Bat Cupcakes

Hair of a squirrel, eye of a newt...OK, this recipe doesn't have those ingredients.  I found this in Taste of Home.  Now that we have little kids in the family, you need fun desserts.  We still have foodies in the family so you need things that taste good.  With some tweaking, this recipe fills the bill for both groups.

Here is the recipe as written.

1 pkg. chocolate cake mix
1 16oz. can chocolate frosting
24 fudge stripe cookies
24 Hersheys kisses
White decorating icing

Prepare and bake cake mix according to package directions for cupcakes.  Cool completely.

Frost cupcakes.  For bat wings, cut cookies in half.  Insert 2 cookie halves into each cupcake.

Gently press chocolate kisses into frosting for heads.  Add eyes with decorating icing.

I made yellow cupcakes; I used a Duncan Hines butter yellow mix.

I also made my own frosting by melting a bag of Nestle morsels and a stick of butter in the microwave for 1 minute 30 seconds.  I stirred the chocolate mixture until smooth, added 1 C. powdered sugar and about 2/3 C. of skim milk.  The frosting needed to be stiff enough to hold the cookies and kisses.  I used my Wilton cake decorating kit to frost the cupcakes.  It's kind of funny because I have only ever used the kit to make deviled eggs!  LOL

Here are some photos of cupcake assembly.  We had them at a party at my Mom's today and they were a big hit.  They were a ton easier than they look.  For best results when breaking the cookies, take the cookie in one hand and break it against a table or counter top.  I found that when I tried to break the cookies in 2 hands, more often than not, I wound up with 3 pieces of cookie!

Frosted cupcakes:

Wings attached:

Finished product: