We’ve got plenty of impressive Halloween cupcakes to make at home. From spiders to monsters to ghosts, and even tombstone cupcakes.
Transform a batch of cupcakes into gruesome masterpieces by following one of our easy Halloween cupcake recipes. Perfect for your ghoulish celebrations, be it a pre-trick-or-treating children's tea party or part of the school's Halloween disco Halloween party food spread.
The Halloween-themed cupcakes in this roundup are easy to make at home, with basic sponges and some clever seasonal hacks, including our pumpkin puree recipe mixed with a basic cake batter to make pumpkin cupcakes. Some decorations, like our vampire fangs, are easy and ideal for beginners made and shaped with fondant. In contrast, others take those cake-decorating skills to the next level. For example, our cauldron cupcakes, witch hats, and Frankenstein toppers, not to mention some brilliant Harry Potter-inspired designs.
“When decorating cakes for Halloween you can get toppers, accessories, and sprinkles in so many spooky colours, you no longer have to stick to orange. Try using a bit of purple and green in with the orange and black to brighten it up while still looking spooky,” says professional baker Naomi Boles from Boles Bakery.
“Marshmallows are also a great way to decorate a cupcake for Halloween. Ice your cupcake as normal, warm up a marshmallow until it’s soft enough to stretch thinly, and then lay it gently over the icing. Once cool, it makes an awesome-looking web. Halloween is the one time of year you can use jam to decorate your cakes as much as you want too, as it looks great as fake blood.”
Halloween cupcake ideas
Delightful fudgey worms on chocolate soil atop a cocoa sponge
1. Worm cupcakes
Makes/serves: 12 | Skill level: Easy | Total time: 1 hr
Fudge worms minding their own business on top of some chocolate soil, anyone? This is a genius – and far easier than it looks – way to top a Halloween cupcake, using crushed Oreos atop a chocolate sponge. Topped with our wriggly friends, moulded into shape with your fair hands, they’ll be a definite talking point amongst the ghoulish guests at your Halloween bash. You’ll need to invest in some black cake cases to complete the effect.
Get the recipe: Worm cupcakes
Make your own fondant fangs – or cheat and buy them from the corner shop!
2. Fang cupcakes
Makes/serves: 12 | Skill level: Medium | Total time: 1 hr
Perfect on top of a cake piped with vanilla buttercream, these fangs are made (using a handy step-by-step guide) from pink fondant paste and mini marshmallows for teeth, plus a drizzle of raspberry jam to create a bloody scene. Of course if you really wanted to, you could totally cheat this one by buying some classic retro teeth and gum sweeties from the penny mix-up at your local corner shop.
“These are a great ‘make-ahead decoration’ as the fondant will dry to be solid and then it’s ready to use whenever you’re ready. Not only do these look fab on cupcakes, but you could change the size so they work on other Halloween treats,” says Naomi Boles.
Get the recipe: Fang cupcakes
Fondant Frankenstein might look grumpy, but he'll cheer up your Halloween cake table no end
3. Frankenstein cupcakes
Makes/serves: 12 | Skill level: Tricky | Total time: 1 hr
These decidedly grumpy-looking (well you wouldn’t be thrilled if you were destined for a kid’s tummy, we suppose) Frankenstein toppers are a wonderful work of art. We can’t lie, they’re pretty time consuming to make, but aren’t they just so worth it? Once you get into the groove of cutting out the various bits of fondant to make his green face, eyes, teeth, hair and, of course, silver bolts, then it gets easier – we recommend making double quantities for your efforts, as they’re bound to go down a storm.
Get the recipe: Frankenstein cupcakes
These colourful fondant cake toppers will really brighten up your party table
4. Witch hat cupcakes
Makes/serves: 12 | Skill level: Medium | Total time: 1 hr 30 mins
These fondant toppers in the style of a witch’s hat are super cute and effective. You’ll need to prep in advance with a good selection of food colourings – black, yellow, tangerine and violet, to be precise – and it’s recommended that you leave your fondant mixed with gum tragacanth (or the easier-to-find xanthan gum) overnight to make it easier to work with, before making the fondant shapes. Once you’ve fashioned your hats, you’ll need to leave them to dry for a couple of days before you add them to your cupcakes.
Get the recipe: Witch hat cupcakes
White fondant ghosts draped over the top of lollipops and stuck on cakes means two treats for the price of one
5. Ghost cupcakes
Makes/serves: 12 | Skill level: Medium | Total time: 1 hr
These little guys are sure to turn a few heads and they are also very fun to make. Made with white fondant and modelling paste, the ghouls are draped over the top of lollipops (Swizzels would be a good choice here, we feel), before you add black fondant eyes and smiles (these are friendly ghosts, guys) and pop them onto the top of your cupcakes. So very cute, and the kids get two for the price of one, with a cake and a lolly.
