These fun chocolate cauldron cupcakes combine a chocolate cupcake with a bubbling rice krispy witches brew on top for a spooktacular treat that’s as delicious as it is spooky! Serve them in mini cauldrons for a really fun Halloween dessert that kids of all ages will love!
Want to save this recipe?
Enter your email below and we’ll send this idea straight to your inbox (plus you’ll receive fun weekly ideas from us too!)
With Halloween just around the corner, you could say we’ve hit the witching point of the season! We shared these cauldrons and cupcakes a little while ago, and they went viral all over social media so guessing other people are excited about witchy treats too!
These fun cauldron cupcakes are part cupcake, part rice krispie treat, and part witch’s potion. They’re not only delicious, they’re really cool to look at. And for me, that’s a huge part of Halloween – cute Halloween party foods!
Make these along with these fun witch rice krispie treats and these witch hat cookies for the ultimate night of witchy fun! Or if you want to use these as cauldron cakes as a Harry Potter recipe, make them along with this easy butterbeer recipe for a Harry Potter themed movie night!
Why people love these cupcakes
- Easy – if you can make chocolate cupcakes and rice krispy treats, you can make these. Make them on your own or let the kids help!
- Festive – these look super festive for Halloween even though they’re super easy to make and everyone loves festive food!
- Make ahead of time – you can totally make all of the components ahead of time and then just put them together last minute. That’s the way I do it every year!
Ingredients in cauldron cupcakes
Ingredient notes
- Devil’s food cake mix plus all of the ingredients you need to make the cake (typically water, oil, and eggs) – you could also use regular chocolate cake, but I prefer the devil’s food cake for its richness and because well devil’s food seems more like what witches would eat!
- Pudding mix – I like white chocolate best but you could also use regular vanilla or even cheesecake pudding.
- Marshmallows – large or mini marshmallows work, I’ve included notes in the recipe card at the bottom of this post with amounts if you want to use mini marshmallows. Also – this isn’t my favorite way to make rice krispy treats, but our popular rice krispy treats recipe won’t work for these, so it’s modified version!
- Green food coloring – you can use whatever shade of green you want, just make sure to match the pudding and rice krispie treats!
- Halloween sprinkles – I like to do a combo of Halloween colored sprinkles and candy eyes. Some sprinkle mixtures like this one already have them mixed in or you can mix them in yourself.
You’ll also need 24 little plastic witch cauldrons to put the cupcakes in unless you’re going to buy the silicone cupcake cauldrons I mention below to make these fun chocolate cakes!
Baking Cauldrons
If you watch my video making these (in the recipe card), you can see how I use these fun silicone cupcake cauldrons that you can actually bake the cupcakes in. They’re pretty awesome but a little larger than the normal cauldrons, so I recommend making one per family or having people share! Or if you can’t find those, you could bake them in these black silicone cupcake wrappers for a similar look!
How to make Cauldron Cupcakes
These cauldron cupcakes are pretty easy to make in just three steps – making the cupcakes, making the pudding, and making the rice krispy treats to put on top. There’s really nothing difficult about any of the steps, the most time consuming part is just putting them together!
1 – Make the Devil’s Food Cupcakes
Start by baking the cupcakes in cupcake liners (either paper or my preferred method is silicone liners) according to the package instructions. Once they’re baked, remove from the pan and let them cool completely on a cooling rack while you work on the rest of these cauldron cupcakes.
2 – Add the Pudding Potion
- Whisk the pudding mix and milk together in a medium bowl until fully incorporated, then add a few drops of green food coloring, stirring until you get the color you want. Place it in the refrigerator for 10ish minutes until it’s set.
- Gently press a cupcake into each of the cauldrons. If you’re using silicone cauldrons, you can skip this step. Otherwise, just add one cupcake into each cauldron. It’s okay for it to break apart as these are eaten kind of like a parfait anyway!
- Spoon some of the green potion on top of the cupcakes, making sure to cover the cupcake top.
- Place the cupcakes in the fridge and let them chill for 1-2 hours until the pudding is completely set. This will keep the rice krispies from getting soggy.
3 – Add the Rice Krispy Witches Brew
- Melt butter in a large pot over low heat. Once it’s melted, add the marshmallows and cook until they’re completely melted.
- Once the marshmallow mixture is melted, stir a few drops of green food coloring into the melted marshmallows and mix well.
- Remove from heat then add the Rice Krispies to the marshmallows and stir until all the cereal is evenly coated.
- Immediately put a spoonful of Rice Krispies mixture on top of the pudding in each cauldron. You have to do this before the marshmallows start to cool or it will be difficult to put them on the pudding. It’s great if the Rice Krispies drip down the sides, it will add to the “bubbling cauldron” look!
Tip!
The food coloring will get a little lighter when you add the Rice Krispies so make sure the green is fairly dark. I always start with the same amount that I added to the pudding and then typically double it.
