Still looking for that last minute Halloween dessert? These Vanilla Bean Cupcakes are made from scratch with the perfect decoration: MUMMY faces. Take a simple dessert and make it spooky with this easy recipe!
Use this easy cupcake base in delicious Cranberry Cupcakes too for Christmas. Or go the other directions and make these rich and decadent Ferrero Rocher Cupcakes for the chocolate lover in your life!
Halloween Cupcakes
Everyone loves an adorable cupcake and everyone loves Halloween.
Combine the two and you get these fun, easy and downright delicious Vanilla Bean Cupcakes decorated to look like mummies!
Candy Eyeballs make every treat more fun! You swirl icing on top of each little cupcake, then dot them with eye balls and wind up with a mummy-inspired Halloween cupcake!
Or, just skip the decorations and make them any time you need a simple but extraordinary vanilla cupcake recipe.
You may have seen these mummies on my Snickerdoodle Blondies and my Monster Sugar Cookies. It’s such an easy technique!
PRO TIP: Get festive and make a batch for 4th of July. Add blue frosting and sprinkles for a fun Red White and Blue Cupcake Recipe.
Ingredient Notes
- Egg whites – This is how you achieve a crumb that’s light as air while still holding its shape in the cupcake liner.
- Cake flour – More refined and with less gluten (protein) than all purpose flour, cake flour makes these cupcakes so delicate and airy!
- Vanilla bean paste- Rodelle vanilla bean paste imbibes the cupcakes with the most aromatic and rich vanilla flavor! I use it in both the batter and the frosting. While you can do various substitutes to replicate the flavor, it’s tough to mimic the texture of vanilla bean paste in the frosting.
- Sugar – Use Vanilla Sugar for even more great taste!
- Milk – Buttermilk is perfect, or whole milk. Use my buttermilk substitute if needed.
- Candy eye balls – The easiest way to add a zany touch to any cupcake or cookie. Find these online or at a big craft store (think Michael’s or Joanne Fabrics). I found mine at Target!
Step by Step Instructions
STEP 1. Prepare the cupcakes
Whisk together the vanilla bean paste, egg whites and buttermilk in a bowl and set aside.
Beat the butter and sugar in a stand mixer, then add the dry ingredients. Beat in the egg mixture and a little more milk until everything is combined.
STEP 2. Bake
Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners and fill each liner about 2/3 of the way full with the cupcake batter. Bake for 20-22 minutes, then let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting.
STEP 3. Make the frosting
While the cupcakes are cooling, make the vanilla frosting by beating butter with powdered sugar, milk and vanilla bean paste until light and fluffy.
STEP 4. Mummy stripes
To make the mummy stripes, I filled my pastry bag with the frosting then used wilton tip 48 to pipe it onto the top of the cupcakes. I alternated my stripes with the smooth side and the basket weave side to give the mummy stripes texture. Feel free to get creative here!
Once all the cupcakes are “striped”, add the candy eyeballs to the top of each cupcake to complete your “mummies.”
I just love how the simple addition of stripes and candy eyes makes a regular vanilla cupcake looks festive for Halloween!
Tips and Tricks
- Storing: Keep your cooled and frosted cupcakes covered at room temperature. They taste best if eaten within 2 – 3 days.
- Be sure to beat the batter for 2 or 3 minutes in your stand mixer before baking. This gets everything incorporated and whips a bit of air into the cupcakes!
- If you can’t find tiny candy eyeballs, you can use mini chocolate chips to make “eyes.”
Recipe FAQs
Of course! Delicious Vanilla Bean Cupcakes are ALWAYS in season. Just use your frosting bag to pipe the frosting on cupcakes as desired and omit the candy eye balls.
You could swap the vanilla bean paste for a teaspoon of vanilla extract OR a crushed vanilla bean pod in the cupcake batter and then reduce the amount of milk added by a teaspoon. Using vanilla extract instead of vanilla bean paste in the frosting will affect the consistency (as well as the flavor) so I don’t recommend it.
Again, you COULD use regular flour here, but the cake flour is a key ingredient in making these cupcakes so light and airy. It’s worth going out and picking up a bag of cake flour to make these!
More Halloween Recipes
- Spooky Brookies: easy layered treats for Halloween!