Get the recipe: Ghost cupcakes
Spooky-cut-cute cat fondant toppers laid on top of orange buttercream. Naughty but very nice
6. Vampire cat cupcakes
Makes/serves: 12 | Skill level: Easy | Total time: 1 hr 20 mins
They might be vampire cats but they’re pretty darned adorable, don’t you think? You’ll need some bright Halloween-orange buttercream (we recommend Sugarflair tangerine apricot food colour paste to achieve this) and then black fondant for the cats, with sugar diamonds (or easier-to-access Jelly Tots) for eyes and little purple hearts for noses.
Get the recipe: Vampire cat cupcakes
How fabulous is this bubbling cauldron? Eyeball anyone?
7. Cauldron cupcakes
Makes/serves: 12 | Skill level: Medium | Total time: 1 hr 55 mins
The kids – and the adults – will be talking about these cupcakes until next Halloween, so clever and brilliant they are. Creating the effect of a bubbling cauldron, filled with eye balls and bats and bones, and all the delights you expect in a witch’s potion, doesn’t come easy, but the rewards are plenty. You’ll be wanting to visit Hobbycraft or a specialised baking store for some of these ingredients – you’ll need lime green sugar balls for the bubbles, for example – and we’re sure the kids will oblige in finishing off the strawberry laces you’ll be needing for the serpent’s tongues…
Get the recipe: Cauldron cupcakes
Easy, fun designs to do with the kids
8. Halloween fairy cakes
Makes/serves: 12 | Skill level: Easy | Total time: 1 hr 10 mins
Some of the cakes in this collection are a little complex for the amateur baker with some pretty complex fondant work required – so these simple fairy cakes are a godsend for those who are challenged on the cake decorating front. A brilliant one to do with kids, this recipe features ready-to-use icing and icing pens for you to draw spooky designs with - try spider’s webs and ghostly faces, and if they’re a little rough around the edges, that’s ok because the kids did them, right? (even if it was you, really, wink wink).
Get the recipe: Halloween fairy cakes
The friendliest of vampires – apart from those teeth, that is
9. Vampire cupcakes
Makes/serves: 14 | Skill level: Medium | Total time: 2 hrs
Have you ever seen such a warm and friendly face on a vampire? These red velvet cupcakes are topped with a layer of cream cheese buttercream, followed by some pretty nifty fondant work to fashion the vampire’s smiley features. What a guy! What a cupcake!
Get the recipe: Vampire cupcakes
These bloodshot eyeball toppers are pretty easy to create, and look suitably gory
10. Eyeball cupcakes
Makes/serves: 12 | Skill level: Easy | Total time: 1 hr
Fondant work can be enough to test even a Bake Off contestant, but making these bloodshot eyeballs is pretty simple, if you follow our picture-led instructions – and it’s pretty fun too. You’ll be needing red and white fondant, as well as blue and black for the pupils. Pop your eyeballs (not literally!) on top of your piped buttercream and trickle over some jam for the requisite blood effect. A gory delight.
Get the recipe: Eyeball cupcakes
A carrot cake sponge with orange buttercream and spooky jelly toppings – easy
11. Halloween muffins
Makes/serves: 12 | Skill level: Easy | Total time: 1 hr
A simple one for the less adept bakers amongst us, these muffins are flavoured like a carrot cake with, well, carrots obviously, as well as cinnamon and walnuts. Piped with an orange buttercream, you can then just mix and match with whatever toppings you fancy, from spooky jelly sweets to sprinkles in Halloween hues.
“These muffins offer a great orange alternative to pumpkin at Halloween – perfect if you want something a bit different than the usual on the dessert table. To get really vibrant colours for your icing, use a colouring paste or gel rather than colouring liquid and let the kids go wild with gummy sweets and chocolate eyeballs to decorate,” says Naomi Boles.
Get the recipe: Halloween muffins
Fun and messy, you won't need too much brain power to create these gruesome cake toppers
12. 'Brain' cupcakes
Makes/serves: 18 | Skill level: Easy | Total time: 40 mins
The, um, brainchild of kids cooking guru Annabel Karmel, these cupcakes topped with grey matter, are far more delicious than they sound, and super easy to make. Just add a little red and black food colouring to your frosting to give it a pinky-grey tinge, and then use a cocktail stick and some red food colouring to draw on veins. A fun one for the kids, and pleasingly messy to eat, too.
