwendet. Zentral sind verschiedene Modellierwerkzeuge. Auch angegeben werden zwei Internetseiten, von denen sich diese Materialien beziehen lassen sollen.
Insgesamt ist das Buch sehr schön und übersichtlich gehalten. Im Stile eines Horror-Comics sind die Rezepte sehr abwechslungsreich gestaltet. Monster, Insekten oder Ähnliches versetzen in Grusel-Stimmung. Aber auch die Fotos der Cupcakes sind sehr ansprechend. Einleitend zu jedem Rezept gibt Lily Vanilli Tipps oder erklärt, wie sie auf die Idee zu dieser Kreation gekommen ist.
Es werden auf 64 Seiten ganz unterschiedliche, gruselige Ideen vorgestellt. Mein einziger Kritikpunkt ist jedoch, dass es wirklich hauptsächlich um das Modellieren geht. Damit meine ich, dass ich es etwas schade finde, dass die Hauptzutaten Marzipanrohmasse und Fondant zu sein scheinen.
Da man jedoch solche Cupcakes nicht jeden Tag backen und essen wird, sondern sich diese besonders zu Halloween anbieten, ist dieser Punkt nicht allzu schlimm.
25 ausgefallene Rezepte wie “Sweeney Todds Überraschung” (S. 20) oder “Marzipankäfer” (S. 39) sind sicherlich auf jeder Halloweenparty der absolute Renner, da sie optisch so unglaublich schön gestaltet sind.

Alles in allem ein sehr ansprechendes Buch mit abwechslungsreichen und ausgefallenen Kreationen! Bei der Bewertung mache ich lediglich wegen des vielen Fondants und der vielen Marzipanrohmasse Abstriche.

Für eine richtig gruselige Halloweenparty sehr zu empfehlen!

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This really is a superb little book, full of horrifying and grotesque ideas for decorating your cupcakes as well as providing some very nice cupcake recipes at the back of the book (inspiraing my first ever batch of red velvet cupcakes). Some of the designs are quite simple and great to get you started while others are a little more complicated and need a few attempts to get right. The only reason this hasn't got the full five stars is due to the lack of guidance on some of the more complex designs such as the Mutant Ears and the Bleeding Hearts (which are the ones I made) as this would have been helpful (I lost count of how many times I re-worked my first bleeding heart to get it right). In a way this is useful as you can find the best way for you but a couple of tips or a 'this is how I do it' would have been great (as was done with the Black Roses and Marzipan Beetles). Otherwise this is a great book and one I can see me using a lot both as shown and as inspiration for other designs.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the ultimate scary cupcake book. Not for the kiddies! The cupcakes are all very cool and easy to make. Detailed directions are easy to follow. I especially loved the "shattered glass" cupcake and the bleeding hearts cupcakes. So real looking!!!! If you love cupcakes, but want to do a more "grown-up" version, check this book out!

[Beverley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This gets 5 stars purely for the simple and awesome vanilla cupcake recipe (which I now use for all cupcakes bases!). Some cakes in there you wouldnt bother making but the burgers and rainbow cupcakes are complete show stoppers at parties! This book will inspire you if nothing else!

[Sharkcrow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some fantastic ideas for decorating in here. All very straightforward.

[Abby Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great little book which is great for inspiration, and perfect for cooking with kids. Simple, and mostly easy, recipes and ideas make it a winner for me.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

there are some really nice recipes in this book. I'm not the best of bakers but I'll attempt some of the easier ones at some point. Guaranteed that they will look nothing like the ones in this book!

[Stella · Rating 3 out of 5]

As other reviewers have said, this contains some funny and gross ideas...some a little too gross for me, but others I would like to try. It is a little short on instruction in some instances, leaving you guessing as how to achieve the finished product.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great ideas, but I think I'd only be inspired to try about 6 of them. Good recipes and instructions, fab photos.

[Patricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm certainly glad I picked this up from the library and didn't purchase it. While many of the cupcakes are neat-looking, it all seemed a bit repetitive and a few were fairly unimaginative. The nail in the coffin for me was the "Mutant Ears" recipe, which consists of making a red velvet cupcake with vanilla frosting and then sculpting small, flesh-coloured ears out of marzipan and plopping them on top. There are no instructions for sculpting these ears other than looking at someone's ear or a picture of an ear and paying attention to the details. Seriously? Why have this in a book? It's no more helpful than having a picture of it up on Flickr and saying "eh, just copy my idea by looking at it." I'd give this book one star, except that the "Bleeding Hearts" are so wonderfully done, I've added a whole star just for those.

[Lost · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was super excited to get this book, but sadly I was a bit disappointing. I thought it would be a lot more zombie themed, but it was mostly other macabre. I also feel like the recipes were fairly repetitive with an exception to the decorations. Although, I did like the recipe for sugar glass and the brain cupcakes so I am giving it a three.

[Dominique Lamssies · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is neat, and has many good ideas in it, but the reason I couldn't give it more stars is because if you lack skill and knowledge of intermediate/advanced cooking, you're in trouble. This is not a book for beginners, so, while I still like to use the book, I use it for ideas and don't fool myself into thinking the finished product will look or taste anything like it's supposed to.

[Sharon Adamz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This rating is for the meringue recipe because that is what made me buy this book. I have used it time and time again for RPG game nights, kids parties, and it never gets old.

[Claudia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute decorating ideas perfect for Halloween

[Cagne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very creative, but could have used some more pictures showing the craftwork.

[Susan Treat · Rating 5 out of 5]

gives interesting ways to make cupcakes