- Halloween 7 Layer Dip – all decked out for the holiday
- Monster Cookie Dough Fudge
- Frankenstein Rice Krispie Treats
- Peanut Butter Candy Corn Rice Krispie Treats
- Halloween Meatloaf
Easy Cupcake Recipes
See all Cupcake recipes
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Vanilla Bean Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the Cupcakes:
- 5 large egg whites room temperature
- ¾ cup buttermilk
- 1 Tablespoon Vanilla Bean Paste
- ¾ cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 2 ½ cups cake flour
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
For the frosting:
- 1 ½ cup unsalted butter softened
- 4 cup powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla Bean Paste
- 3 Tablespoons milk
- 48 candy eyes
Instructions
- For the cake, whisk together the egg whites, vanilla bean paste and 1/4 cup milk in a small bowl. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar for 2 minutes. Add in dry ingredients and mix until combined. Slowly add in egg mixture, beating until fully incorporated. Beat in the remaining 1/2 cup milk. Turn mixer on high and beat for 2 minutes.
- Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full and bake in a 350 degree oven for 17-18 minutes, until set (will begin to lightly brown on edges). Remove and cool completely before frosting.
- For the frosting, beat butter for 5 minutes until pale in color. Add sugar, vanilla bean paste and milk. Beat an additional 5 minutes until light and fluffy.
- Pipe onto cupcakes by filling pastry bag and using tip 48, pipe “stripes” onto top of cupcakes. Add candy eyes. ENJOY!
Notes
- Storing: Keep your cooled and frosted cupcakes covered at room temperature. They taste best if eaten within 2 – 3 days.
- Be sure to beat the batter for 2 or 3 minutes in your stand mixer before baking. This gets everything incorporated and whips a bit of air into the cupcakes!
- If you can’t find tiny candy eyeballs, you can use mini chocolate chips to make "eyes."
Nutrition
Vanilla Bean Cupcakes are ANYTHING but boring when you dress them up like spooky mummies! Make your Halloween even more delicious this year when you whip up a batch of these tasty treats.
These are adorable! Clowns? Eek, no thank you. I am not a fan of the creepy treats either and love how perfectly cute and spooky these are. Pinning.
So I just volunteered to make cupcakes Friday for my daughter’s class, and I was looking for something easy! This looks right up my alley! Plus I just bought some vanilla bean paste and I couldn’t wait to use it!
These are seriously the CUTEST!
I am not a fan either!! But I am a fan of these cupcakes!
Oh my goodness, these have to be the most adorable cupcakes I have ever seen. Can’t wait to make them, although I’m certain mine won’t be as cute 🙂
We do love all things Halloween around here, but we don’t go all out for it. I have a vase of skeleton parts and a few signs up. Oh, and the dust that is piling up counts right? These are the cutest little mummy cupcakes…love the alternating strips for contrast!
These are the cutest cupcakes I have ever seen!! So fun! I am with you Aimee. I am not a big fan of Halloween either. I could do with skipping it if I didn’t have kids. I just hate having to pick out costumes every year that they are only going to wear one or two days at the most, then all the candy. I have to either bake with it or throw it away when they are at school of course, cause they would be mad at me if they knew. 🙂 Pinned these cuties.
Love that you used two different tips! I love the contrast of textures 🙂 We’re spending Halloween with our friends who have kids…this looks like the perfect activity!
Nope! No clowns! The movie IT ruined me forever. And there was this other really old movie I saw as a kid, Killer Clowns from Outer Space. Completely freaked me out! At 32, I’m still not over it.
These cupcakes are adorable. So creative and fun!
These are SO darling!!
I feel exactly the same way as you about Halloween. I love the candy and treats, but costumes are creepy… ESPECIALLY clown costumes!!
But these cupcakes? Are the cutest ever! Love them!!
These are so fun! My kids will go crazy for these cupcakes!
How fun!! Such a cute Halloween Cupcake! xo
Super cute and vanilla bean makes everything better!
These are so cute and look delicious! I love the little flecks of vanilla bean.
I can’t lie. I ADORE Halloween. Especially when it involves eating these ADORABLE cupcakes. They’re almost too cute to eat. Only almost though.
Pinned!
I’m not a huge fan of Halloween either. Vanilla beans and cupcakes, however… 😉
Whew! I’m not the only one. Halloween is a scary, scary holiday. I’m not too into being scared. So yeah. Thanksgiving is better!
These are cute, though. Super adorable. Love the mummy theme! Probably my favorite Halloweeny thing so far this year!
I don’t like the grotesque side of Halloween. But I like the cute side. And these mummy cupcakes are super cute!! 🙂
CUTE! I would totally make them for my kid’s Halloween party but they have a “store-bought only” rule that drives me nuts!