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    Home » Recipes » Halloween

    3 Easy Halloween Cupcakes from 1 Box Mix

    Published: Oct 19, 2021 by Tiffany Dahle · This post may contain affiliate links.

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    These easy Halloween cupcakes are SO cute and can be made with your favorite boxed cake mix and prepared frosting. Just add sprinkles and a few easy Halloween treat decorations for a stunning cupcake tower for your party.

    A two-tier cake plate has cute Halloween cupcakes in lavender polka dot wrappers. There is a dish of candy corn on the side.

    If you want to bake Halloween cupcakes for your Trick or Treat party for the kids, it is so simple to make a stunning tower filled with three easy designs that your guests will love.

    With just one box of cake mix and one tub of vanilla frosting and one tub of chocolate frosting, you can mix and match these festive Halloween designs and have a super fun baking session with your kids.

    My girls loved the variety of cupcake decorations on our tower. Each one got more squeals from the last.

    Add in a cup of candy corn or a bowl of candy googly eyes for your friends to decorate their cupcakes as much or as little as they want.

    Ingredients

    To make these cute Halloween cupcakes, you only need a handful of ingredients:

    • Boxed Cake Mix: Any flavor you love. We used vanilla cupcakes.
    • 1 tub of chocolate frosting or 1 batch of homemade chocolate cream cheese frosting
    • 1 tub of vanilla frosting or 1 batch of easy cream cheese frosting
    • Halloween sprinkles
    • Candy corn
    • Candy googly eyes
    Two frosting bags, one with vanilla and one with chocolate frosting.

    To keep everything super easy, you can use canned frosting if you prefer. But I'd like to step in and say that homemade cream cheese frosting is SO EASY and once you've tried it, you'll never go back to the can again.

    Canned frosting can have a weird smell and flavor while real cream cheese frosting is bright and tangy and can be sweetened just as much as you want.

    It's only one step farther to make easy chocolate cream cheese frosting. For these Halloween cupcakes, you'll need to make a single batch of each of these two recipes:

    • Vanilla cupcakes have been topped with a swirl of cream cheese frosting and sit on a cake plate. There's a frosting piping bag on the counter in front.
      Easy Cream Cheese Frosting
    • Cupcakes topped with a swirl of chocolate cream cheese frosting sit on a baker's rack next to a piping bag filled with frosting.
      Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

    You can even do it back to back: make the plain cream cheese frosting first and there's no need to even wash the mixing bowl before making the chocolate frosting!

    1. Spider Web Cupcakes

    Frost half of the cupcakes in the chocolate frosting.

    For the first design, make the spiderweb cupcakes. You will need a chocolate frosted cupcake for your base and also:

    • Vanilla frosting in a frosting bag fitted with a small circular piping tip. I used Wilton tip #2 from this piping tip set.
    Step by step photos show how to pipe a spider web out of cream cheese frosting onto a chocolate cupcake.
    1. Pipe a single line of cream cheese frosting over the center of the cupcake from one edge over to the other.
    2. Now pipe another line of frosting straight across, forming a cross.
    3. Add two more lines of frosting to form a pinwheel pattern.
    4. Draw a circle of frosting that touches half way from the center point to the edge. This forms the first part of the web.
    5. Draw the final circle around the edge of the cupcake to form the second layer of web.
    An easy spiderweb cupcake for Halloween next to a piping bag filled with frosting.

    2. Halloween Sprinkles Cupcakes

    The second design is perfect for baking with your kids. Put them in charge of this easy set of cupcakes.

    A cake plate has several vanilla cupcakes with orange and black sprinkles.

    I used a flowered icing tip to swirl cream cheese frosting over the second half of the cupcakes.

    We sprinkled orange and black Halloween sprinkles over the top of a few vanilla and leftover chocolate cupcakes.

    We added fun candy googly eyes to the mix to be extra spooky but this Halloween sprinkle set has it all in one.

    3. Candy Corn Cupcakes

    The frosted Halloween cupcakes feature chocolate spider webs, candy corn, and sprinkles.

