Mummy Cupcakes
What makes a cupcake into a mummy is not skill but laziness: the buttercream is laid on crooked, overlapping, with gaps, because that is what a bandage looks like. Perfectly even stripes turn a mummy into a zebra. The one thing worth doing carefully is leaving a clean slot for the eyes, or the whole effect is lost.
- Prep
- 40 min
- Cook
- 22 min
- Rest
- 30 min
- Total
- 1 h 32 min
- Servings
- 12
- Level
- Easy
- Per serving
- 375 kcal
Ingredients
Cupcakes
Icing and eyes
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What to use instead
No candy eyes: pipe two dots of icing and press a chocolate chip into each. They come out more expressive anyway.
Makes: 12 cupcakes
Shopping list
The ingredients for the servings you chose — copy them or send them to a messenger. Tick what you already have at home: only the rest goes on the list.
Method
Oven
180 °C · top and bottom heat, no fan
With a fan: 160 °C
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Step 1: Heat the oven
Set the oven to 180°C and line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases.
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Step 2: Cream butter and sugar
With a mixer, beat the soft butter with the sugar for 3–4 minutes until pale and fluffy. How light the cupcakes come out depends on this step.
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Step 3: Add the eggs
Beat in the eggs one at a time until smooth after each. If the mixture starts to curdle, add a spoonful of the flour to bring it back.
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Step 4: Add the dry
Sift in the flour, cocoa and baking powder, add the milk and vanilla, and fold gently with a spatula until no dry streaks remain.
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Step 5: Bake
Fill the cases two-thirds full and bake for 20–25 minutes, until risen and springy to the touch.
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Step 6: Cool
Leave on a rack for at least 30 minutes. Icing on a warm cupcake melts and runs, and the bandages become a puddle.
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Step 7: Make the icing
With a mixer, beat the soft butter with the icing sugar, vanilla and milk to a fluffy white buttercream, 3 minutes. Spoon into a bag and snip a 4–5 mm corner off.
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Step 8: Wrap the mummies
Set two eyes on each cupcake near the top first. Then pipe flat ribbons back and forth on the diagonal, criss-crossing them and leaving only the strip with the eyes clear.
Tips & variations
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Tip
A flat bandage comes from holding the bag almost horizontal and close to the cake. Held upright, it pipes a round rope, not a ribbon.
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Variation
A flat basketweave nozzle makes ridged bandages that look even more like gauze.
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Swap
No candy eyes: pipe two dots of icing and press a chocolate chip into each. They come out more expressive anyway.
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Storage
Two days in a sealed box at room temperature, four in the fridge. Let them stand 20 minutes before serving so the icing softens.
Nutrition
| 1 serving | Whole dish 12 servings | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 375 kcal | 4,500 kcal |
| Protein | 5 g | 60 g |
| Fat | 21 g | 252 g |
| Carbohydrates | 43 g | 516 g |
Approximate values calculated from standard ingredient data.
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