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These black velvet Halloween monster cupcakes have a jet-black crumb and a dark black cocoa frosting, and there’s not a drop of black food coloring in them. Black cocoa gives the cupcakes their color and a slight Oreo-like flavor, then they get topped with a silky black cocoa Swiss meringue buttercream, monster sprinkles, and candy eyes. They’re spooky, super chocolatey, and always the first treat to go at a Halloween party. If you love that midnight-dark chocolate look, my black cocoa brownies and spooky monster cookies belong on the same dessert table.
Quick Look: Black Velvet Halloween Monster Cupcakes
- 🧁 What it is: Black cocoa cupcakes with black Swiss meringue buttercream, dressed up as little monsters.
- ⭐ Why it works: Black cocoa colors both the cake and the frosting, so you skip black food coloring.
- 💛 Why you’ll love it: Super chocolatey, with a slight Oreo flavor from the black cocoa.
- ⚠️ What to watch for: Frosting not dark enough yet? Give it time. It deepens as it sits.
- 🍳 Pan notes: Makes exactly 12 in one standard muffin tin. Fill each liner about 3/4 full.
Why You’ll Love These Black Velvet Cupcakes
- Truly black cupcakes with no black food coloring, just black cocoa
- Rich chocolate flavor with a little hint of Oreo
- Easy to make once you have the right ingredients
- So much fun to decorate with the kids on Halloween
- One cupcake base, five spooky looks: monsters, ghosts, mummies, pumpkins, and slime monsters
- Way better than store-bought Halloween cupcakes (let’s face it, those never taste as good as homemade!)
Table of Contents
- Quick Look: Black Velvet Halloween Monster Cupcakes
- Why You’ll Love These Black Velvet Cupcakes
- Key Ingredients
- Substitutions
- How to Make Black Velvet Monster Cupcakes
- Expert Tips
- Monster Cupcake Ideas (Plus 4 More Ways to Decorate)
- Black Velvet Cupcakes FAQs
- More Halloween Treats To Try!
- Black Velvet Halloween Monster Cupcakes Recipe
Key Ingredients
- Black cocoa: This is the star of the recipe and what makes these cupcakes truly black. Black cocoa is a heavily alkalized cocoa powder, the same kind that gives Oreo cookies their color and flavor, which is why these taste a little like an Oreo. It also colors the buttercream, no black gel coloring needed. Want the real Oreo thing? My Halloween brownie recipe has orange Halloween Oreos baked right inside.
- Hot coffee: Freshly brewed hot coffee adds extra depth to the chocolate flavor of the black velvet cupcakes.
- Oil: Vegetable or canola oil keeps the crumb soft and moist.
- Milk and egg, at room temperature: Room-temperature ingredients mix into the batter smoothly and evenly.
- Egg whites: For the Swiss meringue buttercream. Make sure they’re completely free of yolk or any fat, or they won’t whip up to stiff peaks.
- Unsalted butter, softened: It gets added to the meringue one tablespoon at a time, so set it out early.
- Halloween monster sprinkles: I used little candy eyes and sprinkles to turn these into spooky monster cupcakes.
Flour, granulated sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and vanilla extract round it out. You’ll find every exact amount (with metric weights) in the recipe card below.
Substitutions
- Hot coffee: Use the same amount of hot water if you’d rather skip the coffee. The chocolate flavor will be a touch less deep.
- Oil: Any neutral oil works, like vegetable or canola oil.
- Monster sprinkles: Candy eyeballs plus any Halloween sprinkle mix you love.
How to Make Black Velvet Monster Cupcakes
If this is your first time making Swiss meringue buttercream, my small batch Swiss meringue buttercream post walks through every stage. Full detailed instructions are in the recipe card below.
- Sift the dry ingredients. Sift the flour, black cocoa, baking soda, and baking powder into a large bowl, then whisk in the salt and sugar.
- Add the wet ingredients. Make a well in the center, add the oil, milk, egg, and vanilla, and whisk to combine.
