Learn how to make festive Candy Corn Cupcakes for Halloween. These cute treats feature a moist chocolate cupcake with a hidden candy corn frosting twist!
🧁 Cupcakes With a Hidden Frosting Candy Corn Inside!
If you’re a frosting lover, these incredibly cute candy corn cupcakes are a must-bake for Halloween! At first glance, they look like chocolate cupcakes with a candy corn frosting design on top. Cute but not extraordinary.
But–twist!!–when you take a bite, you’ll discover that they have a sweet secret – a second frosting candy corn hidden inside the cupcake!
Yes, it’s a lot of frosting, and I recognize that it’s too much for some people. But don’t let that stop you from trying these! If you want to tone it down a little, you can use just a thin layer of frosting on top, and save most of the fun for the inside of the cupcake.
More Halloween Fun
Like these cupcakes? Check out some of our most popular Halloween dessert recipes, like Frankenstein Cupcakes, Slice and Bake Halloween Cookies, Witch’s Brew Halloween Punch, and much more!
Table of Contents
🧾 What You’ll Need
The Components
- Cupcakes: I like chocolate cupcakes, because I think they provide a good contrast to all that vanilla buttercream. But you can swap in any cupcake recipe you’d like! I’m sharing my homemade chocolate cupcake recipe below, but you could also do a box mix to save on time. We all know the frosting is the real star of the show here. 😉
- Frosting: The frosting recipe I’m using is a mock Swiss meringue buttercream. It’s easier to make than “real” Swiss meringue, but still has the same light, not-too-sweet texture and taste. I find standard American buttercream much too sweet in this recipe.
- Decorations: Top the cupcakes with candy corn, orange or yellow Sixlets, fun sprinkles, or other seasonal candies.
The Equipment
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- Mixer: Either a stand mixer or a hand mixer will work. I do recommend a stand mixer for the buttercream, if possible, because it takes a lot of mixing and a higher-powered mixer works better.
- Cupcake pans and liners
- Piping bags: I like these disposable piping bags (I wash them and re-use them to reduce waste!)
- Piping tips: You’ll need three 1M piping tips (large star tips) to recreate this look.
Ready to Make These?
- Get the recipe below 👇👇
- Scroll below the recipe for step-by-step photos
🎃 More Halloween Treats
Leave a Review!
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Candy Corn Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the Chocolate Cupcakes:
- 6 oz unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 4.75 oz granulated sugar, (2/3 cup)
- 5 oz brown sugar, (2/3 cup), packed
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 8 oz buttermilk, (1 cup), at room temperature
- 4 oz sour cream, (1/2 cup), at room temperature
- 2 TBSP water, or brewed coffee
- 7.8 oz all-purpose flour, (1¾ cups)
- 3 oz unsweetened cocoa powder, (1 cup), sifted
- 1½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
For the Buttercream:
- 5 fl oz pasteurized liquid egg whites
- 20 oz powdered sugar, (5 cups)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 20 oz unsalted butter, (5 sticks, or 2.5 cups), at room temperature
- 2 TBSP vanilla extract
- Gel food coloring, I used Americolor Lemon Yellow and Orange
To Decorate
- Candy corn, or other themed candy of your choice
Instructions
To Make the Chocolate Cupcakes:
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line cupcake pans with 24 paper wrappers.
- Add the butter and both sugars to the bowl of a large stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat them together on medium-high speed, until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract and mix it in.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, sour cream, and water (or coffee, if using). In a different bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer running on low, add a quarter of the sifted flour mixture. When the flour streaks have almost all disappeared, add a third of the liquid to the mixing bowl. When that’s incorporated, continue to add the drys and wets in an alternating pattern, ending with the dry ingredients.
- When the dry ingredients are nearly incorporated, stop the mixer. Scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, and finish mixing the cake by hand. Scoop the batter into the cupcake pans. Bake for 20-22 minutes, until the tops spring back when lightly pressed. Cool completely before decorating.
To Make the Frosting:
- Combine the whites, powdered sugar, and salt in the bowl of a large stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix everything together on low speed, until the sugar is moistened and no dry patches remain.
- Turn off the mixer, scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl with a spatula, then turn the mixer to medium speed. Beat on medium for 5 minutes.
- After 5 minutes, turn the mixer to medium-low and start adding the softened room temperature butter, 1-2 tablespoons at a time. Once all of the butter is incorporated, add the vanilla extract and mix it in. Stop the mixer and scrape down the bottom and sides once more.
- Turn the speed to medium and beat the buttercream for 10 minutes. At the end, you’ll have a frosting with a wonderfully light and creamy texture.
- Divide the buttercream into thirds. Leave one third white, and use the gel food colorings to dye one third yellow and one third orange.
- The frosting can be used right away, or stored in the refrigerator for up to two weeks, or the freezer for up to six months. If you have chilled the frosting, let it come to room temperature and then beat it for several minutes to smooth it out and restore its texture before using it.
To Assemble:
- When you’re ready to assemble the cupcakes, fit 3 piping bags with 1M tips, and fill them with white, yellow, and orange buttercream.
- Use a sharp paring knife to cut a cone-shaped hole out of the top of the cupcakes. Pipe a dab of white buttercream in the bottom, filling about ⅓ of the hole. Then pipe orange buttercream on top of the white. Finally, pipe a layer of yellow buttercream on the orange, leaving a bit of room at the top. Cut the bottom off of the cupcake cone, and gently press the top back on the cupcake. (The cone bottom can be eaten or thrown away—I trust you will find something to do with it.) Repeat with the remaining cupcakes.
- Pipe a swirl of yellow buttercream on top of the cupcakes in a single layer. Add a smaller swirl of orange on top of the yellow. Finally, add a white swirl to finish the cupcakes off. Top them with a single candy corn, or other seasonal candy of your choice.
- Enjoy! Store these cupcakes in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 days, or in the refrigerator for up to a week. For the best taste and texture, bring them to room temperature before serving.
Recipe Notes
Measuring Tips
Our recipes are developed using weight measurements, and we highly recommend using a kitchen scale for baking whenever possible. However, if you prefer to use cups, volume measurements are provided as well. PLEASE NOTE: the adage “8 oz = 1 cup” is NOT true when speaking about weight, so don’t be concerned if the measurements don’t fit this formula.
Want to learn more about baking measurements and conversion?
Nutrition
📸 Photo Tutorial: How to Make Candy Corn Cupcakes
Here’s a step-by-step guide to assembling these Candy Corn Cupcakes. You can print out the full recipe instructions from the recipe card above!
- Use a sharp paring knife to cut a cone-shaped hole out of the top of the cupcakes.
- Pop the cone out, and cut the bottom off of the cone. (The bottom portion is extra that you can nibble on while decorating. Yum!) Set the top aside for a moment.
- Pipe a dab of white buttercream in the bottom, filling about ⅓ of the hole. (This is going to be an approximate process, and it’s okay they’re not all perfectly even.)
- Next pipe orange buttercream on top of the white, making sure you leave space at the top for the last color.
- Finally, pipe a layer of yellow buttercream on the orange, leaving a bit of room at the top.
- Gently press the top of the cupcake back on, over the frosting filling.
- Pipe a swirl of yellow buttercream on top of the cupcakes in a single layer.
- Add a smaller swirl of orange on top of the yellow.
- Finally, add a white swirl to finish the cupcakes off.
- Top them with a single candy corn, or other seasonal candy of your choice.
Tip: If You Prefer Less Frosting
If you’d like to use less frosting per cupcake, I suggest keeping the hidden frosting candy corn in the cupcake, and finishing them with a small, simple swirl of frosting instead of the big three-color topping.
