I’ve had some trouble holding back my excitement for Halloween this year. I posted my mini chocolate donut spiders back in July (JULY!), so I’m pretty excited that it’s finally appropriate to be posting Halloween things. Thanks for putting up with my eagerness you guys!
My 5 year old loves Halloween too. Not just the I-can’t-wait-to-go-trick-or-treating kind of excitement (I’m pretty sure most kids have that), but the excitement that lasts all year. She gets to take out a library book at school each week and last year she brought home a Halloween book nearly every single week – all the way until school ended in June! (I was very excited when the odd Valentine’s Day or Christmas book came home to help mix things up…) That’s my holiday loving girl!
I may not be much of a baker, but I sure love decorating treats! I’m hoping that my efforts in decorating cupcakes and other sweets will make up for the fact that the cupcakes themselves came from a box of cake mix. Hopefully no one minds?
These black cat cupcakes are the perfect blend of Halloween creepiness, but mild enough that they are completely G rated and shouldn’t invoke any nightmares. Although, those eyes are pretty creepy…
Aren’t they fun?! Here’s what you’ll need:
- 1 box of cake mix, prepared (or you can make it from scratch)
- Chocolate icing
- Chocolate sprinkles
- Butterscotch chips
- Yellow fondant, (Or yellow smarties or M&M’s)
- Chocolate taffy (Or Tootsie Rolls slightly warmed and rolled flat)
Prepare your chocolate cake mix. Or vanilla cake mix. You could even use my recipe for pumpkin muffins and just leave out the chocolate chips.
Bake your cupcakes and wait for them to cool completely before you decorate them. Then ice the tops with chocolate icing. You don’t have to go crazy with the icing, but it has to be enough to fully cover the top of the cupcakes.
Next, generously sprinkle chocolate sprinkles on top of the cupcakes. Try to completely cover the chocolate icing so the cupcake texture starts to resemble fur.
Roll yellow fondant into pea sized balls. Or you could use yellow smarties or yellow M&M’s. We used yellow fondant because that’s what we had on hand. (It was the leftover white fondant from the ghost cupcakes, but dyed with yellow food colouring).
If you are using fondant, flatten the balls slightly so they resemble the shape of an M&M. Use a spoon or toothpick to put a small amount of chocolate icing on the backs of them and then stick them in position as the eyes on the cupcake.
This is probably the trickiest part – Stick a single chocolate sprinkle to the centre of the yellow eyeball. Use a toothpick or skewer to add a tiny amount of icing to the sprinkle, put it in place, and then use the skewer again to press it down onto the eyeball.
Put some icing on the back of a single butterscotch chip and then put it in place on the cupcake as the cat’s nose.
To make the ears, cut out triangles from your chocolate taffy using a sharp knife. If you can’t find flat chocolate taffy bars, you can use a Tootsie Roll instead. Just warm it ever-so-slightly and then roll it flat.
Cut long strips of chocolate taffy and then arrange them as whiskers around the butterscotch chip nose. (Black string licorice would be a great alternative here).
They should be pretty sticky on their own, but if you have trouble getting them to stick, add some icing to the back to help glue them on.
And this is how they look when they are done!
Aren’t they fun?! And they are pretty easy to make too!
These would be awesome for a birthday party in October! Or they’d be great if you need to take Halloween treats somewhere.
I love that they’re non-spooky! Ghosts and witches are still fun, but it’s nice to have some variety!
Photography for this post by Mei-Lanie Del Rosario.
These non-spooky black cat cupcakes make a great Halloween treat! They take a bit of time to put together, but you don’t need any fancy tools, and they’re definitely easy enough for a beginner to make. They are fun, cute and make a great alternative (or addition) to witches and ghost themed Halloween treats!
Wait! Before you go, be sure to check out our other Halloween cupcakes and save them to your Pinterest boards!
Decorate Easy Pumpkin Cupcakes:
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