These goth cupcakes are dark, decadent, and just the right amount of dramatic. They’re incredibly soft, moist and rich, with deep chocolate flavor from a blend of Dutch-process and black cocoa powder.
The vibrant red cream cheese frosting adds a striking contrast, making them perfect for Halloween, goth-themed parties, or anytime you’re craving something unapologetically bold and delicious. You can make them with regular, gluten-free or whole wheat flour.
I actually meant to share these last year as goth cupcakes, but with Tron: Ares coming out in a few days, I couldn’t help but notice how perfectly they fit that bold red-and-black aesthetic, too. So if Tron is your thing, these cupcakes (minus the skull sprinkles) are the perfect way to channel that sleek, high-contrast vibe.
These cupcakes are made with the same rich Hershey’s chocolate cupcake base I use in all my chocolate cakes and cupcakes, including this Jack Skellington Cake and these Spider Cupcakes.
- Soft and moist texture – these are the best chocolate cupcakes I’ve ever had. Hands down.
- Make-ahead friendly – the cupcakes and frosting store well, so you can prep them in advance.
- No decorating skills needed – simply pipe or spread the frosting and add a few sprinkles or some sanding sugar. Piping takes just a little practice, but it’s nothing like making a goth cake. If you google goth cakes, you’ll see what I mean – they’re stunning, but require serious talent to pull off. I could never. 🙃 I used Wilton Tip 1M on these cupcakes, and here’s a video showing you how to pipe the swirl.
Ingredient Notes
Please scroll down for the full recipe. These are just notes on select ingredients.
- Granulated sugar – you can use coconut sugar if you prefer. Sugar-free alternatives don’t work in this recipe.
- Flour – all-purpose, whole wheat, white whole wheat, or one of the gluten-free blends mentioned in the recipe notes all work well.
- Cocoa powder – I used Dutch-process cocoa for a richer flavor and darker color. If you use regular Hershey’s cocoa powder, your cupcakes will be lighter in color and not as chocolaty.
- Black cocoa powder – you can just use more Dutch-process cocoa instead, but the black cocoa gives the cupcakes their almost black color.
- Eggs – you can use chia eggs to make the cupcakes egg-free, but they can’t be made vegan because of the cream cheese frosting.
- Oil – light olive oil, canola, vegetable, or another neutral oil works perfectly. Just avoid using an expensive, strongly flavored olive oil.
- Red food coloring gel – do not try using liquid food coloring! If you don’t want to use food coloring, stick around for the black cupcakes I’ll be posting in a few days. They also work as goth cupcakes, using black cocoa powder in the frosting.
What is Black Cocoa Powder?
Black cocoa powder comes from the same beans as regular cocoa, but it’s been heavily alkalized, meaning it’s treated with an alkaline solution to reduce acidity.
This extra processing gives it a deeper, smoother flavor and that awesomely dark color. It’s less bitter than regular cocoa and dissolves more easily, which makes it perfect for things like frosting, ganache, chocolate sauces, and even milkshakes like this Black Milkshake.
It’s also what gives Oreos their signature taste and nearly black color. But despite how tempting it is to swap it for Dutch-process cocoa in every recipe, it doesn’t always work out.
I once tried making a cake with 100% black cocoa, hoping for a pitch-black color, but it didn’t make much difference. The flavor wasn’t noticeably different, either. Since black cocoa is pricey, it’s best used in recipes where it truly shines, such as these Black Cookies or this Black Ice Cream.
I tested this recipe multiple times, gradually increasing the amount of black cocoa powder until the texture started to suffer. The sweet spot turned out to be a 50/50 blend of Dutch-process and black cocoa. It gives you that almost black color without compromising structure. If you use more than 50% black cocoa, the cupcakes start getting a little too fragile.
How to Make Them
Preheat your oven to 350 °F (175 °C). Line two muffin pans with 24 cupcake liners.
Whisk together the sugar, flour, Dutch-process cocoa, black cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.
Add the eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla extract.
Mix until smooth, then slowly pour in the boiling water. The batter will be thin.
Divide between the cupcake liners, using about 56 grams or just under 1/4 cup per liner. Bake for 16–23 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs. Cool for 5 minutes in the pans, then transfer to a rack to cool completely before frosting.
Make the Frosting
Please note that the red color will continue to deepen as it sits, so it’s best to make the frosting the day before. Get it nearly as dark as you want it, then let it rest overnight before deciding if it needs any additional coloring.
Beat the cream cheese and butter together until well combined and smooth.
Gradually add powdered sugar, beating until creamy. Mix in vanilla and salt.
Beat in red food coloring gel until you achieve your desired shade.
If needed, refrigerate briefly to firm up before piping. Pipe onto cooled cupcakes and top with black skull sprinkles or shimmering black sugar.
- When it comes to achieving a vibrant red frosting, gel food coloring is your only option. Liquid food coloring doesn’t have the same pigment concentration, meaning you’d need to add so much that it’d thin out your frosting and affect the texture. Gel coloring, on the other hand, is highly concentrated, so you need much less to get that rich, bold color without changing the consistency. It’s especially important for cream cheese frosting, which is softer than buttercream to begin with.
