Name: Hocus Pocus Cupcakes
Prep time: 45 min
Cook time: 24 min
Total time: 69 min
Ingredients: 1 stick butter (1/2 cup); 3/4 c. Dixie Crystals sugar; 2 eggs; 2 teaspoons Adams Extract Best Vanilla Flavor; 1 1/3 c. flour; 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder; 1/2 teaspoons salt; 1/3 c. milk; 2 sticks butter (1 cup); 4 c. Dixie Crystals powdered sugar; 1 teaspoons Adams Extract Best Vanilla Flavor; 2-3 teaspoons milk; green food coloring; Wilton candy eyes; Wilton Halloween sprinkles; Wilton candy ghosts; Sweets & Treats Midi Lime Green

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Looking for a scary fun Halloween Treat? Check out my Hocus Pocus Cupcakes filled with ghosts, bats, and eyeballs then topped with neon green buttercream.

Sometimes I have a great idea for a cupcake in my head but when I go to execute my idea it doesn’t turn out the way I was hoping. That was the case with these Hocus Pocus Cupcakes.

I had several ideas in my head but when I went to look for the ingredients it turned out I didn’t have everything I needed. I ended up changing my idea several times including as I was decorating the cupcakes.

The cupcake is just a basic vanilla cupcake. I used a good, strong vanilla extract to give the cupcakes a rich vanilla flavor.

Ingredients:

butter
sugar (I used Dixie Crystals)
eggs
vanilla extract (I use Adams Best or my homemade vanilla extract)
flour
baking powder
salt
milk
powdered sugar
green food coloring
candy eyes, sprinkles, candy ghosts

To Make the Cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin with black cupcake liners. In a bowl cream together the butter and sugar. Add in the eggs and vanilla and beat until combined. In another bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix well. Add half the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix well. Pour in the milk and mix until combined. Add remaining flour and mix until just combined. Divide the batter between the muffin cups and bake for 22-24 minutes.

You can choose to use my vanilla cupcake recipe or you can use your own vanilla cupcake recipe. It really doesn’t matter as the frosting and decorating are what make these cupcakes.

I put the batter in black cupcake liners to symbolize witches cauldron’s since these are Hocus Pocus Cupcakes. After the cupcakes came out is when I started having some second thoughts and put plan B into action.

Can I use a boxed cake mix?

Honestly? In this case you can. If you use a decent mix then it will be fine for the base of these cupcakes.

Can I use canned frosting?

No. Just no. I hate canned frosting because it has a horrible aftertaste. Also, it won’t have the color you are looking for. Even if you use a boxed cake mix you must make your own frosting. It will fool people into thinking the cupcakes are homemade too.

Do I need to use the exact decorations you did?

No! While you do need some type of green or white “pearls” to be the bubbles on top of the cupcakes, you can use any candy eyes, Halloween sprinkles, or decorations. Get creative with your cupcakes!

What decorations did you use?

If you are looking for what I used here is a list with links to them on Amazon.

I originally was just going to decorate the tops of the cupcakes but after looking at my collection of sprinkles I changed my mine. I cut a small circle in the middle of each cupcake and popped the cake out.

Then I mixed together a combination of candy eyes, ghost sprinkles, and Halloween sprinkles. I poured a teaspoon of this mixture into each cupcake. It was pretty cool because it looked like a crazy Halloween mix that was perfect for what might be in a witches cauldron.

Next I mixed up a batch of buttercream frosting using powdered sugar. I used green and yellow food coloring to make the frosting look like the inside of a witches brew. Then I put more of the lime green pearls on top to look like bubbles and added a few random candy ghosts and eyeballs as well.

More Halloween Recipes:

I actually took these cupcakes to school and gave them to my students who totally loved them! They thought that when they bit into the cupcakes and all the sprinkles and eyeballs and ghosts fell out that it was so cool.

You could hear the kids laughing about the sprinkles all the way down the hall! The kids also thought they tasted really good and were super excited to get a Halloween treat at the beginning of October.

These would be a great treat to make with a kid because they could mix up the concoction for the inside of the cupcake and put the pearls and ghosts on top. The cupcakes can be a family effort!

If you’ve tried my Hocus Pocus Cupcakes or any other recipe on Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks please take a minute to rate the recipe and leave a comment letting me know how you liked it. I love hearing from you! You can FOLLOW ME on: