It’s Friday the 13th, y’all! Tonight I plan on cuddling up in front of the TV with a cup of cocoa and a cupcake and relaxing to the sweet crackle-crackle sound of campers being cremated alive in their own sleeping bags. Ah yes, the horrors of summer camp, how many times have we been warned over the years? Don’t leave the kiddies alone while you sneak off to make out with your boyfriend and his sweet 80s headband, don’t wander through the forest in your underpants and whatever you do, for the love of God, don’t re-open Camp Crystal Lake!

In honor of the original Friday the 13th, I’ve created these smores cupcakes (a variation on Julie Hasson’s Best Chocolate Cupcake recipe.) I’m even including a PDF so you can make your own Jason cupcake toppers. Just click here to download them, print them on cardstock, cut them out and glue them to toothpicks.

For the cupcakes you will need:

• 1 & 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder, sifted
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup coursely chopped graham crackers (or graham cookies)

Then you:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line a cupcake pan with paper liners. Mix together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. Stir in chocolate chips. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, oil, egg and vanilla until smooth. Alternately whisk in flour mixture and buttermilk until smooth. Stir in graham cracker pieces. Scoop batter into pan and bake 22-27 minutes until tops of cupcakes spring back when lightly touched. Cool in pans for 10 minutes, then remove and cool completely on wire rack.

Marshmallow frosting:

• 1 c. marshmallow fluff
• 2 egg whites, at room temperature
• 1 c. superfine sugar
• 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1/4 c. water
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

In double-boiler top over hot, not boiling water, combine all ingredients except vanilla. With hand mixer, beat until soft peaks form. Remove from heat and continue beating until stiff. Beat in vanilla.

Top each cupcake with a sticky pile of frosting, then crumble more graham crackers and sprinkle more chocolate chips on top. Stick in a Jason topper and prepare for the slaughter!

This recipe was originally posted on Slash and Dine, 2009.

Here’s a quick and easy way to make your cupcakes sweet, but not precious. Whether you’re playing tribute to Jaws or a certain hardcore band, no one will forget your Shark Attack Cupcakes.

I like to bake my Shark Attack cupcakes in bright red baking cups from Bake It Pretty – any flavor will do, but red velvet is particularly gory. (I use Super Red by AmeriColor for the truest color.) I top my cupcakes with a white buttercream – cream cheese frosting is great on red velvet – then I spray the tops with blue food color spray.

Drag a toothpick through the icing, creating realistic white caps. Cut out my DIY Shark Attack cupcake toppers, and tape or glue them to toothpicks. Pop them in your cupcakes when you’re ready to serve them (the grease from your frosting will creep up on the fins, so really wait until you’re showing these off for this step.)

“Smile you son of a bitch.”

“Baby, I know what you crave… you want to poop your pants all day long, well baby, behave!”

If you aren’t currently singing along in auto-tune voice, you might as well stop reading because this cupcake recipe is 100% dedicated to the greatest TV show of all time, Adventure Time. Heck yeah! In honor of the show my husband believes was  stolen directly from my damaged brain I give you Purple Whatevers. One part grape drink, one part cupcake, one part shmowzow and one part horrible at fractions.

Admittedly, these turned out kind of… not edible. I was really wishing Tree Trunks were around to whip me up a Crystal Apple Pie once I had a taste. Let’s put it this way, they were grape drink in cupcake form. So if you’re the kind of person who hears that and thinks, “Algebraic!” then you win, here’s a recipe for you. But if you hear that and you’re all like, “I can’t have you messin’ up my bread and butter, dude,” then stay away because Purple Whatevers will scare the jelly out of your donut.

But no matter what flavor cupcake makes you cry when you poop (thanks for being cool, guys) I made you these Adventure Time cupcake toppers with images I found on the official Cartoon Network site. (And while I was at it, I made a pretty sexy Mr. Cupcake that my friend Lisa has already married and taken home with her. Ladies are twisty, man.)

If Purple Whatevers aren’t your thing (or perhaps if they are completely your thing,) you should check out the Lumpy Space Princess cake pops Amanda made over on the Bake It Pretty blog. I lumpin’ love that girl.