- For a darker red, mix in a small amount of black cocoa powder or black gel coloring.
- Boiling water for the cupcake batter is essential. It blooms the cocoa powders, deepens the chocolate flavor, and gives the cupcakes their tender crumb. Please do not reduce the amount of water! The batter will look very thin, almost watery, but that’s how it should be.
- Please use a scale, at the very least, for weighing the flour. Too much flour will make the cupcakes dense instead of soft and fluffy. If you don’t have a scale, spoon it into your measuring cup and level it off – don’t scoop straight from the bag.
Topping Ideas
- If you don’t want to add even more sugar and other junk to these cupcakes, you could go with something like these black glitter bat cupcake toppers. These are what I’ll be using this year!
- Wilton has a set of Halloween sprinkles that contains the black skulls you see on these cupcakes. Mystic Sprinkles also offers a set of white skulls.
- If you’re like me and can’t eat those or don’t want to due to the ingredients, then you can get a skull mold and make your own little skull toppings with white chocolate, coconut butter, or candy melts.
- I also added some black sanding sugar on top.
- Tiny fondant bats or roses are fun if you’re leaning into the goth aspect of these cupcakes. I even found black fondant roses on Etsy! And you can use a fondant bat mold to easily make fondant bats. I spent a while looking for tutorials, but I think it’s easier and way, way quicker just to use a mold. However, I never use fondant, so I could be totally wrong.
I really just needed an excuse to make cupcakes with red frosting because I had recently gotten natural red food coloring from ColorKitchen and was excited to share a recipe with it.
I spent $85 on the bag of food coloring and didn’t really feel like spending another $85 for the photographer to have her own bag to use for one single recipe. So I told her to just use regular gel coloring, and I’d figure out how much of my natural coloring to use when it was time to post the recipe.
Turns out, the natural food coloring doesn’t create the same vibrant red, at least not when making cream cheese frosting. It’s more like fuchsia. It’s very vibrant and lovely, but not at all red.
Because I always offer a natural coloring option for those who find food coloring icky, I debated not posting these cupcakes. But the photos are so nice. I can’t not post them. 😬
I can’t speak for the rest of the world, but if you’re in the EU, be sure to use medium eggs instead of large ones.
As for the cream cheese, definitely check the notes at the bottom of the recipe. Non-US cream cheese has a higher whey content, so you’ll need to drain off some of the liquid before making the frosting. It’s easy (just a little annoying), but absolutely essential. If you skip this step, your frosting won’t come together properly.
Flour varies a lot depending on what country you’re in. To be on the safe side, I recommend using whole wheat flour because it’s more consistent across brands and regions, and it holds up well to the added moisture in this batter. Regular German flour, for example, is more like US pastry flour, resulting is cupcakes that are slightly too delicate.
But I’ve never had an issue subbing in whole wheat flour for US all-purpose flour in chocolaty recipes.
For the European readers, I tested my black cocoa recipes with Van Houten Intense Deep Black Cocoa. It’s now called Noir Intense and is sold under the brand name Cacao Barry. Everything I’ve made has come out perfectly black and delicious.
If you’re in the US, I recommend using The Cocoa Trader’s black cocoa. I don’t think the brand matters so much for baked recipes, but it does in no-bake recipes. When making my black ice cream recipe with Modern Mountain black cocoa, the ice cream came out a regular brown color (although it produced nice and black cookies!). So I recommend just getting The Cocoa Trader because you might want to make a no-bake recipe in the future with it, and in that case, you’ll be glad you have the one that produces an actual black color.
As black cocoa powder travels through your digestive system, it retains its color. I hope you appreciate the warning. 😉 I wanted to save you the trouble of googling and panicking. Black usually signals an immediate trip to the doctor, it seems. These cupcakes don’t have that much black cocoa powder in it, so you might not even notice.
Unfrosted cupcakes can be prepared up to 4 days in advance. After 2 days, I recommend refrigerating them just to be safe.
Frosted cupcakes will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days.
You can also freeze unfrosted or frosted cupcakes for up to 3 months. The texture will stay fine, though the liners may soften and look a little imperfect. Most people won’t notice, but if you need them to look picture-perfect, frozen cupcake liners aren’t ideal.
Goth Cupcakes
Servings 24
Rich, dark chocolate cupcakes with deep red cream cheese frosting. Perfect for Halloween, goth-themed parties, or a bold dessert table. Easy to make gluten-free if desired. Please see the notes regarding making the frosting ahead of time!
Prevent your screen from going dark
Prepare the cupcakes:
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Preheat your oven to 350 °F (175 °C). Line 2 muffin pans with 24 liners. In a large bowl, stir together the dry ingredients (sugar through salt).
2 cups (400 grams) granulated sugar, 1 3/4 cups (218-241 grams) flour, 6 tablespoons (42 grams) Dutch-process cocoa powder, 6 tablespoons (42 grams) black cocoa powder, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda, 1 teaspoon salt
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Add the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla.
