Vegan MoFo: Zombie Cakes

I posted about these last year when I took them to the VRA Halloween potluck. But I wanted to talk about them again since Halloween  is coming up. I will definitely make these again, since they were fun, tasty, and really cool looking. Last year, I made a raspberry cocoa custard for the brains, but I think it's be fun to experiment with different flavors. I'd like to try using fall flavors, like pumpkin cupcakes with vanilla bourbon icing, pumpkin custard "brains" and cranberry syrup "blood". Another combo that sounds delicious to me is vanilla cupcakes, peanut butter or almond butter custard "brains" and strawberry or raspberry "blood".

As far as making the brains stable on the icing, I found it important to make a concave dip in the icing for the "brains" and "blood" to sit in, so they didn't slide off and make a big, sticky mess. If you're going to be transporting them, I would also recommend adding the syrup at the last minute, after arriving at your destination. Don't worry about making sure it all stays in the divot, it looks better when it's running over the sides just a little bit.