For my birthday this past Wednesday, I made some cupcakes to bring into work on Friday.  I decided to make candy skulls to decorate the top.

I found some candy skull molds at Joann’s on sale for $1.19 each I grabbed two. I also picked up two bags Wilton Candy Melts and Wilton Pearl Dust.

First I started by melting the candy melts in a frosting bag (you can use a Ziplock baggie if you don’t have frosting bags and just snip off one of the corners).  I put the candy melts in my microwave on defrost for about 30-45 seconds each time.

Once melted sufficiently, I squeezed the candy into the molds.  Making sure to fill each one  up.  Once the molds were full, I shook them to get any air bubbles out.  Then I put them in the refrigerator for about five minutes to let them harden up.

Once hard, I popped them out of the molds and then I dusted with glitter.  I tried this two different ways.  The first way, I put a little vanilla extract in a small ramekin and sprinkled some dust in and mixed them together to create a “paint”.  That didn’t work so well, the mixture seemed to bead up on the skull. I just took a dry brush and dusted each skull.

For the cupcakes, I made a spiced cake. I followed the directions on the back of the box, the only exception was that I added pumpkin flavor emulsion.  I used LorAnn’s baking emulsion. Once cooled, I mixed the cream cheese frosting with purple and orange food coloring. I used my #12 tip and swooped in a circle.