Keto Sugar Free Halloween Ghost Cupcakes

Keto Sugar Free Halloween Ghost Cupcakes. just 0.8g carbs each.

It’s that time of year when everything spooky, creepy, morbid, ghoulish, devilish and vampirish is all the rage. Halloween. This ancient Celtic ritual has managed to become a world-wide commercial phenomenon. No-one really knows what they are celebrating or why. However, adults and children alike seem to revel in all this macabre nonsense. And the old tradition of offering harvested apples has become an excuse for sugar-frenzy madness.

But what if you’re strictly keto, yet don’t want to miss out on the fun?

Cheating is never an option. Not in my book, anyway. Time to share a trick up my treat sleeve 😉

These Keto Sugar Free Halloween Ghost Cupcakes are my not-so-scary ketofication of a couple of classic treats that everyone loves. I’m yet to meet anyone who doesn’t love cupcakes, or meringues. But just in case you dislike one or the other, or you’re not fond of the buttercream, the recipe below shows each element nicely separated. I’ve even calculated macros individually. So you can make the whole thing, or just the meringues, or just the cupcakes, with or without frosting. And you’ll know exactly what nutrients you’re eating.

How to Make Keto Sugar Free Halloween Ghost Cupcakes.

The main ingredients for the cupcakes are: butter, sweetener(s), eggs, cocoa, whey protein and lupin flour. So, can you substitute either the lupin flour (if you’re allergic to peanuts, you may want to avoid lupins) or the whey protein powder? Of course you can. You could try almond flour or coconut flour. Boring! Every keto recipe out there uses these two. Who wants the same flavour in every dessert they make? Not me, thank you! Plus you’ll end up with an entirely different end result. And the macros will vary. That said, if you must you must. I won’t hold it against you 🙂

The buttercream is pretty bog-standard. Well. Almost. Because to get this beautiful colour you need a couple of extra ingredients. You could use chemical colouring. But if you prefer to use natural, unadulterated, organic ingredients, you’ll do what I did. I used activated charcoal and maqui berry powder. I do realise the former isn’t exactly ‘natural’, but it’s far better than those cheap, ghastly food dyes made in a lab. The combination of charcoal and maqui gives a lovely, dark, silvery, purplish colour to the buttercream. Perfectly gruesome D)

Since my Strawberry Pavlova recipe, I’ve discovered that adding a little guar gum to meringues makes a huge difference. They become more sturdy, easier to handle, more like traditional meringues made with sugar. Without the guar gum, they tend to be very brittle, almost too airy in consistency. And they dissolve in your mouth like puffs. Fine for some purposes. Not so great on this occasion, where they are designed to be eaten by hand.

No more waffling. Here comes the recipe. I hope you enjoy my eerie(ish), scary(ish) Keto Sugar Free Halloween Ghost Cupcakes. I actually think they’re rather cute. What do you think?

KETO SUGAR FREE HALLOWEEN GHOST CUPCAKES

Author: Antya

Nutrition

Yield: 12

Serving: 1
Calories: 137

Fat: 12.6g
Net Carbs: 0.85g
Protein: 4.4g

Recipe type: Desserts

Cuisine: Ketogenic. Sugar Free. Low Carb. LCHF. Grain Free. Gluten Free.

Prep time: 60 mins

Cook time: 3 hours 20 mins

Total time: 4 hours 20 mins

These immensely scary ghosts perched up on top of delicious, sweet cupcakes topped with butter frosting make the perfect kets-friendly Halloween treat for everyone.

Ingredients

For the cupcakes:

100g unsalted butter (room temperature)
60g eythritol (click HERE for U.S. option)
½ tsp pure stevia powder (click HERE for U.S. option)
3 large eggs
30g unsweetened dark cocoa powder (U.S.option HERE)
20g chocolate flavour whey protein (click HERE for U.S. option)
15g lupin flour (for U.S. option, click HERE) (for world-wide, click HERE and use code QUEENKETO5 for discount at checkout)
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of fine Himalayan pink salt (click HERE for U.S. option)

For the butter frosting:

50g unsalted butter (room temperature)
100g Sukrin icing "sugar" (U.S. alternative HERE) (or make your own)
½ tbsp water (more or less)
1 tablet (powdered and sifted) activated charcoal
½ tsp maqui berry powder (click HERE for U.S. option)

For the ghosts:

3 egg whites
4-5 drops lemon juice or apple cider vinegar (for U.S. option, click HERE)
4-5 drops liquid vanilla stevia
6 tbsp + ½ tsp Sukrin icing "sugar" (U.S. alternative HERE) (or make your own)
⅛ tsp guar gum (for U.S. option, click HERE)

Instructions

To make the cupcakes:

pre-heat oven to 180C static.
beat butter and sweeteners using an electric whisk.
add eggs one at a time, whisking continuously.
incorporate dry ingredients as you sift them.
mix well, then divide mixture between 12 muffin/cupcake moulds.
bake for 20 mins, then open oven door and leave inside oven for another 10 mins before removing.
set aside to cool completely.

To make the frosting:

beat butter, ⅓ icing "sugar" and water, then add remainder of icing "sugar'' ⅓ at a time.
incorporate powdered charcoal tablet (sifted).
to achieve a silver-purple hue, add maqui berry powder.
stir well, then transfer to a sac a poche and pipe over your cooled muffins.

To make the ghosts:

whisk egg whites until they begin to firm up, then incorporate erythritol, ½ at a time.
stop whisking when the meringue is firm and glossy.
line an oven tray with a sheet of parchment paper and pipe pyramidal shapes onto it.
bake at 60°C fan (80°C static) for 3 hours or until dry, with oven door ajar.

To make the ghosts' eyes:

make water icing (1/2 tsp icing sugar and a few drops of water).
add black food colouring or powdered charcoal tablet (add a little at a time until the desired tint is achieved).
dip a small flat artist's paint brush into the water icing and paint eyes onto the meringue ghosts.

Notes

Nutrition for cupcakes alone: Kcal 102; F 9g; C 0.7g; P 3.4g.
Nutrition for cupcakes with frosting: Kcal 133; F 12.5g; C 0.75g; P 3.4g.
Nutrition for meringues alone: Kcal 4; F 0.1g; C 0.1g; P 1g.

Meringue ghosts will keep for several days at rom temperature.
Cupcakes will keep for several days if placed in a sealed container and refrigerated.

Metric kitchen scales are an inexpensive yet invaluable gadget to enable accurate measurement of ingredients. Store them upright in a cupboard or over your worktop and they'll only take up a tiny bit of space. Click HERE for the ones I use (UK Link). For U.S. option click HERE.