Vegan Halloween Cupcakes
Get creative this Halloween with vegan-friendly cupcake recipes. Try our easy cupcake decorations and make sure your vegan treats make the best impression. Perfect for Halloween parties and fun for all ages!
Celebrate Halloween with delicious vegan cupcakes, easily made with these simple decorating guides.
Whether traditional or ghoulishly creative, these vegan cupcakes are sure to impress. Get creative and make your Halloween vegan-friendly with these vegan Halloween cupcakes!
4 Halloween Cupcake Designs
Use these simple Halloween cupcake designs to make your own cupcakes at home. You’ll need a few piping tips, cupcakes, frosting, some food coloring, vegan googly eyes, and maybe even some Halloween sprinkles. Here are the designs I’ll share with you today:
- Frankensteins — Green frosting has the classic Frankenstein look etched on top.
- Purpose Monsters — Imagine purple frosting stars with festive edible eyes.
- Ghosts — Puffs of white frosting are dotted with vegan candy eyes to create whimsical and fun ghost cupcakes.
- Jack-O-Lanterns – Orange cupcakes have candy eyes and black icing mouths for cute, festive, and fun Jack-O-Lantern cupcakes.
Halloween Cupcake Ingredients
You can find the full printable recipe, including ingredient quantities, below. But first, here are some explanations of ingredients and steps to help you make this recipe perfect every time.
Here are the ingredients you’ll need for this recipe, including substitution ideas:
- Cupcakes — Use your favorite plant-based cupcakes, such as vegan pumpkin cupcakes to make the flavor of the season mix perfectly with these Halloween decorations.
- Frosting — To keep this recipe simple, we’re using doctored up storebought frosting (many of them are dairy-free and egg-free, but check the ingredients).
- Powdered Sugar — Adding powdered sugar to store-bought frosting makes it spreadable and pipeable.
- Candy Eyes — Having some egg-free candy eyes makes these recipes so festive. The good news? It’s pretty easy to make vegan candy eyes yourself!
- Peanuts — Find peanuts with skin to use for the Frankenstine cupcakes. Or, you can use pretzel sticks cut into small pieces.
- Optional – Oreos – I used the cream filling from Oreo cookies to make pink tongues for some of the jack-0-lanterns. See more on that below.
- Optional – Decorations – If you have some Halloween sprinkles, these can add a festive look to your cupcakes, but it’s optional.
How to Make Vegan Halloween Cupcakes
- Make your favorite cupcakes, such as these vegan chocolate cupcakes or vegan pumpkin cupcakes.
- Use storebought frosting combined with powdered sugar (to make it pipeable). Or you can use this vegan vanilla buttercream frosting.
- Distribute frosting to five bowls (one small bowl for the black frosting, one for white, one for green, one for orange, and one for purple).
- Add food coloring, based on the intensity of the colors you want for your cupcakes.
- Decorate the cupcakes with frosting and add sprinkles or candy eyes.
What Makes This Recipe Shine?
- FUN — Get the kids involved to help decorate these fun party cupcakes!
- EASY — Decorating cupcakes doesn’t have to be hard. This recipe doctors up some store-bought frosting to keep it simple!
- FESTIVE — Show up at your Halloween party with these festive cupcakes and wait for the oohs and ahhs to begin!
Frequently-Asked Questions
Are Halloween cupcakes vegan?
Many store-bought or homemade Halloween cupcakes are not vegan because either the cake or the frosting is made with eggs and dairy. However, you can make your own homemade cupcakes quite easily and festively. Make it into a cupcake decorating party!
How can I make these cupcakes ahead of time for a party?
I recommend making the cupcakes ahead of time and freezing them. Make sure you have the rest of your supplies, such as vegan candy eyes, food coloring gel, and any decorations you may want to use, such as colorful Halloween sprinkles. Then let the frozen cupcakes come to room temperature and you’re ready to decorate!
Start with Vegan Cupcakes
You can use any cupcakes you like, such as my vegan pumpkin cupcakes. The flavor is perfect for the holiday! If you’re in a hurry, you can make vegan cupcakes from a boxed mix. It’s easy!
Whatever cupcakes you’re using, make sure they’re completely cooled before frosting them.
Cupcake Decorating Frosting
Decorating cupcakes can be some work, so I say make the frosting easy! That’s why I used store-bought frosting combined with powdered sugar (see the recipe card below for quantities).
If you prefer homemade frosting, use a sturdy buttercream that will hold up to all the decorating you’ll be doing! I prefer to use vegan vanilla buttercream for my decorated cupcakes.
If the frosting isn’t sturdy enough, the designs you create could look soft, especially after adding food coloring.
I recommend using gel food coloring because liquid food coloring will change the texture of your frosting. You can use less of the gel food coloring and get the vibrant color we’re looking for.
Storage Tips
Transfer the finished cupcakes to an airtight container. They can sit at room temperature for up to 2 or 3 days (but they’re best within the first two days). They can be refrigerated for up to 5 days. You can even freeze them, although the decorations may lose some definition upon thawing. If you’re going to freeze, them I recommend decorating them after they’ve thawed.
