Impart extra sweetness with honey-infused cupcakes. View New York Hilton Midtown.

Off the Menu: Honey Halloween cupcakes at New York Hilton Midtown

Create a buzz this Halloween with New York Hilton Midtown's delectable honey Halloween cupcake recipe — straight from director of culinary, Peter Betz. | By Alison Cavatore | October 27, 2022

Prepare to “bee” inspired for Halloween with this twist on a classic cupcake that tastes great AND puts sustainable, locally sourced ingredients front and center, in this case: honey. With somewhere between 300,000 and 500,000 adopted bees atop the New York Hilton Midtown, there’s plenty of honey (approximately 300 pounds annually, to be precise) to sweeten the property’s delectable food and beverage offerings.

Part of an urban beekeeping initiative, the nearly half-a-million honeybees reside in six hives located on the hotel’s fifth-floor 16,000-square-foot rooftop. Director of culinary Peter Betz and his team tend to the bees and use the harvested honey — along with ingredients sourced from Betz’s extensive network of local vendors — to curate innovative dishes with exciting flavors and memorable flair.

Betz says, “Our honey adds a little bit of complexity. It’s incorporated all over the menu. The bees will go and pollinate Central Park and you’ll get notes of lavender and mint and those flavors come together to really make for an interesting flavor profile.”

A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Betz became one of only 80 influential chefs in the U.S. to be appointed to the State Department’s Diplomatic Chef Corps in 2012. Developed in partnership with the James Beard Foundation, the program includes a select network of chefs who act as food-focused statesmen and are dispatched around the world to promote American cuisine and prepare meals for foreign leaders. Throughout his career, Betz has cooked for presidents, dignitaries and celebrities but his technique and purpose remain the same regardless of who comes to the table.

“I always hope [guests] enjoy the food and that we give them something that perhaps sparks a conversation at the table. I like to highlight our rooftop honey whenever possible and what better time than Halloween with a fun-themed cupcake dessert? [The honey] gives the cupcake a unique and unexpected flavor but it also makes it very special for this property,” Betz says.

Oh, and don’t worry. If you don’t happen to have thousands of honeybees on your rooftop, you can still create a buzz all your own by using a high-quality honey from your local grocery store. All that’s left to do now is bake and enjoy!

Cupcake ingredients

1/8 cup butter

½ cup unsweetened chocolate

2 eggs

1 ½ cups sugar

1 cup water

½ sour cream

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Frosting ingredients

1/3 cup butter

½ cup white chocolate

2 2/3 cups powdered sugar

1/3 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Honey, to taste

Orange food dye, to desired color

Cupcake preparation

Preheat oven to 350 F (176.6 C).

Line a muffin pan.

In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter and chocolate in 30-second intervals, stirring each time until fully melted. Note: this can also be done in a double boiler, melting the butter and chocolate in a mixing bowl over a stove top water bath.

In a separate bowl, combine the eggs, water, vanilla extract and sour cream. As you’re stirring, slowly pour the sugar in to combine. Mix until ingredients are smooth and incorporated.

Add the melted chocolate and butter into the egg mixture. Stir until fully incorporated.

In a separate bowl, combine flour and baking soda.

Sift the dry ingredients into the chocolate mixture and mix until smooth with no clumps.

With an ice cream scooper, fill each liner approximately ¾ of the way.

Bake at 350 F (176.6 C) for 18-20 minutes. Let the cupcakes cool before starting to decorate.

Frosting preparation

Grab a pastry bag and set aside.

In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter and chocolate in 30-second intervals, stirring each time until fully melted. This can also be done in a double boiler, melting the butter and chocolate in a mixing bowl over a stove top water bath.

In a separate bowl, combine the powdered sugar, sour cream and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth.

Combine the sour cream mixture with the chocolate mixture.

Add honey to taste.

Add orange food dye to desired color.

Place frosting inside pastry bag and using a star tip, start frosting your cupcakes from the center, working your way out and around.

After decorating, finish each cupcake with a drizzle of honey.

(Recipe from New York Hilton Midtown director of culinary Peter Betz, 2022.)

Alison Cavatore is the assistant editor for the content marketing team at Hilton. She has written and copyedited for numerous print and digital publications in the U.S. and abroad. Born in Pittsburgh, PA, Alison has lived in Miami, Scottsdale, Holland, France, Switzerland and Canada. She currently resides in the Washington, D.C. area.

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