Halloween is nearly here! That means it’s time to start thinking about those DIY Halloween decorations and party foods. Speaking of party foods, I’ve found 30 of the most ghoulishly delicious Halloween cupcakes that are sure to add the perfect spooky touch to your party. These are all so easy to make. Your guests will swear that you had them specially done at a bakery, but you’ll know that you did them all yourself.
I really do love DIY Halloween decorating and I love finding recipes that let me make my party foods perfect for the holiday. These cupcake recipes include everything from low key pumpkin or apple cupcakes that look just like the real thing to scarier bats, brains and even ax murderer cupcakes that are sure to delight your guests. None of them are really very time consuming and they’re all perfect for adding that special touch to your parties. You can even send some of them off to school with the kiddos for their Halloween parties. And, if you’re looking for some cute Halloween crafts for the kids, check out these 20 spooky hand and footprint Halloween crafts.
Cupcakes are the perfect party dessert. They’re a bit more convenient and less messy than cake – which is great if you’re hosting a party for kids. Plus, these are all so adorable and so super easy to make. You can toggle the recipes a bit if needed to change the cupcake flavors and for some of them, you can even use boxed cake mixes if you want to save yourself a bit of time. All that really matters is that these are ghoulishly fun and going to add the right amount of spook to your Halloween party table. And, you can add one of these DIY monster wreaths to greet your guests at the front door.
If you’re planning a Halloween party, these scary ghoulish Halloween cupcakes are a must. They’re fun and delicious and are sure to thrill your guests from their appearance to their taste.
1. Gory Bloody Halloween Cupcakes
These Halloween cupcakes are so gory and so delicious at the same time. You just make regular cupcakes and you can frost them with homemade buttercream or cream cheese frosting. Just swirl the frosting on top and then add raspberry sauce or cherry pie filling to make the “blood.” Cherry pie filling with a few pieces of cherry would look extra gruesome.
Recipe/Source: farmbaby
2. Sparkly Apple Cupcakes
Okay, so these apple cupcakes aren’t likely to frighten your guests, but they are really pretty and they taste delicious. They’re perfect for parties where little ones may be present – you don’t want to terrify your little ones. You make them in the colors that you want and then decorate by frosting them with your choice of frosting and turning them upside down into sparkly decorating sugar.
Recipe/Source: easybaked
3. Spooky Tree Cupcakes
I love these spooky tree cupcakes that don’t really require any special baking skills. You simply make your cupcakes and frost with chocolate icing. The scary effects are made by using black licorice and candy corn. Just stick a few pieces of licorice into each cupcake to make a tree and then line with candy corn. You can also add plastic spiders or other scary aspects.
Recipe/Source: trendhunter
4. Ax Murderer Cupcakes
These cupcakes are inspired by the movie “So I Married an Ax Murderer” and they’re great. You top the cupcake’s frosting with red candy coating to resemble blood and then add a tiny hatchet, which you can pick up at most party decoration stores around this time of year. You could also do an oozing blood by adding gel icing or cherry pie filling to the tops of your cupcakes.
Recipe/Source: cupcakesgarden
5. Easy Bat Cupcakes
Colored chocolate and printed off bat wings make these the most adorable cupcakes ever. These are so very easy to do. Just bake chocolate cupcakes and then use black candy coloring to turn chocolate frosting black. You can print the wings off and cut them out to attach them or if you really want to do it the DIY way, you could find a mold and create the wings from melted chocolate. Add googly eyes and you’re all done.
Recipe/Source: bigbearswife
6. Gruesome Bloody Eyeball Cupcakes
How adorably gruesome are these bloody eyeball cupcakes? They’re just the right amount of scary for your upcoming Halloween party and they’re super easy to make. Red sparkling food gel makes the gore on top of white frosting, and then you add an eyeball gumball for the gruesome eyeball effect. These are so great and the cupcakes are red velvet cake – or you could do whatever flavor you prefer.
Recipe/Source: thedomesticrebel
7. Zombie Brain Cupcakes
Grey cupcakes give these spooky treats a zombie brain look that is so great. I love the cupcake liners that have zombie faces on them and you can create the “brains” with colored frosting and just a bit of strawberry jam. These look really gross but they are delicious and they’re perfect if you’re hosting a Walking Dead type party this Halloween.
Recipe/Source: wonkywonderful
8. Blood Clot Brain Cupcakes
The special effects of this cupcake go right through the middle. These brain cupcakes are made with frosting and the best part is the “blood clot” in the middle that you make with cherry pie filling. You just add a cherry with a bit of filling to each cupcake as you bake it and then pipe on buttercream frosting that you color with red, black and brown to give it a nice brain color. You can even add blood vessels on top with red gel icing.
