These Halloween Devil cupcakes look quite evil, but they're also very delicious! They're chocolatey, piped with rich buttercream, and filled with a fun surprise in the middle! Halloween might look different this year, but that doesn't mean we can't celebrate (safely and socially distant) with these cupcakes. Enjoy these devilishly cute cupcakes with your friends, with your kids, or your whole family!
So fun fact, Halloween happens to be one of my favorite holidays. Not only do I love the spooky vibes, but it’s the start of all the holiday events. Halloween, and all sorts of fun treats, soups, and comfort foods! Starting from Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year! Not only that, but the weather is cooler, the leaves are falling, and comfort food galore! Anyway, I’m probably a little too old to be dressing up. I used to do some creepy special fx makeup, but that’s all in the past. Now, I put all my creativity and spookiness into my baked goods, just like these Halloween Devil Cupcakes!
Tips and tricks for making Halloween Devil Cupcakes:
- If you're short on time, you can skip the devil horns
- Make sure to use a large piping tip for the frosting
- Adding food coloring to buttercream will darken after it sits out. So do not panic if the color isn't super saturated right away.
- Work in order, make the cupcakes, make the chocolate horns, make pudding filling, make frosting, and assemble.
- Do not frost while the cupcakes are still hot because they will melt right off.
- To temper the chocolate easily, melt the chocolate at the half way mark. Meaning, half melted with half solid chocolate pieces. Don't continue to melt when you reach this stage. Stir the chocolate together until all the solid pieces are completely melted.
If you’d tried this recipe out let me know in the comments! Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram @flouredframe and don’t forget to tag me when you create my recipes! Happy baking!
If you love this Halloween recipe, try these out!
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📖 Recipe
Halloween Devil Cupcakes
These Halloween Devil cupcakes look quite evil, but they're also very delicious! They're chocolatey, piped with a rich buttercream, and filled with a fun surprise in the middle! Enjoy these devilishly cute cupcakes with your friends, with your kids, or your whole family!
Equipment
- Food scale highly recommended
- Measuring spoons
- Stand mixer or electric hand mixer
- Mixing bowls
- Whisk
- Rubber spatula
- 12-cup cupcake pan
- Cupcake liners
- Piping bags
- Large piping tip
- Parchment Paper
- Small rimmed baking sheet
Pro TipIf a recipe calls for it, use a food scale to weigh ingredients in grams for the best results! Use the options below to toggle between cups or grams.
Ingredients
Cupcakes:
- 240 grams non-dairy milk, 90° F or lukewarm (I used soy)
- 2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 60 grams vegetable oil
- 30 grams maple syrup
- 210 grams all-purpose flour
- 150 grams granulated sugar
- 30 grams Dutch-processed cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon instant espresso (optional, see notes)
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
Frosting:
- 2 vegan butter (softened at room temperature, I used Country Crock Plant Butter)
- 3 ½ cups powdered sugar, sifted
- 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Red gel food coloring (see notes)
- 2-3 tablespoons tablespoon (only use if needed)
Filling:
- ¼ cup - instant vegan vanilla pudding mix (I used Jell-O Brand (Accidentally vegan!))
- 2 - 3 tablespoons add more if needed - non-dairy milk, I used soy
- Red gel food coloring (see notes)
Chocolate horns (Optional):
- 127 grams Semi-sweet Baker’s chocolate (roughly chopped)
Instructions
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350° Fahrenheit, and prep a cupcake pan with liners.
- Combine non-dairy milk, and apple cider vinegar. Mix and set aside for 5 minutes, this will be your buttermilk, it will curdle and thicken.
- In a large bowl, sift your flour, sugar, instant espresso/coffee (if using), dutch-processed cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk together to combine.
- To your buttermilk, add in vanilla extract, oil, maple syrup and whisk until fully emulsified.
- Combine wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and with a spatula gently fold it together. Careful not to over mix. You should have a slightly thick batter. If it’s too runny and smooth, you could risk the cupcakes falling flat, and sinking in the middle.
- Fill your cupcake liners ¾ of the way full. Tap the tin to release some air bubbles, and quickly place them in the oven.
- Bake the cupcakes for 18-20 minutes. Do not open the oven at this stage, let it fully bake before checking.
- To check if your cupcakes are done, use a toothpick or a wooden skewer and poke the center of the cupcake. It should come out clean with a couple of crumbs. If there is still wet batter, bake it for 2 minute increments until it is ready.
