Reuse a cupcake pan to make Monster Meat Heads for Halloween

Rather than buying a prepackaged Halloween treat for my annual spooky party, I prefer to invent my own Halloween recipe to save a little money. Last year I made Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein Cupcakes using an $11 novelty humanoid head cupcake pan. I loved these frightfully fun Halloween mini cakes, but some of you hated them. You said: “Why did you spend money on a special cupcake pan? Isn’t that a waste of money?”

Great questions, guys. Sure, spending a little cash on a novelty item can indeed be a waste of money — if you never use it again. Since shelling out a few bucks for this haunted heads pan, I’ve reused it to bake Santa face Christmas cupcakes, mold leprechaun Jello heads for St. Patrick’s Day, and bake funny face cookies for a bunch of birthday parties.

The trick to buying a novelty treat is to look beyond the single special occasion to see how the item can be reused throughout the year. If reuse is unlikely, it may be financially wise to skip the novelty purchase. Besides, who has the living space to store a bunch of dead special occasion crap? I sure don’t.

So in the ghoulish spirit of reuse, I’ve revamped my cute cupcake pan into something a little meaty. This year I’m serving up a platter of severed monster meat heads for my Halloween guests. They’re kind of gross, but that’s what Halloween is about! Here’s how to bake up a batch:

Halloween Recipe: Monster Meat Heads in a Cupcake Tin

Do the monster mash (meat style) with these five easy steps:

STEP ONE: Reuse a standard cupcake or muffin tin. I don’t think you need a special baking pan to make this Halloween recipe. Since monster faces can be round, go ahead and grab a regular cupcake or muffin pan for this treat. I’m reusing my humanoid pan since I already own it.

STEP TWO: Make meatloaf. Whether you’re more into Moo (that’s beef) or prefer a little turkey, there are a billion recipes available online for all flavors of meatloaf.

For this Halloween treat I used my own meatloaf recipe, find it here: How to Make Healthy Turkey Meatloaf in a Muffin Tin.

Stir up a batch of your favorite meatloaf and prepare your cupcake pan with a little no-stick spray.

STEP THREE: Make a few scary faces. You know those jars of olives, pickles, and tiny round onions you never seem to serve? Boooo. Well, now is the time! Place a few of these pickled things in your cupcake pan for eyeballs, noses, or wonky monster mouths. I tried cherry tomatoes as eyeball sockets — they melted into a mess though.

STEP FOUR: Layer and bake. Gently layer the meatloaf on top of your monster faces. Yep, it’s easy to dislodge the facial features while shaping the Halloween meat head.

If you’re not careful during this step you might turn your monster face into a meatloaf mess. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 350F to 375F for around 40 minutes, or according to your recipe.

STEP FIVE: Do the monster mash and decorate! No special or expensive decorating devices needed here. Just squeeze a little ketchup onto your face for blood, ooze a gob of mustard for color, or chop some vegetables to fashion the perfect scary monster face.

I used a tiny paint brush with ketchup to make ghoulish gashes.

Nestle your severed heads on a plate of pasta to complete this fun Halloween dinner, treat, or appetizer. I added a few chocolate eyeballs bought in bulk for a little extra eye popping pleasure.

Don’t forget to reuse your cupcake pans for something sweet too …

… like a batch of little green Frankenstein cupcakes to scare the meat head monsters away.