Halloween Cupcake Recipe (Ghost Cupcakes)

Name: Halloween Cupcake Recipe
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 24
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1 box vanilla cupcake mix or 1 batch homemade; 1 can vanilla frosting or 1 batch homemade; Wilton gel food coloring red, yellow, and blue; 2 packages Wilton Candy Corn Ghosts

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Last Updated on January 20, 2024 by Allison Lancaster

This Halloween Cupcake recipe is perfect for those fall holiday parties you’ve got lined up! These ghost cupcakes aren’t scary at all. In fact, they are sweet as candy, made with friendly ghosts as the decorative cupcake toppers! They’re also a delicious and fun recipe to make with your kids this Halloween season.

Ghost shaped candy on top of blue frosted cupcakes on a serving white plate.

Summer can come and go so quickly, right? Then, before we know it, it’s fall and all the holiday parties start up. These adorable Halloween cupcakes have become a fun and delicious new special tradition in my family, and I know you’ll love them too!

This is one of the easiest Halloween cupcake recipes you’ll find and I hope you’ll adore it as much as we do!

ghost shaped candy on top of blue frosted cupcakes on a white cake stand.

The cute little decorations on top are a hit with kids and adults alike. They are simple to make, easily adaptable, and only take about an hour from start to finish.

Halloween Cupcake Ingredients & Substitutions:

Vanilla cupcake or cake boxed mix – You can use your favorite cake mix brand or even make the batter for the vanilla cupcakes yourself from scratch! I find the Aldi or store brand of cake mix works just fine!

Vanilla buttercream frosting – Feel free to use cream cheese frosting, or get creative with different flavors such as orange frosting or chocolate frosting. You can purchase the frosting in the store for an even easier Halloween cupcake recipe or you can make your own if you prefer.

Gel food coloring – I’ve mixed red food coloring and yellow food coloring to make a vibrant orange color that is mixed into the cupcake batter. Blue gel food coloring is then used to color the frosting for these easy Halloween cupcakes. You could also choose to make red icing or green icing. If you really want to go to the next level, consider black fondant!

Halloween candy – Wilton Candy Corn Ghosts are adorable as Halloween decorations for these spooky cupcakes. Gummy worms are another good idea to add to the top of a cupcake.

How To Make These Cute Halloween Cupcakes

Using a large bowl mix up your favorite cake mix according to directions. When fully mixed use the red and yellow gel coloring to reach a desired shade of vibrant orange. Fill cupcake liners with vibrant orange batter and bake.
While your cupcakes are cooling mix vanilla icing with the blue gel color to reach the desired shade of blue.
Use an angled spatula or piping bag and ice the cupcakes.
Place Ghost and Candy Corn decorations on top of each cupcake.

Vanilla cupcake batter in the top image and a cupcake tin with orange-colored cupcake batter in paper-lined cupcake cups.

Blue frosting added to orange-colored cupcake bases.

Serve

Serve these candy corn cupcakes as Halloween treats this spooky season alongside a themed platter of Halloween cookies, caramel apples, and other Halloween desserts – perfect for your next Halloween party!

How To Store These Adorable Halloween Cupcakes

Store your batch of cupcakes on the countertop for 2-3 days, in the fridge for up to a week, or in the freezer for up to a month. If freezing, allow the cupcakes to thaw and THEN frost just before serving.

Recipe FAQ’s:

How easy is this ghost cupcake recipe?

This simple cupcake recipe is so easy! Simply make your favorite cupcake recipe. If using vanilla, add the orange gel food coloring. If using chocolate, you can skip that part. Bake according to the detailed instructions in the recipe card below.

What kind of cupcakes do I need to make these ghost cupcakes?

This recipe calls for a vanilla cupcake base. The orange will mix better with the white base. However, if you want to mix it up, you can skip the orange food coloring and make chocolate cupcakes instead. Use either homemade or the boxed cupcake recipe.

Feel free to also make pumpkin cupcakes, red velvet cupcakes, pumpkin spice cupcakes, or caramel apple cupcakes for this recipe!

How many cupcakes does this recipe make?

I make 24 cupcakes with a single box cupcake mix. You could always double, or triple the recipe as needed. Another option is to make mini cupcakes, if you need smaller cupcakes or more cupcakes out of a single batch.

Are these cupcakes gluten-free?

I’ve used regular cupcake mix which contains gluten. When catering to gluten allergies, always select a gluten-free boxed mix or make your own gluten-free cupcakes from scratch.

What additional ingredients do I need for boxed cupcake mix?

This really depends on the brand of boxed cupcake mix, but the additional ingredients can include oil, eggs, milk, water, and extract. Always check the packaging of your boxed cupcake mix to ensure that you have the extra ingredients called for.

What are some other ways to decorate Halloween cupcakes?

If you don’t have Candy Corn Ghosts, use regular candy corns, add candy eyes, create spider webs using colored frosting that can be piped onto the white frosting, add colored sprinkles that are usually associated with Halloween (green, orange, or purple), or drizzle some edible fake blood that you can make at home or buy in specialty baking stores. There are so many ways to create your own creepy cupcake this spooky season!

Other Great Cupcakes You’ll Love

What is your favorite flavor of cupcake? Will you try these ghost cupcakes? If you do, please come back and leave me a comment letting me know how you liked them. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask! I love hearing from you!

Halloween Cupcake Recipe:

Halloween Cupcake Recipe

Yield: 24

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Additional Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes

This Halloween Cupcake recipe is perfect for those fall holiday parties you've got lined up! They're made with a simple cupcake boxed mix, blue frosting, and Ghost Corn Candy!

Ingredients

1 box vanilla cupcake mix or 1 batch homemade
1 can vanilla frosting or 1 batch homemade
Wilton gel food coloring red, yellow, and blue
2 packages Wilton Candy Corn Ghosts

Instructions

Using a large bowl mix up your favorite cake mix according to directions. When fully mixed use the red and yellow gel coloring to reach a desired shade of vibrant orange.
Fill cupcake liners with vibrant orange batter and bake.
While your cupcakes are cooling mix vanilla icing with the blue gel color to reach desired shade of blue.
Use an angled spatula, ice cupcakes.Place Ghost and Candy Corn decoration on top of cupcake. Enjoy!