2 large eggs, 1 cup milk of choice, 1/2 cup (120 ml) canola or vegetable oil, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
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Mix until combined, and then stir in the boiling water. The batter will be almost as thin as water. Divide the batter between the muffin liners. I used a little less than 1/4 cup or 56 grams per liner.
1 cup (236 ml) boiling water
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Bake for 17-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out with some moist crumbs, but no uncooked liquid.
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Let cool for 5 minutes in the pans, and then carefully turn out onto a rack to cool. Let cool completely before frosting.
Make the frosting:
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In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter together with an electric hand mixer at medium speed until well combined. It’s okay if it looks a little crumbly.
1 pound (450 grams) full-fat cream cheese, 1/2 cup + 3 tablespoons (155 grams) unsalted butter, room temp (should be soft enough to easily incorporate into cream cheese frosting!)
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Gradually beat in the powdered sugar until totally combined, and then beat in the vanilla and salt.
2 1/2 cups (300 grams) powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 pinch salt
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Beat in the red food coloring until well combined.
up to 1.5 oz (38-42 grams) No-Taste Christmas Red Gel Food Coloring
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If the frosting is too soft to pipe, refrigerate it until firm, stirring occasionally. Use Wilton Tip 1M (or whatever tip you want) to make a swirl on top of each cupcake. You’ll have enough for 41 grams (3 tablespoons) per cupcake.
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Unfrosted cupcakes can be prepared up to 4 days in advance. After 2 days, I recommend refrigerating them just to be safe. Frosted cupcakes will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days. You can also freeze unfrosted or frosted cupcakes for up to 3 months. The texture will stay fine, though the liners may soften and look a little imperfect. Most people won’t notice, but if you need them to look picture-perfect, frozen cupcake liners aren’t ideal.
- For the flour, you can use all-purpose flour, white whole wheat flour or whole wheat flour. If you’re gluten-free, use 1 3/4 cups (242 grams) Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 Gluten-free Baking Flour or 1 3/4 cups (218 grams) King Arthur Flour Gluten-free Measure for Measure Flour.
- If you want to make the cupcakes egg-free, use chia eggs in place of the eggs. To do that, mix together 2 tablespoons of ground chia seed with 6 tablespoons of water until well combined. Let sit for 1-2 minutes until goopy like regular eggs.
- If you use canned coconut milk, water it down so it’s about as thin as dairy milk. Maybe half coconut milk and half water? But note that there’ll be some slight coconut flavor to your cupcakes.
- For the oil, you can use canola, vegetable, grapeseed or light olive oil (not an expensive, super flavorful one). Anything neutral.
- I know that sounds like a lot of water, but I promise you, you need 1 cup!
- If you live outside of North America and have the kind of cream cheese that’s meant for toast (that comes in a little plastic tub) rather than American-style brick cream cheese, then get two 300-gram packages of cream cheese, place it in the center of a cheesecloth, and wring out the liquid until you’re left with 450 grams of cream cheese.
- I used 2 1/2 cups of powdered sugar in the frosting, which gave it a balanced sweetness that let the cream cheese flavor shine through. If you prefer a sweeter frosting, you can add an extra 1/2 to 1 cup (60-120 grams) of powdered sugar. That’ll not only make it sweeter but also help the frosting firm up a bit more. As you can see in the photos, it pipes just fine with just 2 1/2 cups, but it does soften slightly at room temperature. If you want it to stay firm, add the additional sugar.
- Please note that the red color of the frosting will continue to deepen as it sits, so it’s best to make the frosting the day before. Get it nearly as dark as you want it, then let it rest overnight before deciding if it needs any additional coloring. If you don’t have time for that, no problem. I didn’t do that the first time and needed the amounts of food coloring listed in the recipe.
- If you use regular gel food coloring, you’ll be able to taste it in these cupcakes. So please make sure to use Wilton’s No-Taste Christmas Red Gel Food Coloring or a similar brand that’s marketed as no-taste. The Wilton option is easy to find in most Walmarts in the cake decorating section. They have other shades of red, but Christmas Red is what you see in the photos. If you want a deeper red, you can add a tiny bit of black food gel (less than 1 gram) or black cocoa powder.
- The nutrition information provided is calculated as a courtesy and is only an estimate. I am not a licensed nutritionist or dietitian. For the most accurate nutritional data, consult a professional or use your preferred calculator.
- Cake base adapted from Hershey’s One Bowl Chocolate Cake.
Calories: 236.7kcalCarbohydrates: 38.4gProtein: 2.2gFat: 9.5gSaturated Fat: 3.6gPolyunsaturated Fat: 2.9gMonounsaturated Fat: 2.4gTrans Fat: 0.2gCholesterol: 23.8mgSodium: 244.5mgPotassium: 73.5mgFiber: 1.6gSugar: 29gVitamin A: 138IUCalcium: 37.2mgIron: 1mgNet Carbs: 37
