Halloween Cupcakes
An easy decorating tutorial for Halloween cupcakes, using cookies and candy to make owls, ghosts, and witch hats.
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Equipment
- Disposable Piping Bags (plus tips 2A and 1M)
Ingredients
Chocolate Cupcakes
- 1 recipe chocolate cupcakes
Buttercream and Decorating
- 3x recipe American buttercream
- Oreos or chocolate sandwich cookies
- Reese's Pieces or M&Ms (brown, orange and yellow)
- chocolate kisses
- sprinkles
- black sugar pearls
Instructions
Cupcakes and Buttercream
- Bake and cool the chocolate cupcakes.
- Make 3x the recipe for American buttercream. I used white/vanilla buttercream for the ghost, but added some cocoa powder to make chocolate buttercream for the owls. For the witch, I decided to use some black cocoa buttercream from my freezer, instead of using the vanilla buttercream.
Decorating Owl Cupcakes
- Twist apart Oreos or chocolate sandwich cookies, and use a knife to lightly scrape the frosting on one half of the cookie so that it's smooth and free of crumbs.
- Press brown M&Ms or Reese's Pieces candy to the cookies to make the eyeball.
- Use a small offset icing spatula to frost the cupcakes with brown/chocolate buttercream.
- Arrange the eyes on top of the cookies, then add more candy to make the nose and eyebrows.
Decorating Witch Hat Cupcakes
- Fit a piping bag with a large open star tip (tip 1M), and fill with buttercream. You can tint the vanilla buttercream any color you like, or use black cocoa buttercream like I did. Pipe a ruffly swirl on top of the cupcakes.
- Scatter sprinkles over the buttercream.
- Use a little buttercream to "glue" a chocolate kiss onto one half of a chocolate cookie to make the hats. Press the hat on top of the buttercream.
Decorating Ghost Cupcakes
- Fit a piping bag with a large round tip (2A), and fill with vanilla buttercream. Pipe a simple swirl on top of the cupcakes.
- Add two black sugar pearls for the eyes.
Video
Notes
Store leftover cupcakes in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Because the chocolate cake is so moist, the cookies on top will absorb moisture from the cake and become very soft on the leftover cupcakes - personally, I love them this way! But if you want the cookies to be crunchy, you should decorate the cupcakes the same day you serve them.
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