These ghost madeleines are an easy Halloween bake with a fun twist on the classic French madeleine, perfect for the spooky season.
If you’re looking for a Halloween bake that’s a little different from the usual biscuits and cupcakes, these ghost madeleines are a fun one to try. The familiar scalloped shape of a madeleine lends itself surprisingly well to creating little ghosts, especially once they’re covered in a layer of white chocolate.
The madeleines themselves have a gentle pumpkin spice flavour, making them a little more grown-up than some of the sweeter Halloween treats. Cinnamon, ginger and warming spices work particularly well with the buttery madeleine, while the white chocolate adds sweetness and creates the ghostly finish.
The decoration is deliberately simple, too. Once the chocolate has set, all that’s needed is to add their ghouly faces. They’re the sort of Halloween bake that looks much more complicated than they actually are, making them a fun project for October baking.
Star Ingredient
White chocolate is what gives these madeleines their ghostly appearance. The cooled madeleines receive a coating of tempered white chocolate, creating a smooth white layer that turns the little cakes into ghosts.
Tempering the chocolate is worth doing here as it helps the coating set firmly with a smooth finish rather than remaining soft. Once set, there are a few options to add faces to bring the ghosts to life.
Using the white chocolate as the main decoration also means you don’t need lots of different colours or complicated piping to create a Halloween bake that looks the part.
Ingredients you can Buy Plastic Free
- Caster Sugar
- Egg
- Self Raising Flour
- Baking Powder
- Pumpkin Spice – or the spices to make your own
- White Chocolate
Ingredients you can Make
- Butter – homemade recipe here
Equipment You Will Need
- Microwaveable Ramekin / Bowl
- Mixing Bowl
- Handheld Mixer
- Spatula
- Measuring Spoons
- Baking Sheet
- Madeleine Tray
- Cooling Rack
- Tea spoons
- Piping Bag / Baking Parchment Paper (to make a piping bag)
Tips and Tricks when Making Ghost Madeleines
Benefit of a Handheld Mixer
Now I love my freestanding mixer. However, for small batch mixes it isn’t always the best. Any recipe with a single egg (especially if it is the eggs I am whisking first), it doesn’t make as much contact. Therefore, it takes ages to whisk up. Either that, or I end holding the bowl in a way to increase the contact.
This is where a handheld mixer comes into its own. You can move it around the bowl more easily to keep getting contact and making the whisking of the egg so much easier. It is also easier to move the bowl as well to combine with this.
Mixing Up your Spices
You can have fun here or just pick you favourite. To be seasonal, I used pumpkin spice within the madeleine batter. Chai Spice would also be very nice. You can find a recipe to make your own in this post here. Alternatively, it could keep it simple and just go for a single spice. Cinnamon or Ginger could be just as good.
Tempering White Chocolate
To temper my chocolate, I use the seeding method. This is a way to temper without needing a thermometer. It works through portioning your chocolate into 1/3 and 2/3.
You can melt your chocolate as you wish. I do within the microwave due to the smaller quantity for the recipe. You can, however, do in a Bain Marie (a bowl over a simmering saucepan).
The larger portion of chocolate is what is melted. By adding the small portion in and stir it through, cools down the chocolate. When it has all melted in than it is at the correct temperature and is tempered.
Creating your Ghost’s Faces
There are a few ways you can give your ghosts their ghoulish faces. In the recipe, I utilise a bit of black cocoa powder to colour the remaining white chocolate to use. This naturally colours and uses up more of the white chocolate.
Alternatively, you could melt a little bit of dark chocolate and use this for the details. This can be piped on as you would with the coloured white chocolate. A third option is to create some edible paint with a spirit and black cocoa (or black food colour). You would need a small paint brush (that you use just for food/cake decorating), to paint on the faces.
Ghost Madeleines
Equipment
- Microwaveable Ramekin / Bowl
- Mixing Bowl
- Handheld Mixer
- Spatula
- Measuring Spoons
- Baking Sheet
- Madeleine Tray
- Cooling rack
- Tea spoons
- Piping Bag / Baking Parchment Paper (to make a piping bag)
Ingredients
Madeleines
- 50 g Butter / Plant Butter
- 50 g Caster Sugar
- 1 Egg
- 50 g Self Raising Flour extra for dusting madeleine tray
- 1/8 Teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1 Teaspoon Pumpkin Spice
Decoration
- 120 g White Chocolate chips / buttons / chopped bar
- 1/8 Teaspoon Black Cocoa Powder
Instructions
- Grease and flour the madeleine tray.
- Melt the butter in the microwave in 20-30 seconds intervals, and then leave to cool.
- Whisk the sugar and the egg in a bowl until pale and the mixture leaves a ribbon when dripped from the whisk.
- Add the dry ingredients together, and then alternately add it into the mix with the cooled butter, folding after each addition.
- Chill the batter in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees, when there is 15 minutes left on the chill time.
- Fill the madeleine moulds to just below the rim.
- Bake the madeleines in the middle shelf of the oven for 8-10 minutes until golden and risen.
- Cool for a few minutes prior to unmoulding and leaving to cool on the cooling rack.
- Wash up and dry the madeleine tray.
- Melt 80g of the white chocolate, and then add in the remaining 40g.
- Stir through until they melt into the rest of the chocolate.
- Spoon the chocolate into a mould and use the spoon to spread it to cover the whole mould.
- Press a cold madeleine back into the chocolate covered mould.
- Repeat this process with all of the madeleines.
- Pop in the fridge and chill for 1 hour.
- Carefully unmould the madeleine.
- Rewarm the white chocolate to melt again and then stir through the black cocoa to colour it.
- Pop the coloured chocolate into a piping bag and pipe on your ghost’s face.
- Allow to set before serving or storing in an airtight container.
Other Ghost Bakes for Halloween you may be Interested in
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