[1] Pipe ghost tops onto cupcakes. You can use any flavor cupcake you like. The recipe above, from California Strawberries, has an extra surprise: strawberries in the cake. [2] Another approach: a bed of marshmallow topped with Halloween candy (photo courtesy Paper Chef). [3] This orange ghoul was created by Food Network. You can tint the frosting, meringue or marshmallow any color you like.

Ready for more Halloween food fun?

You can make these cupcakes with a piping bag and frosting or meringue powder.

Or you can use a jar of marshmallow cream (Fluff, Jet-Puffed, RiceMellow, Solo, etc.), or homemade marshmallow cream.

The only challenge with the latter is that marshmallow cream won’t hold its shape over time. It needs to be refrigerated so it doesn’t collapse;

 
For The Eyes

 
THE HISTORY OF MARSHMALLOW FLUFF

Marshmallow dates back to ancient Egypt. The marsh mallow plant that was plentiful along the banks of the Nile has a slippery sap that forms a gel when mixed with water. The Egyptians mixed the “juice” with honey to make a confection, reserved for the wealthy and the gods.

The Roman scholar Pliny the Elder credited the sap with curing all sorts of diseases, and encouraged people to drink the juice daily, although it wasn’t very palatable (what happened to the honey?). Still, for centuries the sap was used to treat sore throats, skin conditions and other maladies.
 
Modern Marshmallow

In the mid-19th century, a pharmacist in Paris came up with the idea of whipping the sap with sugar and egg whites into a light, sweet, fluffy throat remedy. A variation soon became popular as marshmallow candy.

By the late 19th century, confectioners had determined how to mass-produce marshmallows, which included eliminating the sap entirely and replacing it with gelatin. (Prepared gelatin was patented in 1845; prior to then it was laborious to render and clarify gelatin from cattle and pig bones, skin, tendons and ligaments; and in addition to setting aspics, it was desirable as glue, a use that dates back to ancient Egypt.).

Marshmallow sauces were popular in the early 20th century (see Marshmallow History). But to make marshmallow sauce or frosting required that the cook first make marshmallow cream. It was a two-step process: make a sugar syrup, melt marshmallow candy in a double boiler, and combine them with the syrup.

In 1910 a marshmallow cream called Marshmallow Fluff was sold to ice cream parlors by Limpert Brothers, a company that still exists in New Jersey. You can see the original packaging on their website. Snowflake Marshmallow Creme was available around 1914.

The first commercially successful, shelf-stable marshmallow cream, it was produced by the Curtis Marshmallow Factory of Melrose, Massachusetts. They ultimately bought the Marshmallow Fluff brand from the Lippert Brothers (details).

While Marshmallow Fluff wasn’t the first marshmallow cream, it’s the one that endured: 94 years later, the brand is still around, with a host of me-too brands.

Unlike conventional marshmallows, which require gelatin (an animal product) or a seaweed equivalent to set, marshmallow cream is a kosher product made from corn syrup, sugar, water, egg whites, artificial flavor, cream of tartar, xanthan gum and artificial color.

Marshmallow Fluff is OU Kosher, Kraft Jet-Puffed Marshmallow Creme is OK Kosher. Ricemellow Creme, manufactured by Suzanne’s Specialties, Inc., is a vegan equivalent.
 
MARSHMALLOW CREAM VS. MARSHMALLOW CREME
Some brands call it marshmallow cream, others marshmallow creme. What’s the difference between cream and creme?

In the U.S., it’s just the spelling. Creme is an Americanization of the French word for cream, crème (pronounced KREHM).

When you have a perfectly good English word, why appropriate a word from another language, then mis-spell and mis-pronounce it?

[Insert your answer here.]