- Stir in the hot coffee. Pour in the hot, freshly brewed coffee and mix one last time until the batter is smooth.
- Fill and bake. Fill each liner about 3/4 full and bake at 350°F for 14 to 16 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Let them cool completely.
- Heat the egg whites and sugar. Whisk them in a heatproof bowl over simmering water until the sugar dissolves and the mixture reaches 160°F.
- Whip the meringue. Whip on high speed until it reaches stiff peaks and the outside of the bowl no longer feels warm, about 10 to 15 minutes.
- Add the butter. Switch to the paddle attachment and add the softened butter one tablespoon at a time, letting each piece mix in before adding the next.
- Beat until silky. Keep beating until all the butter is in and the buttercream looks smooth and silky.
- Add the black cocoa paste. Stir the black cocoa and hot water into a smooth paste, then beat it into the buttercream with the vanilla and a pinch of salt for 1 minute.
- Frost and decorate. Pipe the black buttercream onto the cooled cupcakes and finish with monster sprinkles and candy eyes.
Expert Tips
- Bring the milk and egg to room temperature before you start, so the batter mixes up smooth.
- Start checking the cupcakes at 14 minutes. They bake quickly, and a toothpick that comes out clean means they’re done.
- A trick I learned in my pastry internship: touch the outside of the mixer bowl before adding the butter. If it still feels warm, keep whipping, or the butter will melt into the meringue.
- Make the black cocoa paste while the meringue whips so it has time to fully dissolve and stay lump-free.
- Give the frosting time. Black cocoa buttercream keeps getting darker the longer it sits, so frost a few hours ahead if you want the deepest black.
- Let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting, or the buttercream will slide right off.
Monster Cupcake Ideas (Plus 4 More Ways to Decorate)
This black velvet cupcake is a great base, so the decorating is totally up to you. For the classic look in my photos, pipe the black buttercream, then add monster sprinkles and candy eyes. Want something different? Here are four more spooky cupcakes you can make with the same recipe:
- Black cocoa ghost cupcakes: For black and white Halloween cupcakes, leave the black cocoa paste out of most of the buttercream so it stays white, and stir it into 2 tablespoons of frosting to make it black. Pipe tall white swirls with a round tip, then dot on ghost eyes with the black frosting.
- Mummy cupcakes: Keep the frosting white and use a #47 tip to pipe strips across the top of each cupcake. Leave a little gap for the candy eyes to peek through.
- Pumpkin cupcakes: Set aside 2 tablespoons of white frosting and tint it green. Tint the rest bright orange, pipe it on with a star tip, then add a little green stem and leaves.
- Slime monster cupcakes: Tint the whole batch of buttercream green, frost with any tip you like, and cover each one with a bunch of candy eyeballs.
Building a full spooky spread? Add a tray of my no-bake frozen banana ghosts the kids can help make, and a batch of Crumbl dirt cake cookies for the cookie lovers. And when the party’s over, turn the extra trick-or-treat haul into leftover Halloween candy cookies. You’ll find even more ideas in my roundup of Halloween dessert recipes.
Black Velvet Cupcakes FAQs
Red velvet uses just a little cocoa plus tangy ingredients like buttermilk, and usually red food coloring, for its color and flavor. Black velvet cupcakes get their dark color from black cocoa, so they taste much more chocolatey, almost like an Oreo. Craving the classic? Try my small batch red velvet cupcakes.
Black cocoa is a specialty product, so it’s often hard to find in regular grocery stores. I recommend buying it online. I bought this black cocoa on Amazon.
I strongly suggest using black cocoa if you want black Halloween cupcakes. Dutch-process cocoa will work, but the cupcakes will come out brown instead of black, with a slightly different texture. Once you have a bag of black cocoa, use it in my black cocoa cinnamon rolls and chocolate chip black cocoa cookies too.
Black cocoa frosting for black velvet cupcakes often looks gray right after whipping. Here’s how to get it pitch black:
Time and oxidation: Black cocoa needs time to oxidize and bloom into a deep black shade, and the buttercream naturally darkens as it sits over a few hours.
