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Home » Recipes » Cupcakes & Mini cakes

Bloody Halloween cupcake recipe

Published: Oct 13, 2020 · Modified: Oct 7, 2021 by Kata · This post may contain affiliate links · This blog generates income via ads

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I have been thinking and planning a lot of the Halloween recipes for you this year. I wanted to create recipes that are equally fun AND delicious and I must say these two do not always come together in Halloween theme baking. Bloody cupcakes are an easy and fun way to turn cupcakes into epic Halloween treats and this recipe comes with no compromise on taste! In fact, the "strawberry cheesecake" flavor is so delicious that I would definitely make this again even after Halloween may be in a different design though.

This Bloody Halloween cupcake is moist, fluffy, and tastes just amazing! Besides its fun design with the edible glass and fake blood, it has a super delicious strawberry cheesecake flavor due to the cream cheese frosting and strawberry sauce added as decoration. Try it, you won´t regret it!

Bloody Halloween cupcake

First, let’s start with some important notes regarding the ingredients of this Bloody Halloween cupcake recipe

  • read the recipe carefully
  • avoid using substitutes unless aware of how to fully reformulate the recipe in order to keep the balance in texture as well as flavors
  • measure your ingredients with the help of a digital kitchen scale

For the cupcake

  1. Butter: Use always unsalted as you want to be in control of the quantity of the salt. I am using 82% fat content butter in all my recipes. In this recipe, the butter needs to be at room temperature which technically means soft enough to be able to cream but not too soft or runny so avoid last-minute microwaving
  2. Granulated Sugar: Standard, all-purpose granulated or white sugar is perfectly fine in this recipe, nothing fancy. If you want to learn about the different types of sugar and how to use them in baking, please read my article here
  3. Egg: Room temperature as always
  4. Flour: All-purpose flour or pastry flour makes the best cupcakes. They are so-called “soft flour” which is low on protein resulting in a delicate, tender texture. It is always a good idea to sift your flour as it tends to form lumps. If you want to be a pro when it comes to deciding what type of flour to use in your baking, please read my article here
  5. Salt: An essential ingredient in most dessert recipes. Balances flavor and enhances other ingredients
  6. Baking powder: Has two functions: increase the volume and lighten the texture
  7. Milk: Room temperature whole milk is the best
  8. White vinegar+baking soda: The SECRET ingredients to make cupcakes that stay super moist and tender even after days, the exact opposite of those sad-looking dry ones from the supermarkets
Bloody Halloween cupcake

For the frosting

  1. Mascarpone: Very rich Italian cream cheese, exceptionally smooth, and easy to spread or whip. The flavor is milky and slightly sweet.  Use at room temperature.
  2. Cream cheese: I always use Philadelphia when I state cream cheese in my recipes. I find it easy to cream (need to bring it to room temperature first) and very pleasant in taste. I usually beat it with a hand mixer for less than a minute, just until it becomes fluffy and increases a bit in volume. Please avoid over whipping
  3. Icing sugar: Icing sugar is the first choice when it comes to whipping up the frosting. The question I often get is whether the quantity is a typo. NO, it´s not! You do not actually need a lot of sugar when making cupcake frosting! It stays beautifully fluffy without tons of sugar, the secret is the technique of whipping, not the amount of sugar
Bloody Halloween cupcake

For the fake blood

  1. Strawberry: Use fresh or frozen, the key is to boil it until it thickens into a "blood-like" consistency
  2. Sugar: Use granulated sugar, easy. The exact amount of sugar will need your judgment depending on the sweetness of the strawberry you use
  3. Lemon juice: Freshly squeezed lemon juice to balance the sweetness

For the fake glass

  1. Sugar: The fake glass is made of granulated sugar and glucose syrup (and water) so easy and looks super impressive. Corn syrup works too instead of glucose syrup and you can even use food coloring
Bloody Halloween cupcake

Now let’s continue with my top 5 tips regarding the technique of making this Bloody Halloween cupcake

1. How to make vanilla cupcakes

I have a popular vanilla cupcake recipe that I use for this Bloody Halloween cupcake. Couple of important notes to remember

1. Do not overmix the batter: Once you beat up butter and sugar and mix the egg in, I suggest adding the remaining dry (flour+baking powder) and wet (milk) ingredients in 4 steps: wet, dry, wet, dry, that keeps the mixture well blended. Do not overmix, instead fold with Rubber spatula just until combined

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2. Do not overfill your cupcake tin: For this recipe, I recommend filling your cupcake tin until ¾. The cupcakes will beautifully rise but won´t explore as there is not too much baking powder in the recipe

3. Let cupcakes fully cool down before filling: The cupcakes will be filled with strawberry sauce and it is really important that they are fully cooled down to room temperature before filling and frosting