- Remove cupcakes from the oven, and let it cool in the tin for 10 minutes. After, remove from the tin and let them fully cool on a cooling rack.
Pudding filling:
- To a bowl, add ¼ cup of the dry instant pudding mix and add 1 tablespoon of non-dairy milk at a time. Mix until you reach a pudding consistency, then add in the red food coloring and continue to mix until well combined. Set aside.
Chocolate Horns:
- Prepare a piping bag by draping the bag over a tall cup or jar. Then preparing a small rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Next, place the roughly chopped chocolate in a microwavable safe bowl. Heat up the chocolate in 15 second increments, while stirring in between. See notes
- When you get half melted chocolate and half whole chocolate pieces, do not heat it any further.
- Continue to mix the chocolate until all the pieces are fully melted in.
- Pour the melted chocolate into the prepared piping bag and cut a tiny hole at the tip.
- On the parchment paper draw the outline of the horns first, fill it in with more chocolate.
- Use a toothpick and fill in any gaps where the chocolate did not cover. Pipe at least 15 pairs of horns, just in case one of them breaks.
- Place them in the fridge to harden.
Frosting:
- Place the softened butter in a large bowl. Using a stand mixer or an electric hand mixer, whip butter on medium speed for 2-3 minutes until creamy and smooth.
- On low, beat in the powdered sugar in batches until fully incorporated. Then add in the vanilla extract and food coloring.
- With a spatula scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl, and then continue to whip the buttercream. Sometimes there will be parts of the frosting where it has not been mixed in properly.
- Continue to beat on high until you get a nice smooth and fluffy consistency and everything is well incorporated. About 3-5 minutes. Set aside.
Assembly:
- Working with one cupcake at a time, core the center of the cupcake with an apple corer, small cookie cutter, or even a knife. Save the core of the cake, you will use it as a topper.
- Carefully spoon in enough pudding into the center of the cupcake. Take the core of the cupcake and place it over the pudding to act as a “cover” for the filling. Repeat for the remaining cupcakes.
- Next, fit your favorite piping tip into a large piping bag. To make things easier, drape the piping bag over a tall cup or jar. Scoop the frosting into the piping bag, enough to fill the size of the bag. Pipe a nice swirl over the cupcake. Repeat for the remaining cupcakes.
- Remove the horns from the fridge and stick them into the frosting. Serve and enjoy!
Notes
- Measure your flour correctly. I test my recipes, 100% in grams. A common reason baked goods fail is incorrectly measured flour. I always recommend using a scale for accuracy when baking. This greatly improves your chance for success and lessens room for error.
- If you measure by cups, avoid scooping the measuring cup directly into the flour. This tends to pack the flour into the cup, resulting in too much flour and a very dense or gummy finished product. Instead, aerate your flour (fluff it with a fork or spoon) and then spoon it into your measuring cups, leveling it with your finger or the back of a butter knife. Keep in mind though, that this method is not guaranteed to be accurate.
- Do not substitute dutch-cocoa powder for regular or natural cocoa powder, the ingredients are specifically based around the dutch-cocoa powder. Click here for more information.
- If you do not have instant espresso, look for instant coffee that is just black, and has no other added ingredients. It heightens the flavor of the chocolate in the cupcakes, and it will not give a heavy coffee flavor. This is totally optional and the cupcakes will taste good with or without it.
- Do not wait to put these in the oven, the baking powder and the baking soda are already activated at this point. You don’t want to lose their leavening activity, so work quickly.
- If you want a more natural food coloring, you can check this out: https://amzn.to/3lNUXkC
How I would use this in frosting:
Before you start any baking, do this first!
Mix 1-2 teaspoons of the powder in hot water to dissolve. Allow it to cool completely before you add it to the frosting, otherwise it will melt the butter. Just keep in mind that these do come from beets, and they will have an aftertaste. How to use in the pudding:
Add 1-2 teaspoons in the mixture. - It’s tempting to microwave the chocolate in one go, but you will risk burning the chocolate that way. You want to gently melt the chocolate. Patience my friend!
- Do not use a glass bowl to heat up the chocolate in the microwave. Glass heats up too quickly and it can burn the chocolate. Please use a plastic bowl that is microwave safe!
Tried this recipe?Leave a comment below & tag @flouredframe on social!
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