Check out these monster cupcakes for your next birthday party or even Halloween bash. These are brightly colored cupcakes that have candy eyeballs and stringy frosting to mimic cute monster cupcakes. These little monsters are a fun treat for any and every occasion.
We are making these for this year’s Halloween party. These are fun cookie monster cupcakes that take minimal effort to make. Even if you are not big into decorating cupcakes you will have no issue making these tasty chocolate monster cupcakes.
If you are looking for more Halloween recipes, check these out as well. Try these spider rice krispie treats, Halloween bars, or even this monster Oreo balls recipe.
Reasons You Will Enjoy These Fun Monster Cupcakes
- Use homemade cake mix or store-bought cake mix for the base of this cupcake recipe.
- Fun treats for a school party, Halloween party, birthday party, or any other event.
- The bright-colored frosting creates these bold and vibrant cupcakes that are eye-catching. The bright colors are perfect for this monster Halloween cupcakes recipe.
- The perfect treat for any time of the day. Head to the grocery store and get to shopping.
- Creepy treats for young and old.
Ingredients You Will Need
Cake Mix – You will use a boxed cake mix for them. I used chocolate cake mix to make chocolate cupcakes. You can use a different flavor of cake mix if you prefer. Then use all the ingredients on the box of cake mix.
Butter – Unsalted butter that is softened is the base of the buttercream frosting. Make sure it is softened and not melted.
Salt – A little salt is going to truly enhance all the flavors of the frosting.
Milk – A little milk is going to help thin out the frosting. It can start thick so you will add a little milk at a time.
Powdered Sugar – Sift your powdered sugar so that you get that velvety smooth texture to your classic buttercream frosting.
Food coloring – Purple food coloring, blue, green, and orange food coloring is what I used. But feel free to swap with whatever colors you want.
Candy Eyeballs – I used candy eyeballs to top the cupcakes to look like monster eyes.
How to Make
Full directions are in the printable recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a quick walkthrough on how to make monster cupcakes.
- I used a boxed cake mix: you will mix it up and bake the cupcakes as directed on the box. Once the cupcakes are done, allow the cupcakes to cool.
- Then in a stand mixer add the butter in the mixer and whip it up till creamy. Then slowly add in the powdered sugar.
- Then you will work in the milk a little at a time until you reach that thick and creamy texture.
- Divide the frosting into four bowls and add food coloring to each bowl to reach the desired color.
- Add frosting to piping bags and then you can decorate the cupcakes, and then add candy eyes on top to look like a monster.
What Piping Tip To Use For Monster Cupcakes
So for that string-like frosting, I used the Wilton grass tip #233. You are more than welcome to use any type of piping tip that you would want. This is the one that I used to get that stringy hair look.
Tips for Success
Room temperature ingredients
Using room temperature ingredients is important for making the frosting so it creams perfectly together. You do not want to melt the butter in the microwave, as it will affect the frosting texture. You can also use room-temperature egg for the cupcakes, as it will blend best with the cake mix ingredients.
Preheated oven
Making sure you add your cupcakes into a preheated warm oven is going to help the cupcakes rise properly as they bake up. Once the cupcakes are done, place them on a wire rack to allow the cupcakes to fully cool before you add the frosting on top.
Rice under cupcake liners
Adding a bit of dry rice on the bottom of the cupcake pan is going to help any excess oil soak into the rice and not the cupcake liners. This keeps the bottom of the cupcake wrapper dry instead of a greasy texture.
Stand mixer
You can use a stand mixer or hand mixer for whipping up the cupcake or frosting. I find that using an electric mixer is going to offer the best texture for the frosting especially. I find it mixes the wet ingredients and dry ingredients together perfectly.
Cake mix
You can use boxed cake mixes for the cupcakes. Now, if you want go right ahead and make a homemade cake and swap in for the boxed cake mix. These adorable cupcakes can be used with any flavor of cake. White cake, chocolate cake recipe, strawberry, etc.
Frosting
So you can buy any white frosting and add some gel food coloring to transform the colors of the frosting for topping. Or you can use this basic buttercream frosting to pipe on and make these cute cupcakes. Any frosting you like works, so use what you prefer in terms of flavor.
Bright color cupcakes
I used bright colors for the frosting, but you are more than welcome to do a variety of colors that fit your theme. Go light in color or bold like I did. Do all one frosting color for the monster cakes or do a variety.
