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Who wants to make my spooky Gluten Free Halloween Cupcakes!? These super fun monster cupcakes are the perfect Halloween treat, with furry buttercream monster faces and a surprise ‘gory’ centre. A perfect Halloween baking activity for kids.
The Best Monster Cupcakes For Halloween Baking
- Why choose this recipe? These monster cupcakes have a cute and fuzzy face, but hide a gory secret! Bite into the vibrant green, vanilla cupcakes to find a ‘gory’ jammy centre. So much fun for kids – and big kids too!
- Great For Kids: Making these easy buttercream Halloween cupcakes is a great alternative activity to trick or treating, or a rainy day half term activity.
- Flour of choice: I always use the FREEE Plain Gluten Free Flour for this but any plain gluten free flour blend will work, such as Asda or M&S flour.
- Love Halloween? For a scary option pair these with some of my Broken Glass Cupcakes, or try my Halloween Pumpkin Cupcakes too. You can also add these to a Halloween Snack Board for a great spooky night in!
Table of Contents
Ingredients and Substitutions
There’s a printable recipe card below for these Halloween Furry Monster Cupcakes with the full quantities. But here are the main ingredients and ideas for any swaps.
- Butter: Use a vegan margarine to make these cupcakes gluten and dairy free.
- Caster Sugar: In the US you’ll need to look for baker’s sugar or superfine sugar.
- Eggs
- Gluten Free Self Raising Flour: If you can’t find a suitable gluten free self rising flour, look for a plain or all purpose gluten free flour blend and mix 1 tsp gluten free baking powder per 100g gluten free flour to make your own.
- Xanthan Gum: You can omit this if your gluten free flour blend contains it. This just helps recreate the texture of the gluten and make cakes less crumbly.
- Vanilla Extract: Or use your favourite flavouring like orange or lemon extract instead.
- Icing Sugar: In the US you’ll need confectioner’s sugar.
- Food Colouring: Some food colourings have a may contain warning for gluten, so pick one like these Sugarflair colourings which are gluten free. Use a good quality colouring for vibrant colours – and opt for a gel so it doesn’t water down the frosting.
- Strawberry Jam: You can use raspberry jam or even a lime curd for a slimy centre.
- Edible Eyes: Usually these can be found with the baking products – or you can buy them on Amazon. Always double check they’re gluten free.
How to Decorate Halloween Cupcakes
There’s a printable recipe card below with the method. But here are some step-by-step photos to show you how easy it is to decorate these furry monster cupcakes.
Storing and Freezing Instructions
TO STORE: Once baked and decorated, these gluten free Halloween cupcakes will keep at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
TO MAKE AHEAD: To make these ahead of a decorating session, you can bake the cupcakes and cool them completely, then store them for a couple of days or freeze for up to 6 months. Defrost when ready to decorate!
TO FREEZE: You can also freeze the cupcakes once decorated. Simply defrost at room temperature before tucking in to a spooky treat!
Variations
I’ve made vibrant green vanilla cupcakes with purple furry monster faces, but there are lots of ways you can get super creative with this bake!
- Chocolate Halloween Cupcakes: Instead of a vanilla sponge, you could follow the sponge method in my gluten free chocolate cupcakes recipe instead.
- Slimy Centres: Try using a lime or lemon curd for a ‘slimy’ centre instead of a gory jammy one. Or you could use chocolate spread instead!
- Piping Tips: Get creative with different piping tips to create different kinds of monster ‘fur’ on your cupcakes. Any pattern works!
- Vary Colours: Use a variety of different coloured icing to create a whole little family of cute Halloween cupcakes. Kids will love creating their own monsters!
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Monster Halloween Cupcakes Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
For the sponge:
- 110 g unsalted butter, (softened)
- 110 g caster sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 110 g gluten free self raising flour, (see notes if using plain)
- 1/4 tsp xanthan gum
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Green food colouring
For the frosting:
- 200 g unsalted butter, (at room temperature)
- 400 g icing sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp milk
- Purple food colouring
Extras:
- 12 pairs of edible eyes, (ensure gluten free)
- 12 tsp strawberry jam
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C / Fan 160C / Gas Mark 4 and fill a 12-hole cupcake tray with 12 cupcake cases. Set aside.
- Using an electric whisk, beat the butter, sugar and vanilla extract together until pale and fluffy.
- Add the eggs and beat again until combined. Sift in the gluten free flour and xanthan gum and beat again until fully combined.
- Add the food colouring (to make the cakes as vibrant as you like) and mix well. Then evenly spoon the mixture between the 12 cupcake cases and bake for 15-17 minutes, until risen and golden on top. Remove from the oven and cool completely on a wire rack.
To assemble:
- Make the frosting by beating the butter, icing sugar, milk, vanilla extract and food colouring until smooth. Spoon the mixture into a piping bag, fitted with your piping tip of choice, ready to decorate.
- First, cut a small well from the top of each cupcake with a sharp knife. Add 1 tsp of jam into each well then replace the 'plug' of sponge you cut out (you may need to trim a tiny bit off the bottom of each to make it fit flush-ish).
- Carefully pipe 'fur' onto the cakes. Then place two edible eyeballs on each cupcake. Leave to set for 10-15 minutes before eating.
Notes
- Plain Gluten Free Flour? Simply add 1 tsp gluten free baking powder to the same quantity of gluten free plain flour to make it self-raising.
- Storing and Freezing: These cupcakes will keep in an airtight container for up to 5 days. You can also freeze them – or make the cakes ahead of time and freeze them ready to decorate at a later date.
- 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!
- Step-by-Step Photos: Check out the blog post above for step-by-step photos to guide you through how this Halloween cupcakes recipe should look at each stage.
- Like this Recipe? It would mean SO much to me if you could leave a 5* rating and a little comment about this Gluten Free Halloween Cupcakes! I’d love to know how you decorated yours and it really helps support my website. Thank you! xx
Nutrition
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:
- Another great option for a spooky activity are my easy gluten free Halloween Biscuits – decorated with icing and Halloween sprinkles.
- For more spooky cupcakes, try my Bloody Broken Glass Cupcakes recipe with shards of edible glass and edible blood. They’re creepy but delicious!
- 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.
- 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!
More Halloween recipes
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These are fantastic Sarah! Was the cake itself quite light? I sometimes find my gluten free recipes give quite a heavy sponge.
Yes they were lovely and light actually! 🙂