WARNINING: Look away now if you are squirmish. I promise you these are just made from jelly and angel delight but they do look very realistic!!!

These are chocolate cupcakes with brownie soil and jelly worms. The jelly worms take a little why to make but really are amazingly gross and went  down very well at the weekend Halloween party I attended. The worms need making a day or night in advance.

To make the jelly worms you need a fair bit of patience but they really do work well. The original idea is from here but I changed it slightly. This will make the slightly redder worms in the picture. If you want to make the more milky coloured worms use more angel delight mix, half a pack of jelly and another sachet of gelatine.


For the worms:
1 packet of strawberry jelly and 150ml of water
2 sachets of gelatin and 200ml of hot water
1/2 packet of angel delight and 100ml of milk
Green food colouring
Packet of straws
Glass or carton with even sides
Cling film
2 elastic bands

1. Mix up the jelly in a bowl according to the instructions.
2. Mix up 2 sachets of gelatine with 200ml of hot water. 
3. Mix up the angel delight with the milk.
4. Mix everything together and add a few drops of green colouring.
5. Take the straws and extend the flexible part of the straw.
6. See how many you can fit in your glass or carton, making sure that the flexible part is face down in the container and that they fit snugly. Bind them together with rubber bands. 
7. Take the bound straws out and cover the bottom securely with clingfilm, then place back in the container.
8. Slowly pour the mixture into the straws. Don't worry if some of the mix seeps out there should still be enough in the straws.
9. Leave to set in the fridge for about 8 hours.
10. Line a tray with non stick parchment.
11. Take out each straw individually and carefully squeeze out the worm from the top applying pressure all the way down the straw as the worm is released.

To make 12 cakes:

110g of softened butter
110g of caster sugar
75g self raising flour
35g of cocoa powder
2 eggs
1 tablespoon of milk

For the buttercream:
50g softened butter
25g of cocoa powder
85g icing
For the soil:
Crushed brownies

Method

1. Pre heat the oven to 180C
2. Line a 12 hole cupcake tin.
   
3. Cream together the butter, sugar and cocoa until light and fluffy.
4. Add the eggs and a little flour and continue beating together.
5. Add the tablespoon of milk and the rest of the flour.
6. Fill each case two thirds full.
7. Bake at 180C for 10 -15 mins until lightly golden.
8. Let the cakes cool.
9. Mix up the buttercream by creaming together the butter, icing sugar, cocoa and milk.
10. Ice the cakes with a think layer of buttercream.
11. Add a layer of brownie crumbs to the buttercream and top with a selection of jelly worms.