Description
Celebrate Halloween with these spooky and fun Zombie Brain Halloween Cupcakes! Featuring a rich chocolate base topped with vibrant green buttercream piped to resemble brains, and finished with red and green colored corn syrup to mimic veins and add a gruesome detail. Perfect for Halloween parties and sure to be the highlight of your dessert table.
Ingredients
Scale
Cupcakes
- 1 boxed chocolate cake mix (or homemade chocolate cupcake batter)
- Ingredients as called for on the cake mix box (usually eggs, oil, and water)
Frosting
- 1 batch green buttercream frosting (see reference recipe)
- Green food coloring, as needed to achieve desired brain color
- Light corn syrup
- Red food coloring
- Green food coloring (for corn syrup veins)
Instructions
- Prepare and Bake Cupcakes: Bake chocolate cupcakes according to the boxed cake mix or homemade recipe instructions. Fill each cupcake liner a little less than 2/3 full to ensure flat tops after baking. Allow cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.
- Make Green Buttercream Frosting: Prepare a batch of buttercream frosting. Gradually add green food coloring until the desired vibrant brain-like color is achieved.
- Pipe Brain Design: Fit a piping bag with a Wilton 7 round tip and fill it with the green buttercream frosting. Starting in the center of the cupcake, pipe a line down the middle. Then pipe squiggly lines on each side in a random pattern to resemble brain folds. Add a second layer of piping if necessary to fill in gaps and create dimension.
- Create Veins with Colored Corn Syrup: Mix light corn syrup with a few drops of red food coloring to create a blood-like color, and a small amount with green coloring as well for extra detail. Place the colored corn syrup in a piping bag or ziplock bag with a small corner snipped off. Pipe random squiggles and veins over and around the buttercream to add a creepy, realistic effect.
- Display: Arrange the finished zombie brain Halloween cupcakes on a festive cake plate in the center of your Halloween table as a spooky centerpiece guaranteed to impress your guests!
Notes
- Use a ziplock bag with a small corner cut if you don’t have a piping bag.
- If you want to make it more eerie, consider adding candy eyes or edible glitter as additional decoration.
- The green buttercream frosting recipe can be substituted with any preferred frosting tinted green.
- Ensure cupcakes are completely cooled before frosting to prevent melting.
- These cupcakes can be prepared a day in advance and refrigerated; bring to room temperature before serving.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cupcake
- Calories: 320
- Sugar: 28g
- Sodium: 180mg
- Fat: 16g
- Saturated Fat: 8g
- Unsaturated Fat: 6g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 38g
- Fiber: 2g
- Protein: 3g
- Cholesterol: 45mg
