Trick or treat your friends and family with this crazy easy Halloween cupcakes recipe. A tie-dye inspired orange and black cupcake that is made from a boxed cake mix. Swirl on this creamy frosting of choice and top with Halloween sprinkles.
With Halloween on the horizon I am all about quick, easy and no fuss Halloween desserts. So this is one even little kids can have fun helping mix up the batter and frosting the cupcakes.
Make sure to check out these other Halloween treats. This ghost pudding shot is so fun or these easy pumpkin bars.
These Easy Halloween Cookies Are...
- Made from boxed cake mix
- Halloween Approved
- Non-Spooky Dessert
- Make Ahead Friendly
How to Make Halloween Cupcakes
Full directions on how to make these Halloween cupcakes are at the bottom of the post. This is a quick walk through on how to make the cupcakes.
- Preheat the oven and line your muffin tin with cupcake liners.
- Mix up the cake batter as directed on the box. Then separate the batter into two bowls.
- Add orange food coloring to one and black food coloring to the other bowl. Mix well.
- Pour the batter into each muffin tin, and then swirl the two colors together.
- Bake the swirled cupcakes as directed and then allow the cupcakes to fully cool.
- Color your frosting, and then pipe on frosting, and add sprinkles.
Helpful Tips For Success
Hand Or Stand Mixer
Using an electric mixer speeds up the prep work of making the cupcake batter. It will help ensure the cake mix gets fully mixed and quickly.
Food Coloring
I like to use gel food coloring, but you can use any brand you want. Add more food coloring to deepen the color of your batter. You can do light or dark as you want.
Halloween Cupcakes Variations
Flavor of Cake
You can use any flavor of cake you want. I find that chocolate cake though you will not have the two colors of cake batter. But you will of course get to color frosting so that is going to give you a twist in colors.
Homemade Cake
Want to make a homemade cake instead of a boxed cake mix? Go right ahead. Just reach for your favorite cake recipe and use it for making cupcakes.
Colors Of Cake
If you don't want to do black and orange, you could easily do purple and green, purple and black, orange and green, etc. Have fun and create any color of cake you want.
Decorating Cupcakes
You can decorate the cupcakes with Halloween candy, change up the frosting, spread it on instead of piping the frosting.
Halloween Cupcake FAQs
How many cupcakes does a boxed cake mix make?
You will find that you can get around 24-30 cupcakes per box of cake mix. Depending on how full you fill your muffin cups will depend how many cupcakes you end up with.
What keeps a cupcake moist?
Make sure to keep your cupcakes in an airtight container. You always want to ensure you do not overbake the cupcakes as that can instantly dry out the cookies.
Can I make these cupcakes a day in advance?
Yes, go right ahead and make these cupcakes a day before you plan to eat. Just keep them stored in a sealed container to prevent the cupcakes from drying out.
Crazy-Easy Halloween Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1 package yellow cake mix
- 1 Cup Water
- ½ Cup Vegetable Oil
- 3 Eggs
- Red yellow, and black food coloring
- Vanilla frosting packaged or homemade
- Halloween sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners.
- Add cake mix, water, vegetable oil, and eggs to a large bowl and beat on medium for 2 minutes.
- Divide mixture between two smaller bowls.
- Add black food coloring to one bowl and stir well, until the color is consistent, and as dark as you want. I used 20 drops.
- Add red and yellow food coloring to one bowl and stir well, until the color is consistent, and as dark as you want. I used 20 drops of red and 12 drops of yellow.
- Now you have orange batter in 1 bowl and black batter in another bowl.
- Use a spoon to drop a small spoonful of orange batter into each cupcake liner.
- Next, use a spoon to drop a small spoonful of black batter into each cupcake liner.
- Alternate between the two colors until you have filled each cupcake liner halfway, and you have run out of cake batter.
- Lightly tap the pan down on the counter to even the batter out, and place the pans in the oven.
- Bake for 12-17 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes clean.
- When cupcakes are done, set the pan on a cooling rack for 5 minutes, then remove cupcakes from the pan to cool completely.
- Now it’s time to color your frosting orange. I used 12 drops of red and 8 drops of yellow.
- Mix well until you get an even orange color throughout.
- Set a piping bag or ziplock bag up with a frosting tip (if desired), and set it in a large cup to fill with frosting.
- Frost cupcakes
- Add sprinkles and serve.
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