Super Easy Candy Corn Ghost Cupcakes for Halloween
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These Candy Corn Ghost Cupcakes are not only ridiculously cute, but they’re ridiculously easy to make too! They’re probably the easiest Halloween cupcakes you will ever make! Keep reading for all the details!
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Candy Corn Ghost Cupcakes
The full ingredients list and instructions are found in the printable recipe card at the end of this post. I highly recommend reading the blog post all the way through so that you don’t miss any tips or substitution suggestions and to ensure that you have all the ingredients and equipment required as well as understand the steps and timings involved.
There have been times when I’ve had to pull a party together at the eleventh hour and these Candy Corn Ghost Cupcakes are a total life saver as they’re so quick and easy to make! And they’re cute too which is a bonus!
These ghostly cupcakes are so easy to put together that kids could totally make them and they’d have a blast doing it too!
This recipe uses a box of vanilla cake mix which is colored orange with food coloring gel – but you could just as easily buy some ready-made cupcakes if you like. Or if you want to make cupcakes from scratch then check out the best vanilla cupcake recipe I know.
The cupcakes are topped with purple frosting (straight from a can) and finished off with sweet as candy ghost decorations from Wilton – and that, is, it!
Let’s get making these spooktacular cupcakes for Halloween!
Ingredients & Equipment Used In This Recipe
You may have some of the ingredients for this recipe in your kitchen already – the full list with measurements is found in the recipe card.
For your convenience, any specialized or notable ingredients and equipment needed for this recipe have been listed below and linked to Amazon if available online.
- Box of Vanilla Cake Mix – plus the ingredients to make the cake mix, usually eggs, oil, and water.
- Orange Food Coloring Gel
- Purple Frosting – you could make this yourself using your favorite frosting recipe, or just buy a tub of ready-made purple frosting
- Wilton Candy Corn Ghosts Icing Decorations – these are a seasonal product that you may find in craft stores, specialist cake stores, Walmart, or online. I haven’t found them on Amazon at the time of writing these, but I have found these Wilton ghost gummy candy decorations that you could use an alternative and add a piece of Candy Corn. And if you really can’t find anything suitable, I explain (below) how to make your own using fondant.
This recipe uses American cups. They’re a handy piece of kitchen equipment to have along with a kitchen food scale. Having both in your kitchen means you’ll be able to make all of the different recipes on my blog as I use both cups and weighted measures.
How To Make Fondant Candy Corn Ghosts
- You will need some white fondant to make the ghosts, plus a tube of black decorating icing gel as well as a little bowl of water and a cookie sheet lined with some wax paper.
- You will also need pieces of Candy Corn for the ghosties to hold onto.
- When working with fondant, especially white fondant, make sure your hands are super clean, and work in a dust-free environment.
- Knead the fondant first to make it more pliable, and keep any unused fondant covered well to prevent it from drying out.
- When making your first ghost it will probably be a bit of trial and error as you figure out the best size for your ghosts body and arms! Once you’ve done it this one time, the rest should be easier as you’ll know what you’re working with!
- Pinch off a piece of fondant and roll into a 1-inch (approx) ball. Pinch off two smaller pieces and also roll into balls – these are for the ghost’s arms.
- Shape into a kind of long teardrop shape, flattening off the narrow end slightly, and also flattening the backside a bit too.
- Bend the narrow end to the left a little bit to give the ghost a bit of angle.
- Shape the two small balls of fondant into a similar sort of shape to create the ghost’s arms/hands. You want them to be big enough to go on the sides of the fondant ghost’s body and wrap around slightly to hold a piece of candy corn.
- Wet your finger with water and ever so gently dab some water onto the bottom of the arms and stick to either side of the ghost’s body.
- Place a piece of candy corn at the bottom of the ghost’s body, and bring the arms round to hold it in place.
- Place the assembled ghost onto the prepared cookie sheet and leave to dry in a cool, dry place for at least 4 hours, but overnight up to 24 hours is best. DO NOT place in the fridge!
- When the ghosts are dry, use the tube of icing gel to pipe on the eyes and a mouth. Use them in the cupcakes as required!
More Recipes Using Cake Mix
One of the hero ingredients in this recipe is cake mix, so here are some more recipes using the same:
- Quick & Easy Strawberry Cupcakes for Summer
- Pineapple Upside Down Cake Fudge
- Oreo Spiderweb Cheesecake with Black Velvet Cake Base
More Halloween Cupcake Recipes
Looking for more Halloween cupcakes to make? Check these recipes out next:
How Do I Make Candy Corn Ghost Cupcakes?
Just check out the recipe card below with full ingredients, instructions, and demonstration photos. You can print the card out too (don’t worry, the pics don’t print to save your ink!).
Save my Candy Corn Ghost Cupcakes tutorial video to your YouTube Halloween and Recipe Playlists so that it’s always there when you need it – don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube Channel while you are there!
Candy Corn Ghost Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1 box vanilla cake mix + ingredients to make
- Orange food coloring gel
- Purple Frosting
- Wilton Candy Corn Ghosts Icing Decorations
SUGGESTED PRODUCTS
Instructions
- Preheat oven according to package instructions and line cupcake pan with liners.
- Make cupcakes according to the package instructions.
- Add orange food coloring gel and mix to the desired shade. Divide between cupcake liners and bake according to package instructions.
- Once cooked, cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.
- You can pipe frosting on if you like, but it is easiest just to spread a thick layer onto each cooled cupcake.
- Insert a ghost icing decoration into each of the frosted cupcakes and you're done!
Video
Nutrition
Nutritional information is always approximate and will depend on the quality of ingredients used and serving sizes. If you need exact calories and macros, please do your own calculations.
Make It A Meal!
You’ve made the dessert, but what about the rest of the courses?
Here are additional recipes to make a full meal!
- Appetizer: Quick & Easy Pepperoni Mini Mummy Pizzas
- Main Dish: Toxic Mac ‘n’ Cheese
- Beverage: Halloween Mocktail – Frogspawn Slushie
There are 500+ Recipes on The Purple Pumpkin Blog for you to enjoy – please feel free to check them out too!