Cupcakes are a classic treat that is suitable for almost any occasion, be it a birthday party or a festive holiday like Halloween. These spooky Halloween cupcakes are made with a chocolate batter but a few different frostings to create three unique and frightful looks!
One of the reasons we love making cupcakes for Halloween is that they’re so easy to create and even more fun to decorate. To create these Halloween cupcakes, we simply used a box of chocolate cake mix from the store to keep things simple.
Instead, we focus our kitchen skills on creating three different types of homemade frosting recipes to decorate the tops of the cupcakes with. By making your own frosting, you can get creative with how you’re able to use the frosting to decorate the cupcakes.
For instance, for ghost cupcakes, you’ll make marshmallow frosting and pipe it into a swirl on top of the cupcakes with mini chocolate chips for eyeballs. For spider cupcakes, on the other hand, you’ll use chocolate buttercream and chocolate sprinkles to cover the top of the cupcakes before they’re garnished with eyeball sprinkles and black licorice legs.
These Halloween cupcakes are a great way to get the kids in the kitchen with you. They’ll have fun helping you decorate the cupcakes and replicating the spooky designs.
For more Halloween recipes, be sure to check out our collection here.
Summary |
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Cook time: 35 minutes
Prep time: 20 minutes
Idle time:
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Level
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Servings:
Unit:
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Ingredients
- 1 box of chocolate cake mix plus any ingredients listed on the box to make the cake
- For the marshmallow buttercream frosting:
- 2 egg whites
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup light corn syrup
- 2 tbsp water
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
- tiny pinch of salt
- For the buttercream frosting:
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- For the decorations:
- eyeball sprinkles
- Mini chocolate chips
- chocolate sprinkles
- black licorice
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips melted
Instructions
- Prepare the cupcakes according to the instructions on the cake mix, distributing the batter among 12 cupcake liners. Bake and cool completely before decorating.
- Add all of the frosting ingredients to large metal or glass bowl over a small saucepan of simmering water. Beat the ingredients with an electric mixer until stiff and doubled in size. Remove the frosting from the heat and continue beating until cooled.
- Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy, add a splash of vanilla and mix to combine. Separate the frosting into two batches.
- To one batch, add 1/4 cup of cocoa powder and again beat to combine. Leave the other batch of buttercream untouched.
- Use a pastry bag with a plain tip to pipe the marshmallow frosting into a tall swirl on top of some of the cupcakes. Adorn the swirls with mini chocolate chips to create ghost eyes.
- Use an offset spatula to spread the plain buttercream on some of the cupcakes, creating a smooth flat surface. Once the melted chocolate for decorating has somewhat set and isn't super runny, transfer to a small ziplock bag with a small corner snipped off and pipe round dots for eyes on the cupcakes, small parallel lines for the nose, and a scarecrow-like smile for the mouth. These will be your skeleton cupcakes.
- Use a clean offset spatula to spread chocolate buttercream onto the remaining cupcakes to create a smooth chocolate surface. Cover with chocolate sprinkles. Place two eyeball sprinkles for the eyes, then cut the black licorice into small pieces and stick them onto the sides of the cupcake edges for the spider legs.
Additional information
Marshmallow frosting recipe adapted from pixelatedcrumb.com
