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Square image of a vampire face cupcake with a wood coffin in background.
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Vampire Cupcakes Recipe
Prep Time
20 mins
Cook Time
18 mins
 
Not only do these vampire cupcakes look spooktacular, but they taste sensational too. Moist cupcakes provide the canvas for fun vampire faces with a sweet surprise twist inside.
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: halloween cupcakes, halloween vampire cupcakes
Servings: 12 cupcakes
Author: Jackie
Ingredients
Cupcakes
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup granulated white sugar
  • ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ⅓ cup vegetable oil
  • 2 large eggs room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ½ cup buttermilk room temperature
  • Black food coloring
Ganache
  • 6 ounces Baker’s white chocolate*
  • ½ cup heavy cream
  • 1 tablespoon corn syrup
  • Red food coloring
Frosting
  • 4 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 cup unsalted butter slightly melted**
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • Black light brown and red food coloring
Instructions
Cupcakes
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Line muffin pan with 12 cupcake liners.
  3. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, granulated sugar, unsweetened cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
  4. In a large bowl, whisk together the vegetable oil, eggs and vanilla extract.
  5. Stir half the dry mixture into the wet mixture. Stir just until mixed – do not overmix.
  6. Stir all the buttermilk into the wet mixture. Stir just until mixed.
  7. Pour the remaining half of the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and stir just until mixed. Be careful not to overmix or the cupcakes won’t bake up nice and fluffy.
  8. Add black food coloring to the cupcake batter. The amount of black food coloring depends on how dark you want the cupcakes and how strong your food coloring is. Start by adding a little, then stir until blended and add more color if necessary. Again, be sure not to overmix the batter.
  9. Fill cupcake liners half full with cupcake batter. This will be 12 cupcakes. Don’t overfill cupcake liners or the cupcakes won’t rise properly.
  10. Place cupcakes into the oven and bake for 16 to 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
  11. Remove cupcakes from hot muffin pan and place on wire rack to cool completely before frosting. It’s important to take the cupcakes out of the hot pan as soon as you can so they don’t continue baking and dry out.
Ganache
  1. In a medium microwave-safe bowl, heat heavy cream in microwave until hot (about 1 minute).
  2. Immediately place white chocolate into hot heavy cream then let sit for 5 minutes before stirring.
  3. After 5 minutes, stir white chocolate and heavy cream until well mixed.
  4. Stir in corn syrup.
  5. Add red food coloring (just a small drop goes a long way) until you reach the desired color for your ganache filling.
  6. Set bowl in fridge to chill for 30 minutes before using to fill cupcakes.
Frosting
  1. In a large bowl, combine confectioners’ sugar, butter and vanilla extract. Beat on high until frosting is light and fluffy (about two minutes).
  2. Separate icings into 4 bowls to mix 4 different colors. The light brown/skin tone will need the largest amount of icing, next is the black, then just a small amount (about ⅓ cup each) of frosting for the red and white.
  3. Add colored frostings to tipless icing decorating bags.
  4. Cut a larger hole in the light brown icing bag and just smaller holes at the tips of the bags for black, red and white (the icing you’ll be using for the smaller details).
Decorating
  1. To fill cupcakes with ganache, use a small knife to cut a small hole (well) into the top of each cupcake. Spoon about two teaspoons of ganache into each cupcake then place the cut circle of cupcake back on top to cover the ganache filling.
  2. For decorating the cupcakes, start with the light brown color for the skin, then fill in the top with black for the hair. Add two white dots of frosting for eyes and place black icing pupils in each. Draw a large black smile then place two white icing fangs at each side of the mouth. Draw on a red frosting bow tie and add a light brown nose in the middle of the cupcake.
Recipe Notes

Cupcakes can be stored at room temperature for up to 2 days (sealed in a food-safe container to prevent them from drying out) or in the fridge up to a week. Ganache filled cupcakes shouldn’t be left at room temperature longer than 2 days before refrigerating.

* Baker’s white chocolate works better than white chocolate chips since the chocolate chips don’t melt as smoothly as the Baker’s chocolate does.

** For slightly melted butter, place cold butter from the fridge into the microwave on high for 40 seconds.