Recipe/Source: annies-eats
9. Broken Glass Cupcakes
I love these cupcakes with “broken glass” and “blood.” The glass is made with sugar and looks just like the real thing. It’s a bit sharp as well, so take care when making it. Raspberry jam on top of white frosting give them a great bloody look. Just puree the jam a bit before adding. It is the perfect color to make these look so real, and you can use any cupcake and frosting recipe that you want – you could even use store bought!
Recipe/Source: storyofakitchen
10. Easy Colorful Monster Cupcakes
These are among the easiest Halloween cupcakes that you could make and they’re also one of the most adorable. Using any cupcake recipe that you want, just add colorful frosting. You can buy colored frosting or mix up your own buttercream and add different colors to small batches. Once you have your cupcakes frosted, just add any number of googly eyes to each one to create the “monster.”
Recipe/Source: lifewiththecrustcutoff
11. Cotton Candy Monster Cupcakes
Here’s another adorable way to create monster cupcakes for your Halloween party. Just bake your cupcakes and add colored frosting. Once the frosting is on, give your monsters “hair” with cotton candy. You can buy bags of cotton candy just about anywhere for around a dollar each, and you don’t need much to create the “hair.” Once that’s done, add a white candy melt and an M&M for the eye and you’re all done.
Recipe/Source: thenovicechefblog
12. Witch’s Brew Cupcakes – Gluten Free Recipe!
These witch’s brew cupcakes are perfect for taking to school because they’re gluten free, so they won’t aggravate anyone’s gluten allergies. They’re pretty easy to make, too. The “brew” is made from white chocolate pudding and green food coloring. You add mini marshmallows and mini chocolate chips to give the brew a few gory ingredients and top it off with a pretzel stick stirrer.
Recipe/Source: glutenfreeyumms
13. Frankenstein Cupcakes
These adorably scary Frankenstein cupcakes have sprinkles for hair and M&Ms for eyes and they’re almost too cute to eat…almost. You make the Frankenstein with green frosting that you shape into a square-ish head and then add your hair and eyes. Another version simply place a Reese’s peanut butter cup on top of the head instead of adding hair, and it’s just as adorable.
Recipe/Source: yourcupofcake
14. Eerie Graveyard Cupcakes
These little graveyard cupcakes are really adorable and they’re super easy to make. You make the “dirt” with crushed Oreo cookies. The tombstone is made from a Keebler Vienna cookie with RIP written on it in gel icing and you can add in a candy pumpkin, too. Kids are going to literally eat these up! You could bake the cupcakes in any flavor that you want and then just frost with chocolate frosting before adding your decorations.
Recipe/Source: cupcakediariesblog
15. Carrot Cake Cupcakes With Halloween Ghosts
Carrot cake is so delicious, although it may be a flavor more enjoyed by adults than kids. These little carrot cake cupcakes would be perfect for your office Halloween party, and they’re super easy to put together. The cupcakes are a nice dark color (you could also use chocolate cake mix if you wanted and would get the same color). You just swirl cream cheese frosting on top and then create the ghost eyes and nose with chocolate covered pomegranates or raisins.
Recipe/Source: everydaysouthwest
16. DIY Jack Skellington Cupcakes
Jack Skellington is definitely Halloween worthy and these cupcakes are as well. They’re a little bit spooky and a lot of delicious. You just whip up a batch of chocolate cupcakes, frost them with white buttercream icing and then draw on your details with black decorator’s icing. You can make this yourself by adding black food coloring to white icing or just buy the icing already colored.
Recipe/Source: disney
17. Fabulously Scary Living Dead Cupcakes
I love these Living Dead inspired cupcakes! They’re perfect for Halloween and definitely have that fright factor going on for them. These are chocolate cupcakes with a gooey raspberry filling, which make them really great but the real treat is the design. They look like skeletons clawing their way out of the ground, which is easy to replicate with Nutella frosting and cake crumbs. Just add your skeleton pieces and you’ve got the spookiest cupcakes on the block.
Recipe/Source: knowhowshedoesit
18. Easy Autumn Cupcakes
These autumn cupcakes are perfect for Halloween parties where you don’t want too much spooky going on. They have all the beautiful colors of fall and are super easy to make. Just bake your cupcakes in any flavor that you want and then add fall colored buttercream frosting in swirls on top. The best thing about these is the little maple leaf on top that you cut out of Jolly Rancher candies.
Recipe/Source: cakecentral
19. Easy Halloween Mummy Cupcakes
These mummy cupcakes may just be the easiest ever to make for Halloween. You just bake your cupcakes, and by the way, this recipe is for 100 calorie cupcakes. Imagine a cupcake with only 100 calories! Once you have your cupcakes ready, you make the mummy decoration with white buttercream frosting and a basket weave icing tip. Just swirl the white frosting back and forth to create the mummy pattern and add M&Ms for eyes.
