Witch’s Broom Halloween Cupcakes | Cookies & Cups

Why I Love These Halloween Cupcakes

How adorable are these witch’s broom Halloween cupcakes?! As someone who grew up traumatized by the Wicked Witch of the West, I’ve come a long way. These are a fun and EASY Halloween party dessert that you can make with a batch of your favorite cake batter, decorated to look like witchy broomsticks. Here’s what makes this tutorial so great:

• Perfect for parties. These cupcake brooms look so sweet on a Halloween dessert table! They’re great for parties and they don’t take a ton of prep. 
• Make them from scratch, or not. Use your favorite homemade cupcake recipe or a box of cake mix, it’s up to you. The same goes for the buttercream frosting.
• Easy technique. You don’t need to be a pro cake decorator to master these witchy cupcakes. The technique is very simple, and you don’t even need a piping bag to create the broom design. A Ziploc bag with the corner snipped off works, too!

What You’ll Need

Let’s have a quick look at what you’ll need to make these witchy cupcakes, either from scratch or semi-homemade. Scroll down to the recipe card for a printable list along with the full tutorial.

• Cupcakes – Any cupcake recipe you’d like! I have easy recipes for vanilla cupcakes and chocolate cupcakes, and these pumpkin cupcakes are great for Halloween. You can also use a store-bought box of cake mix.
• Frosting – Choose your favorite store-bought or homemade vanilla frosting.
• Food Coloring – I recommend gel food coloring, for dying the frosting bright yellow, like the head of a broom. AmeriColor and Wilton make popular gel colors.
• Pretzels – You’ll need the pretzel rods, for the broom handles. I recommend the plain or salted rods and not any funny flavors.
• Mini Donuts – Any type you’d like, frosted or unfrosted, like the mini donuts from Hostess or similar.
• Fruit Roll-Ups – Who remembers these from childhood lunchboxes? You’ll need one roll-up, which you’ll cut into thin strips to wrap around the broom handles. Pull-and-peel Twizzlers are another good option, or you can pipe red or black frosting instead.
• Piping Bag and Piping Tips – I use the Wilton #48 basket-weave tip to pipe straw-like bristles onto my broom. You can also use a small open-round detailing tip to pipe individual frosting bristles.

How to Make Witch’s Broom Cupcakes

This tutorial is super easy, so even if it’s your first time decorating Halloween cupcakes, they’re almost foolproof! Here are the steps. You’ll find the printable details in the recipe card below the post.

• Bake the cupcakes. Prepare and bake a batch of cupcakes following the recipe directions, or the instructions on the box if you’re using cake mix. I bake mine in a mini cupcake pan. 
• Make the frosting. Next, whip up a batch of vanilla frosting. Color the frosting yellow using gel food dyes or similar.

Tips for Success

• If you don’t have a piping bag or piping tips, you can still decorate these Halloween cupcakes. Fill a small Ziploc baggie with the yellow frosting and snip off the corner. Use the tip to pipe thin “bristles” over the mini donuts instead.
• Replace the donuts. Instead of donuts, you can create a “broom” shape using Reese’s Minis, which have a taller shape than regular Reese’s peanut butter cups. Add a Reese’s Mini to each cupcake, stick a pretzel in the center, and frost the outside as usual.
• Add sprinkles. You can get creative with any extra decorations you’d like! Finish these Halloween cupcakes with a sprinkle of black and orange jimmies or nonpareils or sanding sugar.

How to Store Frosted Cupcakes

• At room temperature. The decorated Halloween cupcakes will last for 3 days at room temperature. Store the frosted cupcakes in an airtight container.
• Freeze. I recommend freezing the cupcakes before frosting and decorating. Store them in a freezer-safe container or freezer bag and freeze them for up to 2 months. Thaw the cupcakes in the fridge before decorating.

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