    The third cupcake design is the easiest but also surprisingly pretty.

    Simply top all the remaining cupcakes with a cute candy corn decoration right in the center.

    My kids loved how those elegantly decorated and simple cupcakes stood out on the cupcake tower against the fun and wild sprinkles and spider webs.

    More Halloween Treats

    Looking for more sweet Halloween desserts for your party? Or maybe you just want to bake with the kids. In that case, be sure to check out my You've Been Booed kit for all your cupcake leftovers!

    • Candy Corn fudge is cut into squares on parchment paper. Orange, black, and yellow candies and sprinkles are pressed into the white fudge.
      10 Candy Corn Halloween Treats
    • 10 Halloween Witch Treats
    • A glazed donut decorated to look like a spider with a donut hole on top, googly eyes, and black frosting legs is in the hand of a kid.
      10 DIY Halloween Donut Ideas
    • The You've Been Booed printable is stapled to a packet of apple cider with candy corn and Rolos scattered in the background.
      You've Been Booed! FREE Printable

    If you’ve tried these easy Halloween cupcakes or any other recipe on PeanutBlossom.com please don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know where you found it in the comments below. I love hearing from you!
    FOLLOW along on Instagram @peanut.blossom as well as on  Pinterest and Facebook.

    A two-tier cake plate has cute Halloween cupcakes in lavender polka dot wrappers. There is a dish of candy corn on the side.

    Easy Halloween Cupcakes

    5 from 1 vote
    These adorable and easy Halloween cupcakes are perfect for making for your Trick or Treat Party. With just one box cake mix and easy frosting, you'll be ready with the cutest cupcake tower ever.
    TOTAL TIME 35 minutes
    PREP TIME 20 minutes
    Additional Time 15 minutes
    YIELD 2 dozen cupcakes
    PIN RECIPE FOR LATER PRINT RECIPE NOW

    Ingredients
      

    • 1 box cake mix in your favorite flavor baked into 24 cupcakes according to the directions on the package
    • 1 container of prepared cream cheese frosting OR 1 batch of homemade frosting See Notes
    • 1 container of prepared chocolate cream cheese frosting OR 1 batch of homemade frosting See Notes

    For Decorating:

    • Mini Candy Corn
    • Festive Orange & Black Sprinkles
    • Candy Googly Eyes

    Instructions

    • Bake the boxed cake mix into cupcakes according to the directions on the package. You should get 24 cupcakes in total.
    • Spread the vanilla cream cheese frosting over 12 cupcakes and chocolate frosting over the other 12.
    • Sprinkle the festive sprinkles over 6 each of the chocolate and vanilla cupcakes.
    • Place one candy corn on top of the remaining 6 vanilla cupcakes.
    • Pipe cream cheese frosting spider webs over the remaining 6 chocolate frosted cupcakes. (See post for detailed photos.)

    Recipe Notes

    You can mix and match these festive designs as you prefer. Any one of the three easy Halloween cupcake designs would make an adorable platter for the party.
    STORAGE TIPS:
    If using cream cheese frosting, be sure to refrigerate your cupcakes until serving time.
    COURSECakes
    CUISINEAmerican
    AUTHORTiffany Dahle

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    More Halloween Family Fun

    • A stack of Halloween books with a pumpkin on top.
      8 Halloween Movies Based on Books {Not Too Scary}
    • Two girls are dressed up in Harry Potter themed costumes for Trick or Treat
      Harry Potter Costume Ideas
    • A collage of Halloween picture books for reading out loud to kids.
      Delightful Halloween Books for Kids
    • A platter of puffy pumpkin butterscotch cookies with a sprinkle of butterscotch chips sits next to a denim napkin.
      Easy Pumpkin Butterscotch Cookies

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    Hi, I'm Tiffany!
    I believe a great family recipe is one that makes everyone at the table happy, not just the kids. I'm the author of two bestselling cookbooks for kids that are chock full of recipes everyone in your family will love. I'm also the hostess of the best online book club for moms.

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