Easy ghost cupcakes are the perfect fun Halloween dessert to decorate with the kids. Learn how to make these bootiful cupcakes and celebrate Halloween from the comfort of your own kitchen with this food craft.

A cute ghost cupcake for Halloween sits on a black background — Easy Ghost Cupcakes for Halloween

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Making Halloween fun this year has been a huge deal for me.

My son might be too little to really care, but at 6 my daughter is the perfect age for Halloween fun and she loves it. She constantly tells us that it is her favorite holiday and that she likes it even better than Christmas.

Given that I give Buddy the Elf a run for his money on the world’s biggest Christmas fan, I’m not sure how I feel about this.

But I do know I love getting into the spooky spirit of things with her and making all sorts of Halloween goodies!

These easy ghost cupcakes are such a fun treat to make with kids her age. And they are so easy to make- it’s scary! (I know, I know. I’m sorry. I’ll see myself out now.)

You don’t need a whole lot in order to make this spooktacular treat and it’s an easy beginner cupcake to decorate, making it perfect for both kids or anyone who’s not super skilled at cupcake decorating but wants to learn a little more about using frosting to make fun cupcakes.

Ingredients and Kitchen Supplies

The ingredients for ghost cupcakes are chocolate cupcakes, vanilla frosting, candy eyes, and black decorator gel. They are show with a piping bag and large round icing tip. — Ingredients and supplies: baked cupcakes, vanilla icing, candy eyeballs, black decorator gel, a pastry bag and a large round icing tip

To make this you need:

Cake mix and the ingredients listed on the box– We used chocolate cake mix per my daughter’s request but really you could use white cake, yellow cake, or a speciality Halloween cake mix for these too. You’ll also need eggs, oil, and water.
Vanilla frosting– You could make your own homemade vanilla buttercream and for an adults only occasion you this boozy pumpkin spice buttercream would be amazing, but again we skipped that for simplicity’s sake here and used premade frosting. If you are planning on making a full batch of cupcakes, I recommend at least 2, if not 3, containers of premade vanilla frosting since the frosting forms the ghosts.
Candy eyeballs– We used the small eyeballs because it’s what we have on hand. You could use the bigger ones or even just use black decorator gel. You can get these at most craft stores, sometimesin baking sections, and online.
Black decorator gel– This is optional, but at my daughter’s request we used this to create mouths on our ghosts. I was going to leave them at just eyes but they look really cute with the mouths as well.

Put the icing tip inside the pastry bag and push it down as far as it goes then snip the tip off the pastry bag. — A pastry bag and large round tip make the ghost bodies

That’s it for ingredients, but you may also want to pick up the following kitchen supplies:

How to Make Ghost Cupcakes

1. Bake the cupcakes and let them cool.
Bake the cupcakes according to the instructions on the package. Let them thoroughly cool.

2. Fill the piping bag with vanilla icing.

A pastry bag fitted with a large round tip is folded over a large glass to make filling it with icing easier. — I like to assemble the pastry bag and fold it over a large cup to make filling it easier.

Put the large round tip into the bag and cut the end of the bag off so the icing tip is exposed. Then fill your piping bag up with the icing. I like to do this by folding the icing tip to the side and situating the bag in a large cup as shown. It makes it easy.

3. Pipe the ghosts onto the cupcakes.

A large dollop of vanilla icing makes the ghosts on the cupcakes. Vanilla iced cupcakes in a cupcake tin on black. — Ice the cupcakes to make the ghost bodies by working in a circular motion and using lots of icing!

Slowly squeeze the icing from the piping bag onto the cupcake.

Start in the center of the cupcake and move your hand in a slow circle, working outward.

Do several passes around the cupcake, making the circles slightly smaller each time to create the dollop effect.

4. Decorate them bootifully.

Decorate the ghosts with candy eyes and black decorator gel mouths. Ghost cupcakes in a cupcake tin on black with orange twinkle lights. — Decorate the ghosts with candy eyes and black decorator gel mouths.

Add candy eyeballs and use black decorator gel to draw a a mouth if desired.

Enjoy!

Storing and Serving

Two ghost cupcakes on a black background with orange twinkle lights make a bootiful treat for Halloween. — Easy Ghost Cupcakes

Store these ghost cupcakes by loosely covering them and keeping them on the counter for up to 3 to 4 days.

You may be able to extend shelf life if you put them in a larger airtight container.

You can serve these immediately or bring them to a Halloween party.

Ghost Cupcakes with Frosting versus Marshmallow Ghost Cupcakes

Three ghost cupcakes on a black background with orange twinkle lights make a bootiful treat for Halloween. — Easy Ghost Cupcakes

These ghost cupcakes rely on lots of frosting to make the ghost shapes.

Don’t want to use that much frosting? No problem.

Just pipe a little vanilla icing onto the cupcake and then decorate a big marshmallow to look like a ghost.

To do this, use a food writer and draw on eyes and a mouth or use a tube of decorator gel.

Then just pop the marshmallows on the icing and boo-m. Ghost cupcakes.

Tips and Tricks

Ghost cupcakes on a black background with orange twinkle lights make a bootiful treat for Halloween. — Easy Halloween Cupcakes

Use lots of frosting. I used just about a whole can of frosting for 6 cupcakes.
The mouth is optional but cute. You could use a large chocolate chip for the mouth instead of drawing it by pressing the pointed side into the icing.
Make sure you let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting so the icing sticks.

Other Fun Halloween Cupcakes and Treats You’ll Love

These ghost cupcakes are a really fun project to get the kids involved in this Halloween. If you’re looking for other, easy kid friendly Halloween baking and cooking projects try these:

Spider Cupcakes– These creepy crawly cupcakes are so much fun to decorate with the kids. They love sticking legs into the cupcakes and adding silly faces.
Easy Pumpkin Patch Brownies– Perfect for decorating with littles, kids love sprinkling “dirt” on these festive brownies.
Halloween Monster Bark– No baking required and super fun to have the kids press eyeballs into the melted candy.
Pumpkin Oreos– Another no bake goodie and fun treat for fall and Halloween.
3 Ingredient Halloween S’mores– An easy twist on a classic
Easy Mummy Mozzarella Sticks (in Crescent Dough) for Halloween– A cheesy snack both kids and adults will love at Halloween parties or before Trick or Treat!

Did you make this? Let me know!

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