Top with Halloween sprinkles while the rice krispy mixture is still warm for a perfect Halloween treat! These finishing touches are what really makes these spooktacular!
Serve an individual cauldron cupcake to each guest along with a spoon or fork so that they can eat their witches cauldron cupcake out of the plastic cauldrons! They’re the most fun or at least most spooky Halloween cupcakes they’re try all year!
Skip the Cupcakes!
You can always make these without the cupcakes and pudding inside too! If you’d prefer to just fill the cauldrons with the green rice krispy treats, that’s an option too!
Helpful Tips
Store any leftovers in the fridge for up to three days. If you know you aren’t going to eat these immediately, I recommend making the cupcakes and pudding and chilling until you’re almost ready to serve. Then make and add the rice krispies on top right before serving.
Clean out the mini cauldrons as soon as possible after to make them easy to clean. They’re easy to clean as long as you do it quickly and then you can reuse the cauldrons for all sorts of things like a bunch of these Halloween games!
Add a pretzel stick to the cupcakes if you want to give it that look of a spoon stirring the pot.
Change up the colors and try out orange, purple, or even a spooky black potion would be great. If you’re really ambitious, you could do a variety of colors. I just recommend keeping the pudding and rice krispies on top the same color for each cauldron so it looks like one potion bubbling over.
Use a piece of parchment paper to grab the rice krispy treats and move them if they’re sticking to your hands. You can also spray them if that’s easier.
Recipe FAQs
Can you bake in the plastic cauldrons?
You cannot bake directly in the plastic cauldrons. If you want to bake in cauldrons, try using a silicone baking cauldron like this one. Or if you can’t find those, you could bake them in these black silicone cupcake wrappers for a similar look!
Do cauldron cupcakes need to be refrigerated?
These cauldron cupcakes need to be refrigerated because of the pudding potion layer in them that includes milk. They can be out for a little while but make sure to refrigerate them for storing.
Can I make these without pudding?
If you’d prefer to make these without pudding, you can make them with green frosting instead (I recommend the cheesecake frosting from my pumpkin cupcakes) and just top the frosting with the rice krispy treats.
Cauldron Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1 15.25 ounce devil’s food cake mix
- 1 ¼ cups water
- ⅔ cup vegetable oil
- 3 eggs
- 1 3.3 ounce package instant white chocolate pudding mix
- 2 cups milk
- neon green food coloring
- 4 TBS butter
- 10 ounces marshmallows
- 6 cups Rice Krispies cereal
- Halloween sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F and place liners in 24 cupcake tins.
- Combine cake mix, water, oil and eggs in a medium mixing bowl and stir until well blended.1 15.25 ounce devil’s food cake mix, 1 1/4 cups water, 2/3 cup vegetable oil, 3 eggs
- Allow cupcakes to cool completely, then remove the liners.
- Gently push a cupcake into each cauldron, pushing down enough so that there is room for the pudding on top of the cupcake.
- Whisk the pudding mix and milk together in a medium bowl until fully incorporated, then add a few drops of neon green food coloring, adding a drop or two at a time to achieve desired color, and whisk until color is uniform throughout pudding.1 3.3 ounce package instant white chocolate pudding mix, 2 cups milk, neon green food coloring
- Add the green pudding on top of the cupcake in each cauldron, don’t overfill.
- **Chill in refrigerator for 2 hours.
- Melt the butter in a large pot, then add marshmallows and stir continuously until marshmallows are completely melted.4 TBS butter, 10 ounces marshmallows
- Stir a few drops of green food coloring into the melted marshmallows and mix well. The color will get a little lighter when the Rice Krispies are added so make sure the green is fairly dark.
- Add the Rice Krispies to the marshmallows and stir until all the cereal is evenly coated.6 cups Rice Krispies cereal
- Immediately put a spoonful of Rice Krispy mixture on top of the pudding in each cauldron. Do this before the marshmallows start to cool or it will be difficult to put them on the pudding.Halloween sprinkles
- While Rice Krispies are still warm, top with Halloween sprinkles.
Tips & Notes:
Nutrition Info
More Easy Halloween Treats
Finish off your Halloween dessert table with these other delicious Halloween desserts that are perfect or Halloween season (and for celebrating the Sanderson sisters).
- Hocus Pocus brownies – these fun spellbook brownies look just like the infamous spell book in the movie!
- Halloween cookie bars – delicious M&M cookie bars loaded with Halloween M&Ms, Oreos, and flavor! They’re the perfect treat for serving to little witches and ghouls!
- Spider cookies – peanut butter cookies topped with the cutest little chocolate spiders! They’re a creepy sweet treat!
- Spider web pretzels – really fun pretzel treats that look just like a spiderweb, made in just a few minutes!
- Ghost brownies – easy brownies (store-bought or homemade brownies) topped with the cutest little ghosts for a great treat for this time of year!
Leave a Reply