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These Bloody Broken Glass Cupcakes are a simple gluten free red velvet cake with a spooky twist – topped with cream cheese frosting and decorated with shards of edible broken glass and fake blood. Such a fun Halloween bake!
Gory Cupcakes with Edible Blood and Glass Shards!
- Why choose this recipe? These Broken Glass Cupcakes are the perfect Halloween bake if you want something that looks a bit gory. The glass shards on top of the red velvet cupcakes are made from melted sweets and the fake blood is a white chocolate ganache.
- Top Tip: Want to get ahead for a Halloween cake decorating session? Make the cupcakes, frosting and peppermint ‘glass’ ahead of time, then whip up the ganache just before decorating. A great spooky night in or activity for kids!
- Updated for October 2025: To make this recipe even easier to follow I’ve added some step-by-step photos and a tutorial video. Hopefully this proves these are much easier to make than you might think!
Table of Contents
- Gory Cupcakes with Edible Blood and Glass Shards!
- Ingredients and Substitutions
- How to Make Bloody Broken Glass Cupcakes
- Want to make these ahead of time?
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Broken Glass Cupcakes Recipe Recipe
- Storing and Freezing Instructions
- More Halloween Recipes
- More Halloween Recipes You’ll Love
Ingredients and Substitutions
There’s a printable recipe card below for these bloody broken glass cupcakes with the full quantities. But here are the main ingredients and ideas for any swaps:
- Butter: Or use Stork baking block or a vegan margarine for dairy free.
- Sugar: You’ll need caster sugar (bakers or superfine sugar) for the cupcakes and icing sugar (confectioner’s sugar) for the buttercream frosting.
- Egg
- Vanilla Extract: This usually gluten free but always double check.
- Food Colouring: I use the Sugarflair red food colouring as it’s gluten free for that red velvet cake look. Some food colourings have a ‘may contain’ warning so always check.
- Plain Gluten Free Flour: I use the FREEE plain gluten free flour but any blend of gluten free plain, all purpose or 1:1 baking flour should work.
- Baking Powder: Make sure you use a gluten free baking powder as some brands contain wheat flour or wheat starch.
- Xanthan Gum: You can omit this if your flour blend already contains it.
- Cocoa Powder
- Buttermilk: Or make your own using milk and vinegar – see the FAQs section and recipe card for full instructions.
- White Wine Vinegar: Check out my guide to gluten free vinegar, but white wine vinegar is one of the ones which is completely coeliac-safe.
- Bicarbonate of Soda: Or baking soda in the US.
- Cream Cheese: I recommend using a full-fat cream cheese for the buttercream frosting, I always use Philadelphia as I find it works best.
- Fox’s Glacier Mints: These are gluten free and melt together to make the edible glass.
- White Chocolate and Double Cream: For the white chocolate ganache. I’ve not tried this with a dairy free replacement but you can get dairy free white choc and cream.
How to Make Bloody Broken Glass Cupcakes
There’s a printable recipe card below with the method. But here are some step-by-step photos to show you how easy these broken glass cupcakes are to make.
Want to make these ahead of time?
If you want to prepare these gluten free cupcakes ready for a cake decorating session for a spooky night in or kids activity day, it’s simple:
- Bake the cupcakes up to 3 days ahead and store in an airtight container, or pop them in the freezer and defrost at room temperature to decorate.
- Make the cream cheese frosting a day in advance and store in the fridge.
- Create the edible glass a day before, break into shards and store in an airtight container at room temperature.
- I recommend making the edible blood at the time of decorating. It will thicken as it cools so always easier to make it fresh.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some FAQs about this bloody cupcakes recipe. If you can’t find the answer to your question here or in the post above, please comment and I’ll try answer!
Yep! If you’d rather make one large cake instead of cupcakes, I recommend following the recipe for my Gluten Free Red Velvet Cake. It’s exactly the same as this just with the right quantities and cooking times to make a larger cake instead.
Then use the edible blood and glass shards in this recipe to create the finished cake – it’ll look suitably spooky for everyone to enjoy.
To make buttermilk, add 1 tbsp of white wine vinegar to 150ml of milk (dairy or dairy free) and stir well. Leave for 5 minutes and it will curdle, creating buttermilk.
You can also use 1 tbsp lemon juice – but as we’re already adding white wine vinegar to this recipe already, it made sense to use that!
To make these broken glass cupcakes gluten and dairy free, use the Stork Baking Block (or a vegan margarine) in the cake, and for the frosting use a dairy free cream cheese (I recommend Violife) and vegan butter.
You’ll also need to use a dairy free white chocolate and cream replacement for the white chocolate ganache ‘blood’. For the buttermilk, you can make your own dairy free version using the instructions in the question above.
