Sugar glass is used on movie sets whenever glass is smashed in a film. It sets hard and is transparent, just like real glass, but is much more brittle and breaks more easily... plus it’s edible and sweet!

The Halloween Red Velvet cupcakes (pictured) have been slashed and severed by shards of flying sugar glass and are bleeding a dark red cherry sauce.

Note: sugar glass is hygroscopic, so must be placed in the cake soon after preparation, or it will soften, and lose its brittle quality.

Recipe for Sugar Glass

Ingredients

Water 500ml

Liquid Glucose250ml

Sugar 785g

Cream of tartar¼ tsp

Oil sprayUtensils

Old saucepan

Candy thermometer

A shallow tray to act as a mould

Method

1. Line your mould with aluminium foil, ensuring there are no cracks. Cracks between sheets can be sealed using some spray oil. Spray the mould all over with oil spray at least half an hour before use. Mix together water, sugar, corn syrup and cream of tartar in the saucepan and bring to the boil with a candy thermometer inserted. Let the mixture boil, stirring continuously, until it reaches 300C.

2. Pour the mixture very quickly and carefully into the oiled mould and let it cool.

3. When cool, pop the mixture very carefully out of the mould. Then use a meat tenderiser to hit carefully in the centre and it cracks into perfect shards. Using the cupcake recipe of your choice and a vanilla or cream cheese frosting as a base, insert a shard into the centre of each cake and, with a pipette or spoon, drop some cherry pulp onto the glass as fake blood.

Recipe for Cherry ’Blood’ Sauce

Ingredients

Black cherries, ripe and de-stoned 125g (1cup)

Superfine (caster) sugar50g

Water25ml

Lime juice½ tsp

Cornstarch (cornflour)1 tbsp

Method

1. Pulp cherries with a hand blender, and place in a medium-sized heavy-bottomed pan along with the caster sugar, lime juice, water and cornstarch.

2. Heat on medium until the cherries begin to release their liquid and then slowly bring to the boil, stirring continuously. Reduce to a simmer and heat until the cherry mixture has thickened to the desired consistency runny enough to pipe, but thick enough to prevent bleeding into the frosting. Allow to cool.

l A Zombie Ate My Cupcake by Lily Vanilli is published by CICO Books at £9.99, hardback. Call 01256 302699 quoting GLR4JI to purchase a copy at the special price of £7.99 including free p&p