Halloween cupcake ideas so cute they’re scary

Halloween Cupcake Ideas | Hallmark

These Halloween cupcakes are so cute they’ll have your kids eating all their veggies to get to the monster at the end of their meal. And they make the perfect treat to bring to the kids’ classroom Halloween parties or neighborhood get-together.

With just cookies, candies and a little frosting, you’ll be ready to unleash monster mayhem in your kitchen. All eight cupcake ideas use my favorite buttercream frosting recipe and royal icing recipe. (Royal icing works great for adding details like stripes, dots and tiny monster teeth—just be sure to let it dry between layers of colors so they don’t run together.) To make the extra appendages on the monster cupcakes, use our monster parts template to cut horn, eyes and mouth shapes out of rolled sugar cookie dough. Now just choose your favorite cupcake creation, and let’s get ready to C-R-U-M-B-L-L-L-L-E!

Tip: Give yourself more time for assembling by making your cupcakes and sugar cookie monster parts ahead of time. Use your favorite cupcake recipe and some Halloween-themed cupcake liners for most of these cupcakes.

Inspired? Create and share by tagging @hallmarkstores.

  • Green, eyed monster
    Cover cupcake with green-tinted icing using a star tip 32, and add 2 frosted crescent cookies to either side for the horns. Use 3 yellow Spree candies for the eyes with dots of black royal icing for pupils. Next, add a royal icing–frosted mouth cookie decorated with black background, pink tongue and small white teeth. Tip: A toothpick works great for detail work.
    Halloween Cupcakes: Green Monster
  • Orange you glad you’re a monster?
    Begin with a football-shaped cookie with layers of royal icing for the base, iris and pupil (complete with white reflection dot). Frost the cupcake with orange-tinted buttercream using a tip 134. Add the eye cookie, and finish with a black, royal-icing cookie mouth decorated with itty-bitty teeth and a sideways tongue.
    Halloween Cupcakes: Orange Monster
  • I have my eye on you
    You only need one round eye cookie for this grumpy cyclops. Frost with green-tinted buttercream using a star tip 32—pulling frosting straight up from the cupcake base to create spikes. Add a round eye cookie layered with royal icing. Add a black frown of royal icing with a tip 4. Detail with white, royal-icing teeth, and finish with a pink cookie tongue using tip 3.
    Halloween Cupcakes: Green Cyclops
  • Purple people-pleaser
    Frost with purple-tinted buttercream using a star tip 2D in a spiral pattern. Add 3 cookie horns, frosted with purple royal icing and green dots. Then add 2 orange Spree candies dotted with black, royal-icing pupils for the eyes, a royal-icing cookie mouth covered with pointy white teeth and a pink tongue.
    Halloween Cupcakes: Purple Monster
  • Eye like you!
    Use purple-tinted buttercream frosting using a star tip 17 in a zigzag pattern. Set a round eye cookie frosted with white and black royal icing on top. Add a black line of royal icing for his mouth, let dry, and add 2 pointy fangs with white royal icing.
    Halloween Cupcakes: Purple Cyclops
  • Arockin’ arachnid
    Flip a chocolate cupcake (no liner needed) over and frost with dark-brown-tinted buttercream frosting. Smooth with a spatula or spoon. Dip the ends of 2 thin pretzel sticks into melted chocolate, and join them together to form a bent leg on waxed paper. Make 8 legs and let dry. Then, dip the bent legs again into melted chocolate to cover them entirely. Let dry again on waxed paper. Add legs to the cupcake top. Add chocolate jimmies all over buttercream frosting to make him “hairy.” Add a dot of royal icing to the back of 5 edible googly eyes (found at craft and cake decorating stores) and attach them to one side of the cupcake for his face.
    Halloween Cupcakes: Spider
  • Witch one to eat first?
    To make the hat, use royal icing in dark brown to “glue” a fudge-covered flat cookie (we used a store-bought mint cookie) to a sugar cone. When dry, dip the hat ¼ of the way into melted chocolate and let dry on waxed paper. Decorate around the seam with orange-tinted royal icing in any design you’d like. Add a tiny buckle with a super small, round tip 2. For the face, frost the cupcake with green-tinted buttercream using a spatula to smooth out. Drizzle black royal icing hair using a tip 3. Add a funny, scary or silly face with black-tinted royal icing using a very small round tip or a toothpick. Attach the hat at an angle with another dab of royal icing to keep it from falling off.
    Halloween Cupcakes: Witch
  • Happy Boo Day!
    To make the ghost cupcake, use white buttercream piped out of a frosting bag or freezer baggie in a spiral pattern to make a mounded ghost shape. Use 1 regular-sized chocolate chip for the mouth and 2 mini-size chips for the eyes. Insert them pointed-side down into the buttercream. Voilá, ghost complete!
    Halloween Cupcakes: Ghost

Em Bronson is a Hallmark designer with a passion for baking and crafting that manages to consume most of her free time. A Southern girl at heart, Em loves sweet tea, rap music, flip-flops and fireworks of all kinds.