Get the recipe: 'Brain' cupcakes
Use up your leftover pumpkin flesh in this seasonal cake mix
13. Pumpkin and maple cupcakes
Makes/serves: 12 | Skill level: Easy | Total time: 38 mins
These cupcakes aren't just topped with a pumpkin face, there's pumpkin puree inside them too, as well as cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and allspice. In fact, could they be any more autumnal? You’ll need to make a big batch of cream cheese frosting, split it into separate bowls and dyed orange, green and black, before piping on the pumpkin faces. It’s an ideal one to do with kids, as they don’t need to be all uniform and perfect – rustic is the word we would use here.
Get the recipe: Pumpkin cupcakes
Make your own gingerbread tombstones to go on top of a very special chocolate cupcake recipe
14. Lily Vanilli's undead gingerbread cupcakes
Makes/serves: 12 | Skill level: Medium | Total time: 55 mins
Create your own graveyard with these spooky tombstone cupcakes with a tasty gingerbread twist. These are brilliantly effective and, while there are a lot of elements involved, the end result is pretty rustic, so you don’t have to be a piping perfectionist to have a go. The choc cupcakes are made with a recipe featuring sour cream and espresso coffee, and you make your own gingerbread with treacle, lemon zest and a variety of spices (of course, you could cheat and buy some, but it may not be easy to cut to the shape of tombstones…).
“Not only do they look awesome, but the gingerbread gives an extra autumnal taste,” says Naomi Boles. “You don’t have to complete everything in one day with these cupcakes, you can back and store your gingerbread gravestones in an airtight container for up to 7 days.”
Get the recipe: Lily Vanilli’s undead gingerbread cupcakes
A joyously bright and slightly scary treat for the little ones
15. Green monster cupcakes
Makes/serves: 12 | Skill level: Medium | Total time: 1 hr 20 mins
Some nifty icing work needed here to create these striking monster cakes, with their, let’s say, gently spooky faces, perfect for younger children. Classic cupcakes are topped with a creamy white chocolate ganache that you then stick your brightly coloured toppers to. Monstrously marvellous.
Get the recipe: Green monster cupcakes
Teacake bodies and arachnid legs for these simple and spooky spider cakes
16. Annabel Karmel's Halloween spiders
Makes/serves: 18 | Skill level: Easy | Total time: 40 mins
Very easy and very effective, kids will be in a frenzy over these spooky spiders, and they definitely won’t be hanging around for long – unlike those pesky real-life arachnids we’re accustomed to in our homes around this time of year. Simple chocolate cupcakes are topped with Tunnocks tea cakes for the body (this is one chunky spider), liquorice laces for legs, and liquorice allsorts topped with M&Ms for its eyes.
Get the recipe: Annabel Karmel's Halloween spiders
Adorable, clever and striking – we'd be delighted with one of these on their own, never mind on a cupcake
17. Halloween treat tub cupcakes
Makes/serves: 12 | Skill level: Medium | Total time: 1 hr 30 mins
These clever cake toppers in the style of your trick or treat bucket are so wonderful, they’re good enough to serve solo, never mind stuck on the top of a cupcake. Made from Rice Krispie marshmallow bars wrapped in orange fondant, with carved pumpkin faces, they even have fondant handles and can be topped with multi-coloured sweets, such as Smarties or jellybeans. Adorable. Which is not a description we use in connection with Halloween all that often.
Get the recipe: Halloween treat tub cupcakes
Not just for Halloween, these maple iced cupcakes are wonderful Autumnal treats
18. Pumpkin cupcakes with maple icing
Makes/serves: 12 | Skill level: Easy | Total time: 50 mins
For life, not just for Halloween, these cupcakes work well all over the Autumn season. The addition of pumpkin to the cake mix makes for a really moist sponge, and the topping is a lovely twist on the usual cream cheese frosting. Made with mascarpone and maple syrup, the flavour is elevated to something quite special. Top with orange sprinkles if you want to appeal to young kids, or don’t if you want them all to yourself! These easy cupcakes would be just the ticket for a bonfire night celebration, too, or an October or November birthday bash.
Get the recipe: Pumpkin cupcakes with maple icing
Halloween cakes with hidden veg – a secret triumph
19. Chocolate beetroot cupcakes
Makes: 10 | Skill level: Easy | Total time: 1 hr
An excellent base cupcake for your Halloween decorating, given the dark and rather 'blood' coloured sponge. No need for artificial colourings here, thanks to the natural dyeing qualities of a beetroot – and it's a genius way to get sneaky veggies into your kid's stomachs just when they're least expecting it (and they'll surely be needing them after a bucketful of trick or treat sweets).
