Halloween is just around the corner, and if you are throwing a party or bringing treats to work or school, cupcakes are a fantastic option for a holiday dessert. There are multiple creepy and cute Halloween cupcake ideas that you can use at either an adult or child’s party, with the only limit being your imagination.
From witches to spiders — and flavors from chocolate to pumpkin spice — here are 25 easy Halloween cupcake recipes that will be the hit of your holiday season.
1. Crime Scene Cupcakes
This idea from The Decorated Cookie features red and white food coloring, plus a decorating bag and tip, rubber bands, construction paper, and a black marker. You can make your favorite flavor of cupcake and use your favorite frosting, and then dress it up into a crime scene.
2. Reese’s Frankenstein Cupcakes
If you love Reese’s cups and M&M’s, then this is the perfect cupcake for you. You can make Frankenstein out of green frosting, chocolate chips, M&M’s, sprinkles, and a Reese’s cup for his head of hair. This baking project from Your Cup of Cake is super cute and delicious.
3. Oreo Bat Cupcakes
These adorable cupcakes use ingredients like Oreos, cream cheese, vanilla, sugar, and cocoa powder. Not only do these cupcakes from Today’s Parent look like cute little bats, but there is also a surprise treat in the middle.
4. Eyeball Cupcakes
Who doesn’t love a bloody cupcake with an eyeball topper? This creepy idea from The Partiologist starts with a white cake mix, then it adds some Jell-O, red sparkle gel, and creepy eyeballs. You can make these cupcakes as gory as you like, and you can even add some decoration to the white cupcake wrappers by splattering food coloring with a paint brush.
5. Pumpkin Patch Cupcakes
Keep your Halloween cupcakes fun and jolly with these Pumpkin Patch cupcakes that are topped with pumpkin toppers made from Rice Krispies Treats. Add some orange or green frosting, sprinkles, and pumpkin-shaped frosting decorations to complete this sweet treat.
6. Mummy Cupcakes
Chocolate and vanilla cupcakes that look like mummies are nothing short of awesome. With a flat frosting tip and some white frosting, chocolate cupcakes, and candy eyes, you can easily make this recipe from Sugar and Charm.
7. Graveyard Cupcakes
Graveyard Cupcakes from Happiness Is Homemade start with your favorite cupcake and frosting recipes, and then you add different candies, skeleton bones made of white chocolate chips, and some free printable headstones. Turn your next batch of cupcakes into a graveyard with this creative idea.
8. Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
This idea may seem simple, but it is full of fall flavor. It doesn’t have all of the decorations like the other cupcakes on the list, but nothing says October like pumpkin spice.
9. Marshmallow Ghost Cupcakes
These Marshmallow Ghost Cupcakes from Our Family of Seven are super cute and easy to make. All it takes is some chocolate cupcakes, plus a topping that features marshmallow creme, vanilla, powdered sugar, butter, and chocolate chips. The result is too die for.
10. Chocolate and Caramel Spider Cupcakes
This Halloween treat has licorice legs to make them spooky, yet delicious. If you are aiming for a cute Halloween, instead of bloody or gross, try this recipe from Ashlee Marie.
11. Wicked Witch Cupcakes
Another idea from Your Cup of Cake, this is a fun idea if you have Wizard of Oz fans in your life. With green frosting, striped straws, and black construction paper, you can top your cupcake with witch legs, and they will be the best dessert at your party.
12. Itsy Bitsy Spider Web Cupcakes
The white chocolate toppers on these Itsy Bitsy Spider Web cupcakes look like they are floating! All you need to do is make your favorite chocolate cupcakes, top them with chocolate frosting, and then add the white chocolate topper that you can easily make with melted white chocolate chips.
13. Skeleton Cupcakes
You can make this super-cute idea from My Recipes with either fun or scary faces. But either way you choose, these cupcakes are a delicious treat that feature M&Ms, licorice, chocolate wafers, and jelly beans.
14. Skeleton Cupcakes Remix
There is more than one way to make skeleton cupcakes, and we couldn’t pass up this idea from Your Cup of Cake. Using mini pretzels as ribs, a lollipop stick, and a marshmallow skull, you can put these cute characters on the top of your favorite kind of cupcake and frosting.
15. Dirt Cupcakes
All it takes for this cupcake is your favorite chocolate cupcake recipe, chocolate frosting, crushed Oreos and some gummy worms. Like Mother, Like Daughter also recommends adding spider rings to this creepy, crawly treat for some extra decoration.
16. Bloody Cupcakes
These scary, bloody cupcakes from Living Sweet Moments make a delicious centerpiece for your Halloween party. You can get your kids involved in the process by letting them inject the cupcakes with strawberry coulis for a bloody effect. This gives it more flavor and makes the cupcakes more fun because everyone will want to take a look inside.
17. Glow In The Dark Cupcakes
Using tonic water in the frosting will make these cupcakes glow under black light! You will also need some gelatin and food coloring to make these cupcakes stand out. After some trial and error, Food Snots at Instructables finally figured out the perfect recipe for these ghoulish cupcakes.
18. Brain Cupcakes
This recipe from Bren Did makes all-natural blood-red brain cupcakes with real ingredients and no artificial colors. She makes the red color for the frosting using beet puree, and the cake features spices like cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg.
19. Monster Strawberry Cupcakes
Make your strawberries come alive with this creative idea from Yummy Crumble. With some chocolate and white frosting, you can use your decorating tip to put mouths and teeth on your strawberries, which sit on top of a strawberry cupcake with green frosting and Oreo cookie crumbles.
20. Owl Eyes Cupcakes
There are so many ways to use Oreos and Reese’s cups when it comes to topping cupcakes. This idea from Inside Bru Crew Life showcases owls as toppers, and they are a fun project to do with your kids.
21. Vampire Bite Cupcakes
With some candy blood that you can find at any Halloween store and some white frosting and toothpicks, you can go creepy with your cupcakes by giving them some bloody vampire bites. This idea from Dream A Little Bigger will be popular with your family and friends. The candy blood has a cherry flavor, and goes well with a white cupcake and white frosting.
22. Death By Butterbeer Cupcakes
If you have some Harry Potter fans in the house, this idea from Half Baked Harvest is a perfect Halloween treat. With ingredients like butterscotch chips, pretzels, and pumpkin beer (you can substitute cream soda), this cupcake is a butterbeer dream.
23. Brownie Bottom Halloween Cupcakes
A combination of a cupcake and brownie, this idea from Persnickety Plates features a layer of dark chocolate brownie, topped with orange cake (white cake with orange food coloring), buttercream, and sprinkles. Add some decorative Halloween cupcake wrappers to make this treat extra fun.
24. Zombie Graveyard Cupcakes
One of the easiest ideas on this list, you can either bake your cupcakes or buy some from the store before adding the Zombie decorations. The Cake Girls use cookie crumbs and novelty zombie hands to bring this spooky Halloween treat to life.
25. Witches’ Brew Cupcakes
Brianne from Cupcakes & Kale Chips has a fantastic recipe for Witches’ Brew Cupcakes that look like a black cauldron filled with green, bubbly brew. You will need some green gumballs and sprinkles for this cupcake idea, plus your favorite chocolate cupcake recipe and black cupcake liners.
With this list of the 25 best Halloween cupcake ideas on the internet, you should be ready for all of the Halloween parties you will attend this October. No matter if you want to opt for cute or creepy, there is something on this list that will work perfectly.