Bloody Halloween cupcake

2. How to make fake blood

It is so easy! Many recipes out there recommend food coloring and sugar syrup but why would you do that when you can use flavourful ingredients like strawberry sauce? Some tips to prepare the fake blood for this Bloody Halloween cupcake:

1. Cook strawberry sauce until thickens: Whether you use frozen or fresh strawberries, first blend strawberry then cook with sugar and lemon juice over medium heat until slightly thickens. You don´t want to cook it for too long (that would be jam texture) just long enough until reaches a "blood" consistency

2. Strain the cooked sauce through a sieve: We want a clean sauce that does not look like the strawberry sauce at all so you will want to use a sieve

3. Let sauce slightly cool down before using: You will have to use the sauce on top of the frosting and on the fake glass pieces too so make sure you let the sauce slightly cool down. We want to avoid the sauce melting the frosting!

Bloody Halloween cupcake

3. How to make edible glass

It is actually easier than you might think and you can absolutely use this recipe to decorate another type of cakes too! It is actually an edible sugar glass that I use for the Bloody Halloween cupcake

Prepare a baking pan with parchment paper ahead. Mix sugar, glucose syrup, and water in a saucepan and start boiling the mixture over high heat until it reaches 150C / 302F, stir constantly. As soon as the mixture reaches the desired temperature pour sugar syrup over the prepared baking pan with parchment very carefully, do not burn yourself! Make sure to pour it thin and spread it out if necessary to achieve a thin "glass". Make sure the pan is level as well. Let the syrup cool down in the fridge then break it into pieces! Be throughout the whole process, hot sugar syrup, as well as broken sugar "glass", is not something I recommend experimenting with while small children are around!

Bloody Halloween cupcake

4. How to make cupcake frosting

I am using my go-to cream cheese frosting; it is whipped cream cheese, mascarpone, and a small amount of icing sugar whipped until fluffy, pipeable consistency. The key here is to 1. have all the ingredients at room temperature 2. sift icing sugar and 3. do not over whip. Basically, you will have to whip the mixture with an electric hand mixer for a minute or two until it reaches a creamy, fluffy consistency then stop. It won´t get stiffer after this point, in fact, if you overbeat it, it will get only runnier then it will break. I don´t use my stand mixer to whip cream cheese frosting since it is really easy to overwhip it.

Bloody Halloween cupcake

5. How to assemble the Bloody Halloween cupcake

I recommend making the edible glass first since it will need to be set in the fridge for a few hours

Continue with the cupcakes and let them completely cool down

Prepare the fake blood and let it cool down slightly

Make a small hole on each of the cupcakes and fill it with fake blood (approx. one tablespoon per cupcake)

Prepare the frosting and pipe on top of each cupcake, I am using Wilton 1M piping nozzle tip

Break edible glass into pieces and use 2-3 on each cupcake

Decorate the cupcakes with some further "blood" to your liking

Bloody Halloween cupcake

Why not try some other Halloween recipes too?

Easy, no-bake pumpkin cheesecake

Spooky Meringue Ghost

No bake pumpkin cheese cake

Now let´s see the recipe of this Bloody Halloween cupcake!

Bloody Halloween cupcake

Bloody Halloween cupcake

This Bloody Halloween cupcake is moist, fluffy while looks and tastes just amazing! Beside its fun design with the fake glass and blood, it has a super delicious strawberry cheesecake flavour due to the cream cheese frosting and strawberry sauce added as decoration.
4.92 from 12 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Cook Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Waiting time: 3 hours
Total Time: 4 hours 30 minutes
Servings: 6 Large
Calories: 668kcal
Author: Kata

Equipment

  • Digital scale
  • Electric hand mixer
  • Rubber spatula
  • Cupcake tin
  • Piping bag
  • Wilton 1M piping nozzle tip
  • Cooling rack

Ingredients

Cupcakes

  • 100 Unsalted butter
  • 100 g Granulated sugar
  • 1 Egg
  • 135 g AP flour
  • Pinch of salt
  • ½ teaspoon Baking powder
  • 135 ml Whole milk at room temperature
  • ½ teaspoon White vinegar
  • ½ teaspoon Baking soda

Fake blood

  • 200 g strawberry pure fresh or frozen
  • 50 g Granulated sugar depends on sweetness of strawberry
  • 10 g lemon juice freshly squeezed

Frosting

  • 60 g Mascarpone full fat
  • 40 g Icing sugar
  • 200 g Cream cheese full fat

Edible glass

  • 125 g water
  • 170 g Granulated sugar
  • 75 g Glucose syrup
Metric - US Customary

US customary cup measurement is an indicative figure only. Measure the ingredients with a digital scale by weight (gram). Baking is art but also science which requires precision and accuracy.

