Evil Eye Cherry Cupcakes

Moist vanilla cupcakes with a hint of almond, poked with cherry Jell-O, and topped with cream cheese frosting and gummy evil eyes! Evil Eye Cherry Cupcakes will make a fun and delicious sweet addition to your Halloween table.

If you’ve been reading here for awhile [or you know me even just a little tiny bit], you probably already know that I love love love Halloween. I love the costumes, the candy, the weather, the way the air smells. I could carve pumpkins every day. Haunted houses, hay rides, crunchy leaves, apples pumpkins, corn mazes — this season is my most favorite to the point that I might drive you a tiny bit crazy about it.

Apologies in advance.

The weird thing about the Halloween season love, is that up to this point it really hasn’t shown itself in the recipes I share with you here every year.

There are a few reasons for that. 1. I am impatient. Character flaw!!! Really this just means that I am not very cake decoratey, and also that in years past I served up the treats before I took pictures. Let’s be real here — recipes with no photos are not that much fun.

The second reason you’ve not seen much in the way of Halloween themed treats is that I’m kinda picky about it. I don’t want any foods that look gross. The other day I saw a photo of a hot dog with the end strategically cut to look like a fingernail had been ripped off. It made me sorta nauseous in a really not fun way. So for me it gets tricky to translate spooky fun without the ick-factor.

Then I found gummy eyeballs at the dollar store.

Red poked caked seemed pretty All Hallow’s appropriate. The name just sort of materialized from the eyeballs and cherries.

Please enjoy my 90’s reference.

So this is a cherry poke cake recipe {yum!}, but also has a little cherry stuffed into each cupcake. The actual cake is vanilla with just a hint of almond. I topped these with cream cheese frosting because… delicious.

Gummy eyes should be pretty easy to find, but act quickly because Halloween is already getting shoved aside for Christmas. The marketers are rushing me.

Aren’t these cute and fun?

I’d serve them to a room full of kids or add them to the grown up Halloween party table no problem.

Evil Eye Cherry Cupcakes

 

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Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

15 mins

Total time

30 mins

 

Moist, delicious vanilla and cherry poked cupcakes topped with cream cheese frosting and gummy eyes! These cupcakes are perfect for your Halloween table and are great for kids and grown ups alike!

Author: Sugar Dish Me

Serves: 13 cupcakes (a baker's dozen!

Ingredients

• For the Vanilla Almond Cupcakes:
• ½ cup unsaled butter, melted and cooled
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1½ cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¾ cup buttermilk (see note)
• cherry pie filling (you'll need 13 cherries from the filling; you can save the remaining filling for another recipe)
• For the Cherry:
• 1 (3 ounce) package cherry Jell-O
• 1 cup boiling water
• ½ cup cold water
• For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 26 gummy eyes

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a standard muffin pan with paper liners.
2. In a large bowl whisk together the melted butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, whisking well between each addition. The mixture will be fluffy. Stir in the vanilla and almond extracts.
3. In a medium bowl stir together the flour, baking powder and salt. Alternate adding the flour and the buttermilk, starting and ending with the flour, and stirring until just combined with each addition. Be careful not to overmix.
4. Divide the batter between the prepared muffin cups -- each will be ⅔ - ¾ full.
5. Spoon one cherry from the cherry pie filling on top of each cupcake. Use a skewer to gently push each cherry into the batter. Bake 15 - 20 minutes, checking with a toothpick at 15. Let the cupcakes cool while you make the Cherry Jell-O.
6. Stir the Cherry Jell-O and the boiling water together for a minute or two until the gelatin dissolves. Add the cold water.
7. Remove the cupcakes from the muffin tin (because when you poke and add the cherry gelatin you don't want the wrappers to stick to the pan). Use a skewer to poke about 7 holes in the top of each cupcake. Spoon the Jell-O over the top of each cupcake a tablespoon at a time. You'll have gelatin left over - you can just pour it in a dish to chill and serve. Place the cupcakes in the refrigerator to chill while you make the frosting.
8. To make the frosting beat together the cream cheese and butter. Add the sugar 1 cup at a time, beating well between each addition. Add the heavy cream an tablespoon at a time, then add the vanilla. Mix for another minute or two to get really fluffy cream cheese frosting.
9. Frost the chilled cupcakes and then situate a couple of the gummy eyeballs on top of each one.

Notes

If you do not have buttermilk on hand, measure out ¾ cup milk and add 1½ teaspoons white vinegar. Let it sit while you melt the butter and measure out the flour. Quickly whisk your homemade buttermilk before adding it to the mix.

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The cake portion of this recipe was slightly adapted from Crazy for Crust’s Perfect Vanilla Cupcakes. They are perfect! Her recipe includes a creamy vanilla filling and fluffy vanilla frosting. So perfect! You should definitely try them.