A couple of weeks ago I was leisurely browsing through Bake It Pretty, in particular the Halloween decorations. When I saw the zombie hand cupcake toppers, I knew I had to order them and make a batch of Halloween cupcakes. I have never made a Halloween cupcake before; the closest I’ve came were these pumpkin cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese frosting, but they weren’t exactly scary!
But these are! This is what I created with Martha Stewart’s awesome Halloween cupcake liners, Bake It Pretty’s zombie hand toppers and a couple of Oreo cookies.
I’ll break it down for you. First of all, if you’re making Halloween cupcakes, you’ll need these cupcake liners from Martha Stewart. You can find them at Michael’s craft stores for about $4.
Next, I baked a batch of chocolate pumpkin cupcakes. I’ve used this recipe before and liked the result. Then, I whipped up some pumpkin buttercream to fill these cupcakes with.
The cupcakes are frosted with a plain chocolate buttercream, and perhaps there’s a bit too much frosting for my own liking, but I wanted a nice big round top on these.
I finely crushed 10 Oreo sandwich cookies, which ended up being way too many for 12 cupcakes; 6 probably would have been enough. I dipped each cupcake top into the crushed Oreos to completely coat them.
For the “tombstones”, I found Oreo Fudgees made perfect-shaped tombstones. I took the Fudgee sandwich cookies apart, scraped off the filling and stuck one side of the Fudgee into each cupcake, then stuck a zombie hand in front of the tombstones.
They’re quite spicy; I can taste a hint of ginger over all the other spices in the cupcake and filling (the filling had the most ginger). And like I said, there’s a bit too much chocolate frosting, which makes a bit too sweet for me. The kids love them though! The decorations make a perfect Halloween cupcake – remember, you can find the zombie hands at Bake It Pretty’s Halloween shop!
This is my entry into Iron Cupcake: Earth for October’s theme ingredient “music” – these cupcakes are perfect for one of my favorite songs by the late Michael Jackson, “Thriller”!
Our Generous IronCupcake:Earth Prize Providers:
- The Demy™ by Key Ingredient
- Hello, Cupcake by Karen Tack & Alan Richardson
- Bella Cupcake Couture
- Cupcake Stackers by Gourmac
- The Cake Mix Doctor Returns! by Anne Byrne
I’m also entering these cupcakes into Cupcake Hero for October’s theme ingredient of pumpkin and/or Halloween. This will be my first ever entry into Cupcake Hero!
- Cupcakes:
- 1 cup + 2½ teaspoons all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup + 3¾ tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1¼ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ cup + 2½ teaspoons buttermilk
- ½ cup + 1 tablespoon + 1¾ teaspoons pumpkin puree
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2.25 ounces unsalted butter, softened
- ½ cup + 1 tablespoon + 1¾ teaspoons dark brown sugar
- ½ cup + 1 tablespoon + 1¾ teaspoons granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- Oreo decorations:
- 7 finely crushed Oreo sandwich cookies
- 6 Oreo Fudgees sandwich cookies, pulled apart and filling removed
- 12 zombie hand cupcake toppers from Bake It Pretty
- Pumpkin buttercream:
- ½ cup + 2½ teaspoons unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 tablespoons + 1⅛ teaspoons pumpkin puree
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon ground ginger
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 8 ounces confectioners’ sugar
- Chocolate buttercream:
- 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 4 cups confectioners’ sugar
- ¼ cup milk (plus a few tablespoons to adjust consistency)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- For the cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350F; line a cupcake tin with paper liners.
- Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl; set aside.
- Combine buttermilk, pumpkin and vanilla in a bowl; set aside.
- Beat butter and sugars together in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, until the mixture is smooth and light. Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, blending well after each addition.
- Divide batter evenly among cupcake liners. Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Cool cupcakes completely, then using the cone method, fill cupcakes with pumpkin buttercream (recipe follows).
- Frost each cupcake with chocolate frosting (recipe follows), then dip the frosted tops into the finely crushed Oreos to evenly coat. Stick an Oreo Fudgee “tombstone” into the top of each cupcake, and place a zombie hand in front of it.
- For the pumpkin buttercream: With electric mixer, cream butter and pumpkin (mixture will look grainy). Turn mixer to low and add cinnamon, ginger, salt and vanilla. Slowly add ½ cup confectioners’ sugar at a time until the buttercream is creamy and no longer separating (the mixture will look grainy if there isn’t enough sugar mixed in).
- For the chocolate buttercream: Beat butter and cocoa until smooth, then add sugar 1 cup at a time, beating until smooth with each addition . Add milk and vanilla and beat for about 3 minutes.
