Conjure Up Hocus Pocus Cupcakes With a Book of Spells Brownie!
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Sisters! It’s time to put your magic to work and conjure up these awesome Hocus Pocus Cupcakes, complete with a Book of Spells topper! Chocolate fudge cupcakes are topped with green and purple frosting, and the spellbook is made from a pan of brownies! Halloween is upon us, so get ready to run amok, amok, amok!
I’ve got 50+ freakishly good Halloween Recipes for you to try out – right-click and open these other recipes in a new tab so that you can read them after this one!
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Hocus Pocus 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, to ensure that you have all the ingredients and equipment required and understand the steps and timings involved.
Hocus Pocus is one of my favorite Halloween movies, and if it’s yours too, you won’t be able to resist these Hocus Pocus Cupcakes!
These spellbinding cupcakes are sure to be a hit at your next Halloween party! Or you could even make a batch to take into work as a spooky treat for your co-workers!
If you’re an experienced cake maker you can probably jump straight to the recipe at the end of this post and get baking!
But if not, please read through the steps as I’ve got lots of tips and suggestions along the way!
Ingredients & Equipment Used In This Recipe
For your convenience, any specialized or notable ingredients and equipment needed to make these cupcakes have been listed below and linked to Amazon or other stores if available online. Standard ingredients such as flour or sugar are not listed, as you are likely to have those in your kitchen. The full list with measurements is found in the recipe card.
Cupcakes & Frosting Ingredients
- Box of Brownie Mix – and the ingredients to make them. Or you can buy a tray of Pillsbury Chocolate Chunk Fudge Brownies ready-made brownies (Sam’s Club) to cut to size. Costco is another place to seek a large ready-made tray of them.
- Box of Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix – the usual ingredients are switched out to milk, butter, and eggs to enrich the mix.
- Powdered Sugar – also known as Icing Sugar and Confectioner’s Sugar.
- Pure Vanilla Extract – always buy good vanilla as it really does make a flavor difference.
Decorating Ingredients
- Tube Black Cake Frosting – Wilton’s tubes fit their standard piping tips, or you can squeeze into a piping bag.
- Candy Eyeballs
- Neon Green Food Coloring Gel
- Purple Food Coloring Gel
- Green Sprinkles – Wilton sells a mixed pouch of sprinkles, or you can make up your own green sprinkles mix.
Cupcake Decorating Equipment
- 2-inch Rectangle Cookie Cutter
- Large Piping Bag – you can use disposable or reuseable, your choice.
- Large Open Star Tip – Wilton 4B
- Large Star Tip – Wilton 1M
- Round Piping Tip – Wilton #4
Recipes on The Purple Pumpkin Blog use both cup measurements and/or weighted measurements. American cups and kitchen food scales are handy pieces of equipment to have in your kitchen as it means you’ll be able to make all of the different recipes on my blog! I try to give American, imperial, and metric measurements in my recipes. You can mix cup measurements with weighted measurements, but never imperial (pounds, ounces, pints, etc.,) with metric (kilograms, grams, litres, etc.,).
Hocus Pocus Cupcakes Recipe Tips
Cupcake Making Tips
- These cupcakes are made using a box of cake mix – the flavor is enriched by using butter, milk, and eggs, instead of the usual oil, water, and eggs.
- Use your choice of cupcake liners – themed to the cupcakes, plain white or black, or a complimentary color.
- Use an ice cream scoop to equally divide the cupcake mixture between the cupcake liners. Fill them about three-quarters full.
- The cupcakes should be ready in about 20 minutes – test their doneness by inserting a toothpick into the cakes. It should come out clean when the cupcakes are cooked all the way through. Bake for an extra 2 minutes and check again.
- Cool the cupcakes in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.
Cupcake Frosting Tips
- When making the frosting you want the end result to be creamy, smooth, and to hold a stiff peak. You may have to adjust the amount of powdered sugar and cream slightly to achieve the consistency you need.
- The frosting is then divided and colored using food coloring. Remember that you can always add more color, but not take it away. Add a little to start with and add more to get the shade required.
- FOOD COLORING! Food coloring is available in various forms. You’re most likely to find liquid coloring in your grocery store, and other types of coloring like gels, pastes, and powders in more specialised cake decorating shops. The cheapest option is liquids, but they can alter the consistency of your frosting and cake batter, so I prefer to use pastes or gels which don’t. A little goes a long way with food coloring gels and you can usually get a much deeper shade than you would with liquids.
- These cupcakes are double-frosted, for the first layer, a flat swirl of frosting is piped on top of each cupcake and covered with sprinkles. Then add a two-tone swirl of frosting is added on top of the sprinkle layer.
- SPRINKLES! Following the color theme provided in the recipe, you can use any type you like such as nonpareils, jimmies, stars, confetti, pearls, or shapes – you’ll need about 1 cup of them in total to cover the cupcakes.
- Use a piping bag fitted with an star tip (Wilton 4B) to pipe the first swirl on top of the cupcakes.
- Use a piping bag fitted with a large star tip (Wilton 1M) for the two-color frosting swirl.
