These chocolate Halloween cupcakes decorated with marshmallow ghosts are the perfect spooky treat for October. Not only are they a really fun design, but they’re also delicious too. Rich, chocolatey sponge meets sweet, fluffy marshmallow for the perfect indulgent October bake.

Halloween chocolate cupcake tips

This recipe uses black cocoa powder which makes the cupcakes extra dark and spooky looking. To ensure your sponge cake is perfectly springy and moist, cook your cupcakes to 90-98 °C using your Thermapen. 

Ingredients

For the chocolate cupcakes

• 150g plain flour
• 50g black cocoa powder
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 200g caster sugar
• 80ml vegetable oil
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 120ml buttermilk or sour cream

For the marshmallow ghost icing

• 4 large egg whites
• 200g caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• Black icing pen or dark chocolate

Tips for Making Halloween marshmallow ghosts

These easy, tasty marshmallow ghosts make such fun Halloween cupcake decorations. They’re really simple to make, as long as you have your Thermapen on hand. You’ll need to heat your marshmallow mix to 71 °C before mixing. This will give your ghosts the perfect glossy texture. 

Click here to see a video tutorial!

Directions

To make the chocolate Halloween cupcakes

• Preheat the oven to 170 °C and line a 12-hole cupcake tray with cupcake cases.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt until well combined then leave to one side.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the sugar with the eggs and oil and mix until combined well.
• Add half the dry mixture into the wet mixture and fold it together. Add the buttermilk, add the remaining dry mixture, and fold through again until just combined. Be careful not to overmix, you only want to mix until you can no longer see any flour bits.
• Spoon or pour the mixture to fill the cupcake cases halfway. Be careful not to overfill the cases as this could cause them to rise too high and overflow.

• Give the cupcake tin a tap on the work surface to remove any big air bubbles, then bake in the centre of the oven for 19-21 minutes until well risen and springy to touch.
• Test the internal temperature of the cupcakes to make sure they’re cooked with a Thermapen. The temperature for a cooked cupcake should read between 90-98 °C.
• When baked, leave the cupcakes to cool in the tins for a few minutes, then remove and leave them to cool on a wire rack.

To make the Halloween marshmallow ghosts

• Add the egg whites and sugar to a heatproof bowl and set it over a pan of simmering water.
• Whisk the mixture continuously for about 4-5 minutes until the mixture begins to loosen and all the sugar has dissolved. The temperature when testing with your Thermapen should be 71 °C.
• Bring the bowl off the heat and whisk the mixture for 5 more minutes on a high speed until soft, glossy peaks begin to form. Be careful not to overmix to avoid losing the marshmallow texture.
• Fit a piping bag with a round-tip piping nozzle and pipe marshmallow ghosts onto each cupcake.
• Using a black icing pen or melted dark chocolate and the tip of a cocktail stick, decorate each marshmallow swirl with ghost eyes and a mouth. Serve immediately.

Alix Carey

Food Blogger & Author

@mykitchendrawer

"I'm so thrilled to be working with Thermapen as it has fast become one of my favourite kitchen drawer tools. Most, if not all bakes require or benefit from temperature testing so having the Thermapen to hand is the secret ingredient to perfect creations every time!"