Frosting tips
Go right ahead and try different frosting tips to create different looks for the monster faces. I used candy eyes but you can make eyeballs with white chocolate melts and black icing if you prefer. Decorate the cupcakes any way you would like. The whole family can have fun decorating these cupcakes.
Storing Cupcakes
Room Temperature: These cupcakes can be stored at room temperature in a sealed container. Make sure that you keep the cupcakes covered or they will dry out. The Halloween cupcakes can last for around 4-5 days. They are best the first 2 days of being made.
Freezer: Now you also have the option of freezing cupcakes for later. Just place it in a freezer bag or freezer container. The monster cupcakes will be stored for 4-5 months. Then thaw them on the counter at room temperature, or eat them straight from frozen.
FAQs
Of course. Go right ahead and use store-bought cupcakes if you want. Using unfrosted cupcakes is best so you can add frosting to a piping bag and pipe on the frosting. You can also use the frosting on the cupcakes and add googly eyes and other Halloween decoration options. Decorate the top of each cupcake as you wish.
Candy corn, Halloween sprinkles or chocolate sprinkles, Halloween gummy candies, etc. You can find tons of things to transform the cupcakes to make them look spooky or silly.
Yes, you can use non-food items like Halloween plastic rings, or little toys to place on the top of the cupcake if you wish. Just make sure the guests eating the cupcakes know to take off the toppings that are not edible.
More Halloween Treats
Monster Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the cupcakes:
- 1 box chocolate cake mix
- 3 eggs
- ½ c oil
- 1 ¼ c water
For the frosting:
- 1 c unsalted butter softened
- 1 t salt
- 3-4 T milk
- 4 c powdered sugar
- Food colors: purple blue, green, orange
- Candy eye balls – small and large
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prep your cupcake pans by placing the liners in each cavity. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the cake mix, eggs, oil and water. Mix on low speed for about a minute and then bump up the speed to medium for an additional minute. Mixture should be smooth with only a few occasional small clumps.
- Divide equally among the cupcake liners – fill each one about ½-⅔ full – we used a measuring cup to help scoop and portion out the batter.
- Bake in the preheated oven for approximately 14-16 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Allow to cool for at least 30 minutes or until no longer warm to the touch before decorating.
- To make the frosting: in the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the softened butter and salt. Cream until smooth.
- Add in half of the powdered sugar and mix on low speed until combined.
- Add in the remaining powdered sugar and about 2 tablespoons worth of the milk. Mix until combined. If the mixture appears too dry, add the remaining milk. If the mixture has incorporated, do not add any more milk – we want it to be a stiff consistency, but not dry-looking.
- Bump up the speed to medium and mix for an additional minute to fluff up the frosting and ensure that it is smooth and well mixed. Scrape down the sides and mix again.
- Divide the frosting equally between four separate bowls and tint each bowl a different color: purple, blue, orange and green. Mix each color well so there are no hidden white pockets.
- When ready to decorate, prepare a piping bag by fitting with the grass tip #233 (or similar) and transfer your first color of frosting to the bag. Only fill about ½ full and refill if needed so the bag is not too big and awkward.
- To pipe the decoration, hold the piping bag in your dominate hand and gently twist the top of the bag closed so it does not squeeze out the top. Your non-dominate hand can help hold the top of the bag and for stability. When you’re ready, place the tip of the bag about ½ of an inch from the top of the cupcake, starting around the outside edge.
- Gently squeeze until the frosting sticks to the cupcake and then carefully squeeze and pull away from the cupcake to create the “hair”. The frosting will follow wherever you move the piping bag so be sure to stop squeezing the bag before trying to move on to the next. Continue placing these “hairy” dollops all around the outside edge of the cupcake. Then proceed with the next row in and all the way around the cupcake until the entire surface is covered. You can go back and fill in any thin areas. The benefit to this style of decoration is that the “hair” is very forgiving.
- Before moving on to the next color, place the candy eyeballs on each cupcake. You can do any variety of small and large eyeballs to customize your monsters.
- Remove the metal tip from the piping bag, rinse and rebag the next color of monster.
- Continue decorating your cupcakes. Then serve and enjoy or store for later.
Notes
Equipment
- Cupcake Pan
- Grass Tip #233 For Piping Frosting
Nutrition
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