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Broken Glass Cupcakes Recipe
Ingredients
- 60 g Butter, (softened, or Stork baking margarine)
- 150 g caster sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1-2 tsp red food colouring
- 150 g plain gluten free flour
- 1.5 tsp baking powder
- 0.25 tsp xanthan gum, omit if your flour contains this already
- 20 g cocoa powder
- 150 ml buttermilk, see notes if you don’t have this
- 1 tsp white wine vinegar
- 0.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda
For the frosting:
- 85 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 350 g icing sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 165 g full fat cream cheese, I recommend Philadelphia
For the edible glass:
- 200 g Fox’s Glacier Mints
For the fake blood:
- 50 g white chocolate
- 25 ml double cream
- Red food colouring
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180'C / Fan 160'C / Gas Mark 4. Line a 12-hole cupcake tin with cake cases and set to one side.
- Add the Stork (or butter) and caster sugar to a large mixing bowl and beat until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs and mix again until combined.
- In a small bowl, mix the red food colouring and vanilla extract together – this will help it mix evenly into the cake batter a bit more. Pour the colouring/vanilla mix into the cake batter and beat again with the mixer until it is an even. vibrant crimson colour.
- Mix the gluten free flour, baking powder, xanthan gum and cocoa powder in a separate bowl and then sift into the mixture. It's important to use a sieve here to ensure you don't get any lumps!
- Pour in the buttermilk and then beat with the mixture again until you have a smooth batter with no lumps of flour.
- Add the vinegar to a small bowl, pour in the bicarbonate of soda, stir briefly to mix (it should fizz and bubble a little!) and then pour into the cake mixture. Beat with the electric mixer until combined.
- Pour the cake batter evenly between the cupcake cases and then place in the oven for 22-25 minutes. Do not open the oven door until at least 20 minutes! The cakes should have risen nicely. Remove from the oven to cool completely – but while the oven is still hot, make the edible glass.
To make the edible glass:
- Unwrap the Glacier Mints and spread them out on a lined baking sheet with no more than 1-2 inches between them. Place in the hot oven as soon as the cakes are out for 5 minutes (or until completely melted). Keep an eye on them – remove from the oven as soon as they have melted into one layer and place on a cooling rack for cool completely and harden up.
- Once ready to decorate, use the end of a rolling pin or a pestle to smash the sheet into shards.
To make the frosting:
- Add the butter (it's very important this is at room temperature!) to a large mixing bowl and beat with the electric mixer for 1-2 minutes.
- Add the icing sugar and vanilla extract to the mix and beat again until fully combined.
- Add the cream cheese and beat the mixture for several minutes until it is thick, light and fluffy with no lumps of cream cheese. Note – I strongly recommend using Philadelphia cheese, and ABSOLUTELY a full-fat version, as cheaper brands or non-fat ones may result in runny frosting!
To make the ganache:
- Break the white chocolate into a microwaveable bowl and heat in short bursts of 10-20 seconds until just melted.
- Add the cream and food colouring and stir well. Use straight away – it will thicken as it cools.
To assemble the cupcakes:
- Spoon the frosting into a piping bag – I used one with a star nozzle – and pipe swirls onto the cupcakes. You can be generous with these!
- Stand the shards of 'glass' up in the frosting and then drizzle with the ganache 'blood' to finish. Spooky!
Video
Notes
- Homemade Buttermilk: To make your own buttermilk, mix 150ml of any milk with 1 tbsp white wine vinegar, stir and leave to stand and thicken for 5 minutes.
- Storing: These cupcakes will keep for up to 5 days in an airtight container. You can also make the sponges ahead of time and freeze them – simply defrost when you’re ready to decorate the cakes.
- Weighing Scales vs Cups: You can toggle this recipe card to convert the ingredients into cups. However, I always recommend using weighing scales – these are cheap to buy and much more accurate. And in gluten free baking, a tiny variation can make a huge difference!
- Like this Recipe? It would mean SO much to me if you could leave a 5* rating and leave a little comment about this Broken Glass Cupcakes recipe! It really helps support my blog and get my recipes out there, so thank you! xx
Nutrition
Storing and Freezing Instructions
TO STORE: These cupcakes will keep for up to 5 days in an airtight container once decorated – they don’t need to be kept in the fridge.
TO FREEZE: I recommend freezing these laid out on a flat surface, then transferring to a tub or bag once frozen to avoid mis-shaping them.
More Halloween Recipes
If you like this bloody broken glass cupcakes recipe then make sure you check out these other gluten free Halloween recipes too…
- For more spooky cupcakes, try my cute Monster Cupcakes recipe with furry monster faces and a gory surprise centre.
- Or whip up my Halloween Pumpkin Cupcakes – a chocolate cupcake with an easy buttercream pumpkins on top. Another great activity for kids during the holidays!
- My Halloween Rocky Road recipe is a great no-bake option and a fun way to use all the goodies you’ve collected while trick or treating.
- Make this 3-ingredient Halloween Fudge for a fun spooky activity and alternative to gluten free trick or treat candies!
- For a fun Halloween dinner idea try my Halloween Stuffed Peppers with Jack o’Lantern faces – a great way to get the kids eating some veggies!
- And these Halloween Donuts are super fun to make – easy baked donuts decorated with a spooky topping of choice. I love a bit of spiderweb icing!
- Another great option for a spooky activity are my easy gluten free Halloween Biscuits – decorated with icing and Halloween sprinkles.
More Halloween Recipes You’ll Love
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Simply amazing
Perfect joy
Delicious! Thanks for the recipe