To make Purple Whatevers you’ll need:

• 3/4 cup + 2 Tbs cake flour
• 1/2 cup + 2 Tbs all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 Tbs baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 package grape Kool Aid
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into 1″ cubes
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

Plus, one batch of cream cheese frosting, and the remaining 1/2 package of grape Kool Aid.

Then you:

Preheat your oven to 325 and line your cupcake pan with paper liners. I used Bake It Pretty liners, of course. In the bowl of an electric mixer combine the flours, sugar, baking powder, salt and Kool Aid. Mix on low. Add the butter, mixing just until coated with flour. In a large measuring cup with a spout, whisk together the eggs, milk and vanilla. Add to the dry ingredients, 1/3 at a time, mixing just until blended. Fill cups 2/3 full and bake 17-20 minutes or until tops spring back when lightly touched. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and cool completely.

Top with cream cheese frosting, mixed with remaining 1/2 of Kool Aid.

I hope when you try these you’ll feel radder, faster… more adequate! Now lump off.

Every year for his entire lifetime, I have made Bishop Danger Remis’ birthday cupcakes. Being Teno’s best friend, he has a free pass for the weirdest and wildest little kid birthday cakes until they are too old for birthday parties. Last year his theme was municipal vehicles, for which I made piles of candy garbage topped with garbage trucks, frosting Chicago flags with candy rats and cookie dirt cakes topped with dump trucks.

This year when his mom told me the theme was RV Campers it took me all of five seconds to plan the cupcakes. Smores, Vegan Cowboy Coffee (cookies and cream cakes with espresso buttercream) and the most popular flavor of the day, Tropical Punch Kool-Aid.

Armed with candy rocks, mini beer can toppers and picnic plaid cupcake liners from Bake It Pretty, I modified Billy’s Vanilla Vanilla recipe to produce 30 bright-red, extremely fruity cupcakes.

The beauty of this recipe? You can throw in any kind of Kool-Aid you like and make something new. I topped mine with a vanilla buttercream, dyed green, and piped on top with my grass tip. Oh, and I made some RV Camper toppers which you can download here:

Airstream & RV Camper

To make the cupcakes you’ll need:

• 1 3/4 cups cake flour, not self-rising
• 1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 small pouch of Kool-Aid
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Then you:

1. Preheat oven to 325°. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine flours, sugar, baking powder, Kool-Aid and salt; mix on low speed until combined. Add butter, mixing until just coated with flour.
2. 2. In a large glass measuring cup, whisk together eggs, milk, and vanilla. With mixer on medium speed, add wet ingredients in 3 parts, scraping down sides of bowl before each addition; beat until ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat.
3. Divide batter evenly among liners, filling about two-thirds full.
4. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 17 to 20 minutes.
5. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

And now, for a little song from Bishop’s daddy:

This Thursday, May 6th, I’m making my second appearance on WTTW’s Chicago Tonight along side Dana Joy Altman of Real Food Rehab and Angie Montroy of Angie’s Pantry. If you watched our last appearance you may remember the Great Macaron Misunderstanding. Well rest assured that we will be clearing up the difference between a French macaron and a coconut macaroon on Thursday’s show.

We’ll also be discussing Angie’s ideas for spring/summer grilling, Dana’s 21 day cleanse and my affinity for turning my favorite summertime beverages into baked goods. You can ask us questions during a live chat right after the segment. Log in Thursday at 8pm CST to join in.

In preparation for the segment, I thought I’d reflect on some of the “drinkable” desserts I’ve made over the years and highlight a few new ideas I’m kicking around.

Coffee. It might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you’re thinking of refreshing summertime beverages – but it’s the first thing that comes to my mind… ever. In the morning, in the afternoon – on week days and week ends, hot weather or cold. I love coffee. I’ve added coffee to my recipes in a variety of ways – and how tasty would a nice warm cappuccino cupcake with a big scoop of espresso ice cream be to enjoy in the five seconds it’s warm out in Chicago? Here are some of the ways I’ve baked with coffee so far:

Espresso buttercream – still my go-to for any grown-up party. Makes a chocolate cake a little more sophisticated, tastes amazing sandwiched between cinnamon cookies. I have also eaten it with a spoon, I won’t lie.