Recipe/Source: sherisilver
20. Cute Owl Cupcakes
Owls are great for Halloween, which makes these little cupcakes perfect for parties. These are especially great for parties with younger kids and even school Halloween celebrations. You make them by opening an Oreo cookie and using that for the yes and then adding half a cookie on each side for the ears. They’re so easy and they really are an adorable addition to your Halloween party table.
Recipe/Source: arcticgardenstudio
21. Cheesecake Stuffed Halloween Cupcakes
These cupcakes are stuffed with cheesecake! Each one of these cupcakes has a cute little cheesecake pumpkin inside and you top them off with chocolate frosting and Halloween colored sprinkles. Not only are the colors perfect for your Halloween party, these are probably the most delicious cupcakes you will ever taste and the decoration goes all the way inside!
Recipe/Source: hungryhappenings
22. Pumpkin Patch Cupcakes
These cupcakes are also among the lesser scary versions but they’re perfect for office parties and school celebrations. You just bake your cupcakes in the flavor that you want, top with frosting and a bit of coconut and then add in the little meringue pumpkins that you can make yourself. These are so gorgeous when they’re finished and they are much easier to make than they look.
Recipe/Source: sprinkledwithjules
23. Quoth The Raven Cupcakes
I love Edgar Allen Poe and I really love these cupcakes that serve as an inspiration to his famous “The Raven.” These raven toppers are on Etsy and they make decorating your Halloween cupcakes super easy. Just bake and then frost your cupcakes and add a silicone raven to each one. These toppers are reusable and you get a set of six black ravens, complete with picks, for $10.
Recipe/Source: etsy.com
24. Chocolate Pumpkin Witch Cupcakes
Not only do these cupcakes have a wonderful flavor, they have the perfect design for your Halloween party. Hazelnut frosting give them the most delicious flavor and the little witch’s hat that you can make yourself, gives them the perfect look for Halloween. These are really easy to make and even easier to decorate, so if you want a delicious and easy to bake cupcake that doesn’t come from a boxed mix, this is definitely one to consider.
Recipe/Source: goodhousekeeping
25. Pretzel And Marshmallow Skeleton Cupcakes
How adorable are these little skeletons? I love these cupcakes. Your cupcakes can be any flavor you want. To build the skeleton, you just stack white chocolate coated pretzels over a straw (which helps to hold them in place) and use melted white chocolate to secure them. The head is a marshmallow and you can draw on the face with edible markers, which you can pick up at any Hobby Lobby or Michael’s.
Recipe/Source: yourcupofcake
26. Halloween Spider Cupcakes
I don’t like spiders as a general rule, but I’ll forgo that rule for these adorable spider cupcakes. They’re really easy to make with chocolate frosting, chocolate sprinkles, candy eyeballs and black string licorice for the legs. These take so very little time to put together and kids are going to love their design, as well as the addition of all that candy on their cupcake.
Recipe/Source: damndelicious
27. Super Easy Spider Web Cupcakes
You don’t have to be a culinary artist to create amazing Halloween cupcakes. These spider web cupcakes are made simply by frosting cupcakes with orange buttercream frosting and then drawing on the spider web with chocolate frosting or melted chocolate. They’re so easy and so adorably perfect for Halloween parties. You could be really creative and make spiders out of chocolate, too or just buy plastic spiders to put on top if you want.
Recipe/Source: leannebakes
28. Whimsical Witch Cupcakes
If you’re going for a whimsical look for your cupcakes, these little witches are perfect. They look complicated but they are really super easy to make. A dollop of green frosting makes the witch’s face and then you use devil’s food cookies and chocolate kisses for the hat and chow mien noodles for the hair. Draw on her face with decorator gel and you’re all set.
Recipe/Source: eclecticrecipes
29. Easy Witch Hat Cupcakes
Witches are really a huge part of Halloween and these little witch hat cupcakes are perfect for your holiday party. The frosting is green and the little black hats can be molded from black fondant. If you’ve never worked with fondant before, it’s not terribly difficult to mold and you can add a ring of white frosting for the hat band if you want. You can buy fondant already colored, which makes it much easier, at Hobby Lobby or Walmart and it’s not terribly expensive.
Recipe/Source: littlebigco
30. Funny Witch’s Leg Cupcakes
Here’s another fast and easy cupcake to decorate. Simply cake and then frost your cupcakes however you want and then add these adorable witch’s legs. They look like the little witch went head first into your cupcake. I found these adorable little picks on Etsy and you get 12 in a set for $15. You can even choose the color of the legs that you prefer.
Recipe/Source: etsy.com
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