Purple Monster Cupcakes
These monster cupcakes are not only delicious, they’re adorable, too! You can play around with different tips, but here are the ways I made these cupcakes:
- Food Coloring: I used purple food coloring gel to create this beautiful hue, simply perfect for these cupcakes. You can add less or more based on your desire for intense color.
- Piping Bags and the Wilton #21 tip.
- Vegan Candy Eyes.
- Purple Halloween Sugar Sprinkles
You have two options here. A) Pipe a bunch of little stars all across the cupcake, then add sprinkles and candy eyes. B) Or, pipe a spiral of frosting leading to a peak in the center where you’ll place a large candy eye. These cupcake monsters look cute in green, too!
Frankenstein Cupcakes
These Frankenstein cupcakes are my favorite! They are so easy to make. Here’s how I made them:
- Add green food coloring gel until you achieve an intense green color.
- Add black frosting to a Ziploc bag and snip off a tiny bit of the tip.
- Spread green frosting on top of a cupcake.
- Add black frosting in zigzags at the top of each cupcake. Then add a zigzag black line for the mouth.
- Place two candy eyes in the center.
- Cut peanuts (with skin) in half and add them skin side up on each side of the eyes.
Ghost Cupcakes
Oh, ghost cupcakes. You’re my favorite of all! Why? Because they’re so easy and so adorable!
- Add white frosting to a piping bag with the Wilton #1A tip for large mounds of frosting.
- Start in the center of the cupcake and press and hold the piping bag to distribute a big “puff” of frosting, gradually bringing the bag up, to create a ripple effect in the frosting.
- Add two candy eyes and you’re done!
Jack-O-Lantern Cupcakes
These cupcakes require 3 frosting colors: orange, black, and green.
- Add orange gel food coloring to the frosting to create an intense orange color.
- Spread orange frosting across a cupcake.
- Use a toothpick to create lines in the cupcake, to resemble a pumpkin.
- Use green frosting to create two stems at the top of each pumpkin.
- Add candy eyes, then use black frosting to add eyebrows and a mouth.
- You’ll notice on one of the cupcakes I added a pink tongue. I did this by adding a tiny bit of red food coloring to the inside of an Oreo cookie. Yes, I scraped off the creamy filling and added a teensy bit of food coloring. Stirred it together, and then used it to shape a tongue. It was pretty easy and so cute!
More Vegan Halloween Recipes
If you love this Vegan Halloween cupcakes recipe, here are more plant-based Halloween favorites to try:
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Vegan Halloween Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 12 vegan cupcakes
- 1 container vanilla frosting
- ⅓ cup powdered sugar
Monster Cupcakes
- Gel food coloring: purple
- vegan candy eyeballs
- optional: sprinkles
Frankenstein Cupcakes
- Gel food coloring: black and green
- vegan candy eyeballs
- optional: peanuts or pretzels
Ghost Cupcakes
- vegan candy eyeballs
Jack-O-Lantern Cupcakes
- Gel food coloring: orange, green, black
- vegan candy eyeballs
- optional: the cream from an Oreo cookie to make pink tongues.
Instructions
- Make the cupcakes and set them aside to cool completely.
- Make the vanilla buttercream frosting by adding storebought frosting to a mixing bowl. Add powdered sugar and whip for up to 2 to 3 minutes.
- Portion the frosting into 5 bowls. You'll only need a small bowl of frosting for the black. Then you'll have one bowl for orange, one for white, one for green, and one for purple. Add the black frosting to a plastic sandwich bag and cut a very small tip at the end with scissors.
Purple Monster Cupcakes
- Use a piping bag with the Wilton #21 star tip. Fill with purple frosting. Pipe a spiral swirl leading to a peak in the center and add a large candy eye on top. Or dot several smaller stars across the top of the cupcake, adding two candy eyes (or more). Feel free to add some Halloween sprinkles.
Ghost Cupcakes
- Add white frosting to a piping bag with a large round tip (Wilton #1A). Create a mound of frosting starting in the center and gradually bringing the frosting tip up. Add two white candy eyes for each cupcake to create a ghost face.
Frankenstein Cupcakes
- Use a butter knife to coat a cupcake with green frosting. Dip the knife in water, then tap to remove excess water. Spread it across the frosting to create a smooth, shiny surface. Pipe black frosting in zig-zags to create details such as the hair and mouth. Add two candy eyes. Use peanuts or pretzel sticks to add the electrodes on the side of Frank's head.
Jack-O-Lantern Cupcakes
- Smear orange frosting across the top of a cupcake. Wet the knife to and lightly go over the frosting to create a smooth surface. Use a toothpick to lightly press and create roundish lines going down the pumpkin. Use green frosting to create stems at the top of the pumpkin. Use candy eyes or black frosting to create triangle eyes. Continue using the black frosting to create eyes, nose, and mouth for each cupcake.
Recommended Equipment
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Notes
The nutrition information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator and should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Love these fun haloween cupcakes!
Thanks, Olivia! I’m so glad you liked these festive halloween cupcakes!