Halloween Cupcakes

Bloodshot Eye Cakes




I made these about a month before Halloween to test them out. I was planning on bringing them to work, but wanted to make sure they were good in taste before I did.
I tweaked the recipe a bit to my liking. I'm not a big fan of peanut butter or butterscotch pudding, so I omitted those. I also did not use Chocolate milk, just regular.
In the end they still turned out delicious and were a big hit at work.
The second time around when I did prepare them for work, I made chocolate and yellow cupcakes and I used chocolate pudding and vanilla pudding and pie filling to fill them.
I got the recipe from ladies home journal last year, but I think I also saw the same recipe online somewhere.

I will post the ingredients and directions per the original recipe, but of course you can change it up to your own liking.

Makes 24 cupcakes

Prep time: 25min
Total time: 1 hour 20min.

24 standard paper baking cups
1 box (18.25oz) dark chocolate cake mix
1 1/3 cup chocolate milk
1/3 cup canola oil
3 large eggs
1 box (3.4oz) instant butterscotch pudding and pie filling mix
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups smooth peanut butter
1 container white frosting
1 tube red decorating gel
24 plastic eyeballs ( I bought mine at a Halloween store)

Preheat oven to 350F . Line 2 (12 cup) standard muffin pans with baking cups;set aside. Beat together cake mix, chocolate milk, oil and eggs in large mixing bowl on low speed 30 seconds. Scrape sides of bowl with a rubber spatula increase speed to medium and beat 1 minute more. Evenly divide batter among cups.

Bake until a toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean, 21 to 26 minutes. Transfer cupcakes in pan to rack and let cool completely before filling and frosting.


Whisk together pudding mix, milk and peanut butter in medium bowl until thickened and smooth, about 2 minutes. Refrigerate 30 minutes, for filling.

Spoon filling into a pastry bag fitted with a medium plain tip. Fill cupcakes and squeezing a couple of tablespoons of filling into each.
Spread 2 tablespoons frosting on each cupcake.


Using decorating gel, draw squiggly lines on frosted cupcakes to create blood vessels. Place an eyeball in center of each.