Simply add a ghostly face to your frosting, or drizzle with raspberry jam or strawberry sauce for a fake blood effect. Or how about adding red or black colour gel to your frosting, and sprinkling with edible glitter or topping with fondant witch hats or ghosts?
Get the recipe: Chocolate beetroot cupcakes
Some serious wizardry at work, here
20. Harry Potter cupcakes
Makes: 12 | Skill level: Medium | Total time: 1 hr 50 mins
Aren't these cake toppers a truly wonderful bit of wizardry? Perfect for a Harry Potter fan's birthday but also ideal for Halloween, you'll need a bit of time and patience to master the intricate toppings, but these instructions take you through how to make the cake toppers in helpful detail, using coloured ready-to-roll icing. Just glorious.
Get the recipe: Harry Potter cupcakes
Turn your red velvet cupcakes spooky with a bloodshot eyeball design
21. Red velvet cupcakes
Makes/serves: 16 | Skill level: Easy | Total time: 35 mins
Red velvet is always a great choice for a Halloween bake, thanks to its rich and blood-like colour. This recipe can easily be adapted to look spooky (while also a little bit classy) – add some red food colouring to the cream cheese frosting and stick in some scary cake toppers, like devil's horns, bats, witches, or spider's webs.
Or add a piece of blue fondant and some red icing lines on top of your frosting to resemble bloodshot eyeballs (less classy, but more fun).
Get the recipe: Red velvet cupcakes
Very sweet and very spooky cake toppers
22. Halloween traybake
Serves: 12 | Skill level: Easy | Total time: 55 mins
Ok so this is a tray bake, rather than a batch of cupcakes, but the topping would work brilliantly on individual cakes as well. Jelly snakes work particularly well, as do any other spooky versions of sweets – what with the supermarkets being full of them in the run-up to trick or treat day (Haribo do sour skeletons and monsters, for example). Before adding the toppings, cover the cupcakes in a topping of sticky marshmallow fluff. One for the (very) sweet-toothed among us, that's for sure.
Get the recipe: Halloween traybake
Whoever thought a krispie cake could be so stylish?
23. Halloween Rice Krispie pumpkins
Makes/serves: 12 | Skill level: Easy | Total time: 1 hr
A pleasingly easy vamp up of a classic Krispie cake gives it a Halloween twist, thanks to the simple addition of some orange food colouring and fondant decorations. Add Mikado biscuits, pretzels, or even orange Matchmakers as the chocolate stalks and cut-out leaves from green fondant. Pop one of these Rice Krispie pumpkins on top of the cupcake of your choice and serve. It's two treats in one!
Get the recipe: Halloween Rice Krispie pumpkins
24. Halloween cake pops
Makes/serves: 20 | Skill level: Medium | Total time: 1 hr 30 min
Leftover cupcakes or cake can be transformed into cake pops instead - which can then be pushed into the top of your batch of iced cupcakes. They take a bit of time to put together, but they're sure worth it – imagine the look on your trick-or-treater's faces when they were expecting a lollipop and they're presenting with these spectacular cake pops.
This recipe takes you through every detail, including troubleshooting any issues, etc. The cake is shaped into balls and covered in candy melts (available at Hobbycraft) to make pumpkins, skeletons, and mummies. And the result is scarily good.
Get the recipe: Halloween cake pops
What equipment do you need to decorate cupcakes for Halloween?
Food gels to create those black, blood red, witchy green, and pumpkin orange seasonal colours are needed, as are piping bags and nozzles for any buttercream and icing to carry out your cake decorating ideas. You may also need a palette knife for smoothing buttercream, and a sharp knife for cutting out fondant decorations. And if you're doing something particularly clever and intricate, there are all sorts of other great cake-decorating tools that will help you along the way.
Is food colouring or food gel better for colouring buttercream?
It depends on the type of colour you want to achieve. Food gel is more concentrated and better for when you're looking for more vibrant, brighter colours, while food colouring liquid is best for lighter, more pastel-type colours. So, for Halloween with those strong oranges, greens, reds, and blacks, gel colours will work well – plus you will use less and avoid any excess liquid in your bakes.
Is fondant or gum paste better for decorating cupcakes? What's the difference?
The difference is that gum paste dries hard while fondant is softer. As such, fondant should be used to top your cupcakes, but any intricate details – say mini edible animals, for example – that decorate your cake would work well using gum paste.
If you're looking for more Halloween fun, find out why we celebrate Halloween in the UK, as well as more inspiration, and spooktacular Halloween recipes to try at home - including pumpkin soup, witches fingers, treacle toffee, and more. We've also got plenty of Halloween party ideas for those of you throwing a party this year.
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