Tenorikuma Cupcakes – inspired by a little kawaii character who loves lattes. Also included, two different downloadable cupcake toppers.

Coffee & donuts cupcakes – I made these with Starbucks Via instant coffee, which some will argue is only good for baking. Me? I like to eat it like Pixy Stix.

The Caffinated German Cupcakes – these were for my mother-in-law who loves coffee and German chocolate cake almost as much as she loves Teno.

Black No. 1 Brownies – most recently, coffee helped me pay tribute to Peter Steele of Type O Negative

Chai. I was a junior in high school and the only thing there was to do for fun was to go to Barnes and Noble and hang out in their makeshift Starbucks. It was there where my best friend at the time suggested I order something called “chai,” insisting that it tasted just like pumpkin pie. I’ve always liked to drink my dessert and eat my drinks as dessert so it sounded pretty good to me. Again, not typically a spring/summer beverage unless you’ve ever had an iced chai made with vanilla rice milk in which case you are already sighing at the refreshing imaginary flavor in your mouth. Here are some ways I’ve baked under the influence of chai:

Vegan Berry Chai Muffins – inspired by a drink I had on an unseasonably warm winter day these muffins will hit the spicy spot no matter the weather.

Vegan Chai Latte Cupcakes – one of the first things I made from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World this is still one of my go-to recipes.

Bike Messenger Brownies – named in honor of all the bike messengers I served “dirty chai” to back when I worked at Earwax Cafe.

Thai Sweet Coconut Cupcakes – dreamed up for my chai-loving little sister.

Now if you want to really talk about summer sippers I’m your girl. I would happily drink all my daily calories once my Chicago Bears thermometer reads 70 degrees or higher. Ice tea, lemonade, horchata… you name it. If you can put it over ice I’m drinking it and I’m making it into a baked good.

Lemon Angel Cupcakes – these are cheaters made with angel food cake mix. Don’t tell anyone.

Vegan Iced Tea Cupcakes with Lemon Frosting – inspired by the creepy powdered iced tea my mother-in-law is completely addicted to.

Matcha Green Team Cupcakes – these are in the “fail” category, so attempt at your own risk.

Lychee Bubble Tea Cupcakes – for a hot minute a local bubble tea house was serving Bake and Destroy cupcakes weekly, this flavor was for them.

Mountain Dew Cupcakes – this has to be one of my most-requested recipes, which is pathetic both because it’s made from cake mix and because its made with Mountain Dew, which is disgusting.

Horchata Cupcakes – definitely not a home run, but I was on the right track here. I’m thinking an horchata donut is in order for this summer.

Pina Colada Cupcakes – honestly, I only know what pina coladas taste like from Jelly Bellys (I don’t drink) but these were a special request from a fire fighter so how could I say no?

Rum & Gold Cupcakes – another request from that same fire fighter, and named after a line from one of my favorite Three Inches of Blood songs.

This summer I’m dreaming up lots of ice cream flavors (Thai iced coffee, espresso caramel and peanut butter…) and lots of donuts (seriously, those horchata donuts are calling my name!) Obviously you know where to find those recipes just as soon as I write them.

Finally, I did end up making French macarons along with my fellow BrutalSnacker Lisa after that Chicago Tonight episode. You can watch the hijinx here. I hope everyone who can tune in on Thursday does – I’ll post the video as soon as it’s available on Friday!

Thanks to everyone who played my Party Hard give away – and extra thanks to the folks at Seibei who made it all possible. Congrats to Sara and Misty on posting the (randomly) winning comments!

By popular demand I’m posting the toppers I used to make my black and white cupcakes. Just download the DIY Andrew W.K. cupcakes toppers, print them on cardstock and use a 1.5″ circle punch to pop them out. Some glue and some toothpicks and you’re ready to party.

Tune in Monday for another awesome t-shirt giveaway, this time starring me, zombies and Threadless. Oh yeah.