Instructions

Edible glass

  • Start with making the edible glass. Prepare a baking pan with parchment paper
  • Boil sugar, glucose syrup and water until it reaches 150C / 302F then carefully pour it over the prepared baking pan. Let it cool in the fridge for a few hours then break it into smaller pieces

Cupcakes

  • Continue with the cupcakes. Heat oven to 175 C / 347°F
  • With an Electric hand mixer beat room temperature butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy then beat the egg in. Do not overbeat
  • Sift flour, salt and baking powder together, this is the “dry ingredients”, while the room temp milk is your wet ingredient
  • Start adding the dry and wet ingredients into the batter in the following 4 steps: wet, dry, wet, dry. With a Rubber spatula fold each time
  • Mix vinegar and baking soda together in a small bowl, it will be super bubbly. Immediately fold the mixture into the cupcake batter. This is the secret ingredient to keep the cupcakes soft for days without the taste of vinegar of course!
  • Spoon the mixture into Cupcake pan till approx. ¾. This batch makes 6 large cupcakes
  • Bake for 25 min or until a skewer inserted comes out clean then let them cool on Cooling rack

Fake blood

  • Cook the ingredients for about 10-15 minutes until thickens to a "blood" consistency. After cooking, use a sieve to get a smooth texture. Let it cool before using it

Frosting

  • Whip mascarpone, cream cheese and icing sugar with an Electric hand mixer. until smooth and fluffy, about one or two minutes. Once it has reached the right consistency, do not overbeat as it can become runny.

Assembling

  • Once cupcakes cooled to room temperature, make a small hole on each of them and fill them with fake blood (approx. one table spoon per cupcake)
  • Pipe frosting on each cupcakes, I am using Wilton 1M piping nozzle tip
  • Break edible glass and place 2-3 pieces on each cupcakes
  • Use more fake blood on top of the cupcakes

Nutrition

Calories: 668kcal | Carbohydrates: 90g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 32g | Saturated Fat: 19g | Cholesterol: 112mg | Sodium: 434mg | Potassium: 171mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 70g | Vitamin A: 1080IU | Vitamin C: 20mg | Calcium: 129mg | Iron: 1mg
Tried this recipe?Mention @spatuladesserts or tag #spatuladesserts would love to see your creation on Instagram!
« Easy No-bake Pumpkin Cheesecake recipe
Quick Pumpkin Cookie recipe »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. mish

    October 31, 2021 at 7:29 am

    Hi! I want to make approx 24. Should I take the ingredients and x3 or are there some ingredients that won’t change?

    Reply
    • Kata

      October 31, 2021 at 7:30 pm

      of course you have to adjust every single ingredient if double or triple the recipe

      Reply
  2. Sarah

    October 27, 2021 at 9:01 am

    5 stars
    Wonderful recipe! I just tried it will making it again for Halloween weekend! It works like charm and will certainly impress my guests 🙂 Thank you

    Reply
  3. Pryma-Rose

    November 23, 2020 at 9:57 am

    5 stars
    Fantastic recipe and soooo easy to follow !!! Loved it !!’

    Reply
    • admin

      November 23, 2020 at 10:46 am

      Hey, thanks for baking my Bloody Halloween cupcake:)

      Reply
  4. Alice

    November 10, 2020 at 9:47 pm

    5 stars
    Ricetta fantastica 🎉🎉🎉🎃🎃🎃 ho avuto un gran successo!!! Grazie mille delle tue ricette... sono perfette!!!
    ❤️❤️❤️🥧🥧🥧🎉🎉🎉

    Reply
    • admin

      November 11, 2020 at 12:35 pm

      Grazie:)

      Reply
    • Clare Strong

      October 27, 2021 at 2:05 pm

      Hi,

      I have a quick question, for the oven temperature, I have a fan oven - is this a conventional oven temperature? If so, should I reduce the temperature to approx. 155 for my fan oven?

      Thanks!
      Clare

      Reply
      • Kata

        October 27, 2021 at 2:10 pm

        Hey
        All my temperatures are without fan. Otherwise, feel free to use the temperature you normally bake your cupcakes and monitor the texture (toothpick should come out clean:) ). Good luck!

        Reply
        • Kaitlin

          October 29, 2021 at 7:08 pm

          I updated the quality to 24 large and am trying to make the edible glass, it’s boiling but the temp will not go above 220 F. Am I doing something wrong?

          Reply
          • Kata

            October 29, 2021 at 7:14 pm

            Hey, as you heat sugar goes, it goes through different stages from soft ball to hard ball etc. 302F is the exact temp you need for the "hard crack stage". I would say either your thermometer is wrong or you are not boiling the syrup enough / for enough time.

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