If you enjoyed this recipe, please leave a comment, hit up one of those stars to rate it, and be sure to tag any photos with #sweetestkitchen on Instagram if you made this recipe! I'd love to see what you've created!
These are SO cute! Beautiful, in a ghoulish sort of way. 🙂 I can’t believe how perfect that cookie works for the tombstone! I am definitely making some of these. Well done!
I thought about using Milano cookies, but am glad I remembered about the Fudgees! The dark cookie looks better than a golden cookie would have.
i love these cupcakes!! i will totally make them for my kids halloween party!! 🙂
Awesome, let me know how they turn out!
I’ve seen a lot of Halloween Cupcakes out there over the past week or so. These are my absolute favorite!! You will definitely get my vote for both ICE and Cupcake Hero. Definitely a great entree for the music theme as Thriller was the very first thing I thought of when I saw your pics.
Thanks so much, Deanna!
Those look simply wicked (in a great way)! Good luck in the competition.
Thanks!
What a brilliant idea – and they look absolutely delicious! Have been searching the web for ides for Halloween but need search no more!
These are AWESOME! I looooove them. I was just looking at these cupcake toppers yesterday. I NEED them now!
They’re a definite must for Halloween cupcakes – get them! 😀
These are great! I love this idea. I am an Editor of a recipe website and I mentioned your cupcake post in a recent Halloween cupcake blog post. Be sure to check it out!
http://blog.recipelion.com/how-to-make-halloween-cupcakes/
Thanks for the mention on your website! 🙂
awesome!!!
Those are fabulously spooky! I love them – and so well made, I want to reach out my hand and grab them!
Zombies win. Every time.
You should be so proud of these cupcakes! They are pretty darn cool, and look delicious to boot!
Thanks, Jessy! I do like these cupcakes, but my favorite of my two Halloween cupcakes are the dulce de leche pumpkin ones with the spiders. 🙂
Hmmm they look amazing!
Thanks Helen!
Thanks for the awesome idea – gonna attempt these this week!
Great! Let me know how they turn out! Do you have zombie hand toppers as well?
You need to re read your recipe…I just wasted a whole can of cocoa before I realized that it couldn’t be right….1/4 cup and 3 3/4 cups of cocoa powder with only a cup of flour..I feel completely stupid..I was so excited about making these and I kept saying can’t be right can’t be right..but I said no maybe I’m wrong give it a try….well it wasn’t it looks more like cookie dough..I could roll it out and cut them..complete waste of all that time and ingredients…please change this before somebody else waste that money and time..I am so disappointed with myself no thinking that it was a typo on somebodys doings…looks great though..wish I could say they tasted good…bummed
Tina, you are absolutely right and I’m so sorry! I honestly do reread every post and recipe before publishing, but this one obviously got past me. It was meant to be “tablespoons”, not “cups”. I know exactly how you feel as this has happened to me in the past as well. I encourage readers of my blog to leave a comment and ask questions if they are unsure of a recipe. It is however entirely my fault and I accept all the blame! Once again, I am sincerely sorry.
I understand..more upset with myself because I kept telling myself that has to be an error..but I still did it..I will try again though..let you know how it goes, Tina
I have to apologize again, and you’re going to hate me now for sure, but the absolute correct measurement is
1/4 cup + 3 3/4 tablespoons cocoa powder
I wrote my above comment at 4AM as soon as I saw your comment, but as I was so quick to apologize I didn’t write what I meant to write, which was tablespoons!
Please don’t let this deter you from trying anything else on my blog! 😳
Hey! I made these for my office and blogged about it. They came out great! So festive, fun and easy. Thanks so much!
http://bit.ly/1BLhCh
You’re totally welcome! I’m so glad you enjoyed them!
well made them..they were a hit pumpkin buttercream was my fav, Tina
I’m so happy to hear that! I’m so sorry again for the trouble I caused you!
Thriller is my favourite song and I voted for you!
Thanks for the vote! 🙂
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My kids love everything zombie, can’t wait to give this a try!
Awesome! Cupake ideas! I’ve just linked to this in my article. So creative. I love the filling in the middle makes for a great surprise once you’ve finished eating the yummy topping.
how do thy make such a waky thin g AWSOME
Hi, I am your newest follower. I couldn’t get enough of the hand escaping from the grave. How very creative! I included this in a collection of other fun cupcakes in a post on my blog. You can check it out here: http://www.PacificDesignsBlog.com
– Ava
If any of you out there have as hard of a time making your cupcakes look that good, I have a solution for you. I found some halloween cupcake liners that can make any cupcake look good. I love to entertain and they are always a HIT!