- There are two ways you can do multi-color frosting:
- Scoop half the side of the piping bag with green frosting and the other half with purple, then squeeze some frosting out until the two colors combine.
- Or, use the double piping bag by putting a piping bag of each color into another piping bag fitted with the tip and frosting as usual. Wilton has a great demonstration video on YouTube that I highly recommend.
- You will need also need a piping bag fitted with a round #4 piping tip for piping the spell book details on the brownies.
- If you feel like you are going to be making a lot of cakes and cupcakes in your future, I think it is worth investing in a set of piping tips so that you know you always have the right ones on hand for a recipe.
- Do not overfill the piping bag with frosting, and make sure you squeeze the frosting down the bag to expel any air bubbles.
- If you are not confident with your piping skills you can practice on some parchment paper first and scoop the frosting back into the bag to use on the cupcakes. Just make sure you practice with ONE color and not the two mixed together!
More Halloween Cupcake Recipes
Looking for more Halloween cupcakes to make? Check these recipes out next:
- Chocolate Jack Skellington Cupcakes for Halloween
- Oogie Boogie Cupcakes
- Severed Finger Cupcakes The Creepiest Grossest Cupcake Ever!
How Do I Make Hocus Pocus Cupcakes?
Just check out the recipe card below with full ingredients, and instructions. You can print the card out too (don’t worry, the pics don’t print to save your ink!).
Book of Spells Hocus Pocus Cupcakes
Ingredients
Book of Spells Ingredients
- 4.05 lb/1.8kg package ready-made Chocolate Brownie
- 1 4.25oz/120g Wilton black cake frosting tube
- Wilton Candy Eyeballs small
For the Cupcakes
- 1 box Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix
- ½ cup of softened unsalted butter
- 1¼ cup whole milk
- 3 large eggs
For the Frosting
- 1½ cups unsalted butter softened
- 4½ cups powdered sugar icing sugar
- 4 Tbsp heavy whipping cream double cream
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- Purple Gel Food Coloring
- Neon Green Gel Food Coloring
- Green Sprinkles*
SUGGESTED PRODUCTS
Instructions
- Using a 2"/5cm rectangle cookie cutter, cut out 22 rectangle brownies and place them onto a cookie sheet.
- If using Wilton tubes of frosting, attach a round no.4 piping tip to the tube of black frosting, or alternatively, squeeze the frosting into a piping bag fitted with the same size tip.
- Pipe a small blob of frosting on the back of the edible eyes. Place the eye onto the brownie in the top right as shown. Pipe an outline around the candy eyeball.
- Pipe a squiggly line on the side opposite of the eye to create the
‘Spine’ of the book. - Pipe a straight line next to the squiggly spine line, and then pipe a squiggly line over the straight line. Pipe half circles on the corners of the spellbook brownie, then pipe to small circles on either side of the candy eyeball.
- Repeat steps to decorate the other brownie rectangles then set them aside while you make your cupcakes
- To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas 4. Line cupcake pans with 22 cupcake liners and set aside.
- Using an electric handheld or stand mixer, place the cake mix, butter, milk, and eggs into a large bowl and mix until combined and smooth.
- Use an ice cream scoop to evenly divide into the cupcake liners about 3/4 full.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
- Leave to cool in the pan for about 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.
- To make the frosting, use an electric stand or handheld mixer and add the butter, powdered sugar, cream, and vanilla to the bowl.
- Beat on medium speed until creamy and smooth and stiff peaks form.
- Scoop 1½ cups of frosting into another bowl and stir in a few drops of purple food coloring. Remember you can always add more coloring, but not take it away! Stir in the food coloring until well combined and you reach the desired shade.
- Color the remaining frosting neon green.
- Place 1½ cups of green frosting into one-half side of a medium piping bag fitted with a star tip (WIlton 4B) and the purple frosting into the other half. Squeeze out some of the frosting to combine the colors and set aside.
- Place the remaining green frosting into a large piping bag fitted with an open star tip (Wilton 1M).
- Using the bag of green frosting pipe a ring of frosting on top of each cooled cupcake and add some green sprinkles.
- Using the two-tone frosting, pipe a swirl of frosting on top of the green layer.
- Carefully place the ‘spell book’ brownie on the frosting of the swirled frosting. Enjoy and Run Amok!
Notes
- 2-inch Rectangle Cookie Cutter
- Large Piping Bag
- 1 Large Star (Wilton 4B) Piping Tip
- 1 Open Star (Wilton 1M) Piping Tip
- 1 Round (Wilton #4) Piping Tip
- 1 Medium Ice Cream Scoop
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 Halloween Meal!
You’ve made the dessert, but what about the rest of the courses?
Here are additional recipes to make a full meal for a Halloween dinner party!
- Appetizer: Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeño Poppers Recipe
- Soup: Grandma’s Pumpkin Soup
- Salad: Hot Mexican Rice Salad
- Main Dish: Mexican Shredded Beef in the Slow Cooker
- Side Dish: Garden Fresh Tomatillo Salsa Verde
- Beverage: Green Wicked Witch Cocktail
There are 500+ Recipes on The Purple Pumpkin Blog for you to enjoy – please feel free to check them out too!