Well, it’s been a while since I made cupcakes that involved blood. Actually it’s been a while since I made “gory” or creepy cupcakes. For a long time there I sorta went the cutesy route with my Halloween offerings. But that has changed, my dear readers. I got some new-found inspiration from my pseudo-TV- boyfriend…. Dexter Morgan.
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Ohhh, Dexter. AKA Michael C. Hall. You might know him from Six Feet Under, but we’re not here to talk about that. You should know him from his TV show, aptly named Dexter, where he plays Mr. Dexter Morgan, a murderous character: blood spatter analyst working for the Miami Metro Police Department by day/serial killer by night. Key players? Glass slides, clear plastic sheeting, blood (lots of it), some bad guys that deserve a good killin’ and a few crazy bitches thrown in for good measure. Obviously, blood & blood spatter is a major part of the show, both in Dexter’s day job… and his “night job.”
So, that said, welcome to my “Kill Room.”
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I’m a big fan of the show. Is that obvious?
My love of Dexter came about kind of randomly last fall. On a whim, I ended up putting every available season on my Netflix queue and watching them one after another. I’d been hearing such great things about the show for so long, but I hate to jump on bandwagons. The more hype something has, the less I’m interested. So I resisted (just like I did with Sex & the City, The Sopranos and Six Feet Under- it took me years to see those) for a long time and then I ended up watching all 5 seasons in a matter of two months, devouring them like a fiend. I fell in love. And see, I have a thing for the bad guy. I know it seems funny for me to say that, being that my significant other is a cop, but it’s true! I loved Tony Soprano, I love Nucky Thompson & Jimmy Darmody, I love Dexter. I find he’s not really all that bad. He’s cleaning up the element the police can’t due to red tape or lack of evidence. And that’s a good thing as far as I’m concerned!* Come on, be honest: you can’t tell me you’ve never heard a story about a crime and said (re: the criminal) “I wish I could get my hands on that bastard.” Of course you have.
Plus, I have a little crush on him, serial killer or not.
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Anyway, all I know is, I like love the show. So when I was thinking of my Halloween cupcake offerings for this year, I came up with the idea of some gory, blood drenched ones as I was having a little refresher watching season 6 of Dexter before the new season starts tonight. It seemed almost wrong to not refer to him & acknowledge the show in my post, especially since I got my idea from it and also used some of the posters for sale in the Dexter Showtime store as “pattern inspiration” for my blood. What I used for the blood itself was really easy: just some red gel icing color (Wilton Christmas Red) mixed with a tad hot water. I just mixed it until it was “drippable” or “splatterable” (neither of those are in Webster’s, I guarantee you). I used a toothbrush to fling/spatter/squirt the blood onto the frosted cakes. Instant crime scene.
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If you want to use a cherry-flavored extract to mix with the food coloring, you can. But the alcohol content might cause it to behave differently than water, so I don’t know if it’ll “dry” the same way or splatter the same. But it’s worth a shot. You could probably even use liquid food coloring with good results, too. Even better would be Karo syrup thinned out a little with red liquid food coloring & water. That way it would mimic the thing I like best about using the gel: it’s thicker, so it has more heft. Also another benefit of the gel is that it doesn’t fully dissolve so it has little “clots”… and therefore it’s more like real blood. However I’m just a perfectionist! Nobody else would notice that stuff. I’m just one of those crazy people that notice details.
(Either way, no matter what method you use, I do recommend that you use an old tablecloth [if not actual plastic like I did] because once this stuff splatters on something light-colored, then you’re done with that for good. Oh, and wear plastic gloves. Seriously.)
Needless to say, disposing of the aforementioned red-dotted plastic was a challenge. The food coloring seriously looked so much like real blood, and the splatters looked so realistic, too. Because of that, to avoid frightening my idiot neighbors or causing a mass hysteria, I had to roll it up & wrap it in a black Hefty bag, so I really felt like Dexter. Haha. Maybe I should’ve let them see it… that would’ve made things interesting, huh?
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The cupcakes can be any kind you like. I chose chocolate, and I filled half of them with some cherry preserves… but anything will work: chocolate, vanilla, red velvet, etc. The main thing is that the frosting be white or off-white. I know it seems incredibly obvious, but you won’t see the blood spatter on chocolate frosting, it’ll just look messy. You can see how the spatter looks when it gets on the chocolate cupcake, imagine that as frosting. Not as good. It’s really a great effect on the white frosting.
You can even take it one step further and make glass slides out of sugar!
SUPER CHOCOLATEY CUPCAKES
Makes about 2 dozen
Ingredients:
- 2 sticks softened unsalted butter
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 4 large eggs (one at a time)
- 6 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate
- 2 cups cake flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup buttermilk (room temperature)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Directions:
- Cream butter, granulated sugar and light brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer.
- Add 4 large eggs (one at a time) and beat each until thoroughly combined, then add chocolate (chocolate should be melted, then cooled for approximately 15 minutes before being added). Add and alternate cake flour plus baking soda with buttermilk (room temperature) plus vanilla extract.
- Place cupcake paper into each cup of 2 muffin pans (each pan yielding 12 muffins). Then fill each cup with 1 leveled off scoop of an ice cream scooper (or a little more than halfway).
- Bake at 350° degrees in regular oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until tester comes out clean.
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HEAVY CREAM BUTTERCREAM
Ingredients:
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup vegetable shortening
- 1 1/2 – 2 pounds powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream (perhaps more)
Directions:
- Place the butter and shortening in a stand mixer. Beat on medium speed until fluffy. Slowly add the first pound and a half of powdered sugar, a cup at a time until all is incorporated. Turn off the mixer and scrape the bottom of the bowl very well. Add the vanilla and mix again.