Optional color boost: A drop or two of black gel food coloring can help deepen the color quickly if you need it.
Microwave and immersion blender method (best technique): Take about 1/3 cup of the finished, whipped gray buttercream and microwave it in a small bowl for 5 to 10 seconds until melted. Pour the warm, liquid buttercream back into the bowl of cold buttercream, then use an immersion blender to thoroughly blend and emulsify it all together. This rapidly blooms the cocoa pigments and turns it pitch black. Finish by re-whipping the buttercream with the paddle attachment until thick, fluffy, and ready to pipe.
Keep frosted cupcakes in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Let them sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes before serving so the buttercream softens back up. Unfrosted cupcakes can be wrapped well and frozen for up to 2 months.
More Halloween Treats To Try!
If you tried these Black Velvet Halloween Monster Cupcakes or any other recipe on my blog, please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how your monsters turned out in the comments! And tag me @chahinez_tbt on Instagram, I love seeing your spooky creations!
Black Velvet Halloween Monster Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1 & 1/4 cup AP flour
- 1/3 cup black cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup oil
- 1/3 cup milk at room temperature
- 1 large egg at room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup coffee hot,freshly brewed
- monster sprinkles
Black Cocoa Swiss Meringue Buttercream
- 3 egg whites
- 3/4 cup butter softened
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup black cocoa powder
- 1 tbsp hot water
- a pinch of salt
Instructions
Cupcake instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners.
- In a large bowl, sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, then add in the salt, and granulated sugar, and whisk to combine.1 & 1/4 cup AP flour, 1/3 cup black cocoa powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 3/4 cup granulated sugar, 1/4 tsp salt
- Make a well in the center, and add in the oil, milk, egg, and vanilla, and whisk to combine. Add in the hot brewed coffee and mix one last time.1/4 cup oil, 1/3 cup milk, 1 large egg, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1/2 cup coffee
- Fill each cupcake liner about 2/3 of the way full and bake in the preheated oven for 14 to 16 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Let the cupcakes cool down fully before frosting them.
Black Cocoa Swiss Meringue Buttercream
- Start by whisking the egg whites, salt, and sugar together in a heatproof mixing bowl, then place that over a medium saucepan filled with simmering water. Make sure the bowl is not touching the water. Whisk the egg whites and sugar mixture constantly until the mixture is thin, the sugar has dissolved, and the temperature has reached 160F.3 egg whites, 3/4 cup granulated sugar, a pinch of salt
- Transfer the bowl to the stand mixer and start whipping the egg white mixture on high speed right away, make sure not to let it cool before whipping. The meringue will need to reach stiff peaks and cool down to room temperature. This can take anywhere between 10-15 minutes. A little trick I learned in my pastry internship is to touch the outside of the mixing bowl to see if the meringue is still warm. If the bowl is still warm, keep mixing before adding the butter. This way the butter won't melt once added in.
- While the meringue is cooling down, in a small bowl, mix the black cocoa powder with the hot water until you have a smooth paste. You might need a little more water, just add 1/2 tsp at a time. Set aside.1/4 cup black cocoa powder, 1 tbsp hot water
- Switch to a paddle attachment and on medium-high speed start adding the butter 1 tablespoon at a time. Wait until the butter is fully incorporated before adding more. Once you're done with the butter, add in the vanilla, cocoa powder paste and the pinch of salt, then beat for 1 minute.3/4 cup butter, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- Frost the cupcakes, decorate with little eyes and sprinkles, and enjoy!
Notes
- Black cocoa buttercream gets darker the longer it sits, so frost a few hours ahead for the deepest black. Need it darker now? Microwave the buttercream for 20 seconds, whisk, chill 10 to 15 minutes, then whip again.
- No coffee? Use the same amount of hot water.
- Store frosted cupcakes in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Let them sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes before serving. Unfrosted cupcakes freeze for up to 2 months.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
