These Candy Corn Cupcakes made with spice cake will satisfy your craving for autumn flavors, while also taking care of your Halloween cupcake needs.
Getting prepared for the Halloween season can be a daunting task. Regardless of what your plans are, whether you’re partying or staying home, you may want a cute Halloween themed dessert to celebrate the holiday.
There’s nothing better than a dessert with fall flavors, so these cupcakes are a spice cake base with vanilla frosting to let the flavor of the cake shine through. We made these to look like candy corn to add a level of festivity to whatever your Halloween plans are.
» You might also like these Caramel Apple Cupcakes and Spider Web Rice Krispies Treats.
More Fun Halloween Recipes to Try
Ingredients You’ll Need
For the cake:
- Flour– We used all-purpose flour for this recipe.
- Baking Powder– Baking powder acts as a leavener and helps the cake rise.
- Salt– Helps keep the sweetness of the cake in check and enhance the other flavors.
- Cinnamon– Cinnamon is a key part of the spice mix that gives this cake its flavor.
- Nutmeg– Another spice that brings the classic fall flavors to the cake.
- Clove– This is the spice that makes the fall flavors recognizable and enough to pack a punch.
- Allspice– Allspice adds a savory spice to spice mix.
- Unsalted Butter– Make sure that the butter you use is unsalted so that the balance of sweet to savory is right.
- Brown Sugar– Using brown sugar gives the cake more depth of flavor, and makes the cake more moist than just using white sugar.
- White Sugar– White sugar sweetens the batter.
- Eggs– Another leavening agent to make the cake rise.
- Vanilla– Gives the cake more depth of flavor.
For the frosting:
Depending on how much frosting you like on your cupcakes we recommend making a double batch of frosting. Especially with using a bigger frosting tip. You can squeeze out a lot of frosting really quickly. This recipe is for one batch but it is easy to double.
- Unsalted Butter– Unsalted butter is the base to any good buttercream, and will give the frosting the sweet creaminess that it’s known for.
- Powdered Sugar– The second key ingredient in the buttercream that lends sweetness and firms up the frosting.
- Vanilla– Vanilla adds flavor to the frosting so it’s not one-note sweet.
- Orange and Yellow Gel Food Coloring– Colors the frosting so that it can make the candy corn design.
Helpful Tips
- If you mess up with your frosting- and trust me we all do- you can wet the tip of a knife and use it to smooth over any mistakes you made. Just remember that more water can mess with the consistency of the frosting, so use this technique sparingly.
- If you like spices, you can adjust the amounts of each spice you add to the batter. If you like something very punchy in the spice area, increase the amounts. If you’re not a fan of spices you can either add less or take them out all together.
- To make the frostings more cohesive colors, you can add a little bit of the other color of gel food coloring to the frosting. For example, add a little bit of the orange gel coloring to the yellow frosting. This will change the undertones of the colors to be more similar, and the colors will look better together.
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Candy Corn Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the Cupcakes
- 1 3/4 cups (218.75 g) flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons (6 g) baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon (1.5 g) salt
- 1 teaspoon (2 g) cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon (1 g) allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon (1 g) nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon (1 g) ground cloves
- 3/4 cup (170.25 g) butter softened
- 3/4 cups (165 g) brown sugar packed
- 1/2 cup (100 g) white sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1 1/2 teaspoons (7.39 ml) vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (118.29 ml) milk
For the Frosting
- 1/2 cup (113.5 g) butter softened
- 2 1/2 cups (300 g) powdered sugar
- yellow and orange gel food coloring
Instructions
For the Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 325° F and put cupcake liners into a cupcake tin.
- In a large bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients.
- In another bowl, cream the butter. Then add both types of sugar and beat until fluffy.
- Beat in one egg at a time and beat until combined before adding the next egg. Pour in the vanilla and milk and beat until combined.
- Mix the wet and dry ingredients with a spatula until totally incorporated.
- Fill the cupcake liners 3/4 full, then bake for about 18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out dry.
- Cool the cupcakes on a wire rack until completely cooled.
For the frosting
- Whip the butter with an electric mixer or a stand mixer on medium-high for 5 minutes, then scrape down the bowl.
- Turn the speed to low and add the powdered sugar in small increments, beating until incorporated before adding more.
- Once all the powdered sugar is in, increase the speed to medium-high and whip for 2 minutes or until fluffy and light.
- Separate into three bowls, putting a quarter of the frosting in one bowl, a quarter in another, and the remaining half in the last. Color the bowl with half the frosting orange using orange gel food color. Color one of the smaller bowls with yellow gel food color.
- Once the cupcakes are cool, frost them with one ring of yellow at the bottom, two rings of orange in the middle, and then frost the top with white.
Notes
- If you mess up with your frosting- and trust me we all do- you can wet the tip of a knife and use it to smooth over any mistakes you made. Just remember that more water can mess with the consistency of the frosting, so use this technique sparingly.
- If you like spices, you can adjust the amounts of each spice you add to the batter. If you like something very punchy in the spice area, increase the amounts. If you’re not a fan of spices you can either add less or take them out all together.
- To make the frostings more cohesive colors, you can add a little bit of the other color of gel food coloring to the frosting. For example, add a little bit of the orange gel coloring to the yellow frosting. This will change the undertones of the colors to be more similar, and the colors will look better together.
Nutrition
How to Make Candy Corn Cupcakes
For the Cupcakes
First, preheat your oven to 325° F, then prepare your cupcake tin by adding cupcake liners into the tin. We used yellowy-orange cupcake wrappers to match with the candy corn look, but you could also use some Halloween or fall themed cupcake liners for extra festivity.
Next, combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Then whisk them together to combine and set them aside.
In another large bowl, add the white and brown sugar and the softened butter. Beat until combined and fluffy. To the sugar and butter mixture, add the eggs one at a time and beat until completely incorporated between each addition. Once all the eggs are added, mix in the milk and vanilla.
Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients by folding them in with a spatula until they are entirely combined with no dry spots. Then fill each cupcake tin 3/4 full with batter, and bake them for 18 minutes. Once baked, set them on a wire rack to cool completely.
For the Frosting
Add the softened butter into either a bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat on medium-high until light and whipped, which should take about 5 minutes. You’ll notice it become a much lighter color than it started as.
Scrape the sides, then change the mixer speed to low. Add the powdered sugar in small portions, mixing until incorporated before adding more. After all the powdered sugar is added whip on medium-high for 2 minutes.
Separate the frosting into three bowls, and color them appropriately with yellow and orange. You can split it evenly between the 3 bowls or put a 1/4 of the frosting in a bowl that will stay white, 1/4 of the frosting will be yellow and the rest orange. Take a butter knife and dip it into your gel food coloring, then add it to your frosting and mix. Continue to add more until the frosting is the color you want. Put the frostings into piping bags with round tips and you’re ready to assemble the cupcakes.
To Assemble
To mimic a candy corn you will want to pipe the colors in the order of yellow, orange, and white on top. Using the yellow frosting, pipe one ring around the cupcakes and fill it in. With the orange frosting pipe one ring on top of the yellow and fill it in. Then top the frosting off with as many rings of white as you want, and complete it with a swirled top.
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Jillian Morris is the resident baker for A Food Lover’s Kitchen. She started baking when she was very little and found she had a great passion for it. She is a high-schooler in a small town in Oregon, where she enjoys music, writing, and baking in her spare time.