- Slowly add half of the heavy cream while the mixer is on, and beat for one minute. Add more cream or sugar as needed to achieve a frosting consistency that’s suitable to piping. Pipe onto completely cooled cupcakes.
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Like I said, it was really a little freaky how much like blood it looked. Not to mention how well it splattered. I was shocked that it really had the viscosity of blood. Not that I know that much about blood or anything…
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Tell me they aren’t beyond awesome. You can’t. ‘Cause they are.
And of course, this idea can be adapted to a variety of movies/TV shows/themes: just regular old Halloween parties, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Psycho, Friday the 13th, vampires, CSI, Carrie, American Psycho, etc. Any gory horror movie where they feature a lot of blood, you can use these to represent it. Personally I’ve done the vampire angle a few times and I figured it was Dexter’s turn. Plus I already had all this plastic sheeting. Don’t ask why. It’s just better that way.
Dexter airs Sunday nights (that’s tonight!) at 9 p.m. EST on Showtime. Be there or be…
*I am not endorsing vigilante justice. Okay, maybe just a little bit.
I'm Marilla. A 30-something artist, hobby baker, home canning enthusiast, gardener, DIY-er, wife, mommy of a baby boy and dog mom (to another baby boy) from New York. 
Hahahahaha…Best post …ever!…laughing at disposing of the plastic…..and “Don’t ask why. It’s better that way”…Haha…These cupcakes look amazing…and working in the Lab business for over 25 years…as a lab rat…I can say…with “bloody” knowledge…that the “blood” effects….is VERY real!….and the photo’s of them…whew. Anyway,Very cool cupcakes……and Yes…I did notice the disclaimer in asterick….Ha!
Haha thanks Mara =oD I laughed myself when I rolled up the plastic & realized you could see the red drops through it.
I have a thing for bad boys too (on Tv that is) I memmer always being the only one in my group of friends growing up that always rooted for the bad guy. Never the bad girl though – I always wanted to stab ’em in the eye LOL! Speaking of bad guys, I miss Jimmy Darmody. His character was heartless but he had it coming. The blood splatter is ridiculously real looking and the plastic..Perfect addition! Shoulda added a knife haha!! Chocolate is one of my addictions so I can only imagine how fantastical these cupcakes taste. As usual I love this and mostly love that WICKED brain of yours!!
P.s. Did Rosetti shock you in that last episode?! I was stunned LOL!!
UGH NO! Don’t say anything about Dexter or Boardwalk! I haven’t caught up totally yet! Grrr….
I LOVE these. Going to make these for my friends Halloween party. Gonna use Karo syrup like you mentioned. I read your instructions earlier and saw red gel icing (and apparently glazed over the “color” that follows the name) and ended up buying the little tube of red gel icing. DOH!
and I just found these little cleaver icing decorations at Party city that I’m going to stab into some of them. 🙂
You are extremely talented BTW
No you can totally use that Jessica! I was referring to the Wilton brand name for it, but regular red gel icing can work too. It should be the same consistency!
And thank you… enjoy them!
Did the blood with Karo syrup and food coloring. couldn’t get the color right. tried adding a teeeeensy bit of blue to darken it, but it just turned purplish. Maybe I could say an alien was murdered. haha
next time, i’ll be grabbing the christmas red gel icing color. :p
you are awesome
LOL AN ALIEN
That’s amazing. Hey, on Halloween, anything works.
I’m planning on making these for Halloween, how would you store them? Normally I would throw them in the freezer until they’re ready to be eaten, but I’m not sure how that would affect the blood effect. Thanks!
Sally sorry I didn’t see your comment until a year later! UGH… anyway I’d make them & freeze them but NOT frost them or do the blood until you were ready to serve them! -M
Making these tomorrow for my office’s Halloween lunch. Actually, I am making vanilla cupcakes with the “blood” drips. Can’t wait to see how they’ll turn up!
I can’t wait to see ’em!
Definitivamente la imaginacion no tiene limites…Adoro Dexter!, de hecho adoro todo lo que tiene que ver con asesinos, drama, terror, sangre…me apasiona el poder de investigacion y el poder del asesino…me encantan sus cupcakes!, me fascina su sangre!, voy a hacerla inmediatamente para mi torta especial de Escena del Crimen, sera un exito total!, lo se….muchas gracias….
Gracias Ivette!
My family and I are big Dexter fans too! I am getting ready to make my Dad a Dexter themed birthday cake (complete with a kill table and sugar blood slides!) and had a few questions for you. You said you used a toothbrush to apply the “blood”, did you dip just the tip in the coloring or did you get all of the bristles wet? Did you just flick the handle of the brush or did you run your fingers along the bristles to get the color to fly? Have you tried a paintbrush or do you think the toothbrush works better? You did such a great job on yours!
Hi Michelle!
I kind of did both: I flicked the brush & also dragged my thumb across the bristles, both give different effects. Just remember to use an old plastic sheet or table cloth underneath, wear gloves & old or dark clothing… This stuff will dye your hands for sure.
I don’t know about a paintbrush. I think you could make it work.
Happy birthday to your dad! Enjoy & have fun 🙂
First I LOVE Dexter, so sad it’s over. I want to make these for work. I’ll have to make them the night before, will the ‘ blood’ bleed onto the white frosting?
Stephanie-
I agree. The end of Dexter made me really sad. I’m still not caught up with the last season, but I know I’ll be UBER sad when I see the end credits on that last episode!
I don’t 100% remember if mine bled into the frosting the next day… I want to say that they did a little, but I don’t remember it being a lot. However if you really want to make an impression with them I’d do the blood part that morning/before you leave.
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