Everyone is sure to love these vanilla cupcakes decorated to look like candy corn. The moist & fluffy cupcakes are topped with a yellow-orange and white swirled buttercream frosting.

Easy Halloween Cupcakes

True confession, I actually can’t stand the taste of candy corn. But they do make for some great Halloween-themed cupcakes. These cupcakes are actually my famous vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream. They’re decorated to look like candy corn with a swirled yellow, orange, and white cupcakes and frosting.

You’ll love how fluffy and moist these cupcakes are, and they’re so easy to make. It just takes a few minutes to assemble the batter (no waiting around for room temperature ingredients!).

If you are looking for a fun and festive Halloween dessert, this is it. The techniques used in this recipe are so simple, anyone can make them at home!

A white plate with cupcakes decorated to look like candy corn

Ingredients You’ll Need

For the Cupcakes

Granulated sugar
Vegetable oil
Eggs
Pure vanilla extract
Sour cream– these keep the cupcakes extra moist, so don’t skip this. Substitute with plain or Greek yogurt.
All-purpose flour
Baking powder
Salt
Milk
Gel colors for dying cake batter

For The Frosting

Unsalted butter– the butter for the frosting should be cold, straight out of the fridge
Powdered sugar
Pure vanilla extract
Heavy whipping cream or milk

The Best Gel Colors to Use

When it comes to coloring cake batter or frosting, you’ll want to use concentrated gels instead of the food coloring you often see on the grocery store shelves. Gel colors are highly concentrated, so they produce bright and vibrant colors without thinning out the batter. You only need to use a little bit at a time.

For these cupcakes, I used Chefmaster: orange and yellow. You can also use Americolor or Wilton.

A piping bag frosting a cupcake with white, orange and yellow frosting

How To Make Candy Corn Cupcakes

Prep: Preheat the oven to 350°F and line the pan with cupcake liners.

Combine wet ingredients: Mix together the sugar with the oil, eggs and vanilla extract and beat until well combined. Then mix in the sour cream until combined.

Combine the dry ingredients: Once you combine the dry ingredients, alternate adding half the dry ingredients and half the milk, mixing just until the flour is incorporated. Then add all the remaining dry ingredients and milk and mix until thoroughly combined.

Color the batter: Divide the cake batter into 3 equal bowls, about 1 2/3 cups each. To one bowl, add 3 drops of orange gel color and stir until well combined. To another bowl, add 3 drops of yellow gel color and stir until well combined. Leave the third bowl undyed.

3 small bowls with cupcake batter in white, orange and yellow

a cupcake pan filled with orange and white batter

Fill the pan: Spoon the batter in the pan, 1 tablespoon of each color per cupcake: yellow on the bottom, orange in the middle and the undyed batter on top. Once finished, tap the pan on the counter a couple times to settle the batter.

Bake, cool, frost, decorate

Easy Vanilla Buttercream

I am well known for my vanilla buttercream. It’s light and whipped, it perfectly holds it shape and it’s great for decorating. The secret to making this amazing frosting is in the butter. My recipe starts with cold butter (straight out the fridge!). Instead of waiting for the butter to come to room temperature, the mixer will do all the work for you.

Beat the butter until it’s super light and fluffy
Add 2 cups of powdered sugar at a time and alternate adding the liquid ingredients, and with each addition, make sure it’s well incorporated. The more you mix it, the better it gets.
One final mix: Once all the ingredients have been added, spend another minute or two beating the butter until it’s light and fluffy. If the frosting seems too stiff, you can slowly add more heavy cream or continuing beating until it reaches your desired consistency.

Dying The Frosting

Divide the frosting: Once the buttercream is done, divide it into three equal bowls, which is about 1 2/3 cups.

Add the gel colors: Into one bowl, add 3 drops of yellow, into another bowl, 3 drops of orange and then leave the third bowl undyed. Make sure you thoroughly mix each bowl of frosting.

3 small bowls filled with white, orange and yellow buttercream

saran wrap with 3 lines of buttercream laid out next to each other: white, orange and yellow

Fill the piping bag: Layout a piece of plastic wrap, spread (or use a Ziploc bag to pipe) a thick row of each color of frosting side-by-side onto the clear wrap. Fold the plastic wrap up and tightly roll, twist one end and cut the tip-off. Drop the plastic wrap into a large piping bag fitted with an Ateco 846 (or any large tip). Frost the cupcake top with sprinkles and a piece of candy corn.

Tips For Preparing These Ahead of Time

If you need to make these in advance, they will keep at room temperature for 3 days. However, you can also make the cupcakes and frosting separately. Store the cupcakes in an airtight container on the counter.

For the buttercream, prepare it as normal, but instead of coloring it, store the whole batch in an airtight container at room temperature. Then when it’s time to decorate, re-whip the frosting for a couple of minutes until it’s light and fluffy. Proceed to dye the frosting and frost the cupcakes.

Storing Frosted Cupcakes

These can be kept at room temperature in an airtight container for 3 days. However, if you live in a hot or humid environment, then you should keep them stored in the refrigerator, however, I recommend serving at room temperature.

How to Freeze Cupcakes

It’s not my preference to freeze cupcakes, I think it changes the texture too much. However, if you need to freeze these cupcakes, I recommend just freezing the cupcakes themselves, unfrosted. Use either an airtight container or a cake box that has been tightly wrapped at least twice with plastic wrap. Freeze for one month.