Go Back
Print
Hocus Pocus Amuck Cupcakes on a plate with Winifred's Spell Book

Hocus Pocus Amuck Cakes

Inspired by cupcakes at Disney World, these copycat Hocus Pocus Amuck Cakes are a rich devil’s food cake with a fluffy peanut butter filling and colorful buttercream to match Winifred’s, Mary’s, and Sarah’s distinctive hair!

Course Dessert
Keyword Chocolate Cupcakes, Copycat, Halloween, Hocus Pocus
Prep Time 45 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Servings 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

Devil's Food Cupcakes

  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • ½ cup + 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
  • ¾ teaspoon baking powder
  • ¾ teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 large egg
  • ½ cup milk
  • ¼ cup vegetable oil
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ½ cup boiling water

Peanut Butter Filling

  • ¼ cup unsalted butter, softened
  • ½ cup creamy peanut butter
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 tablespoon milk

Buttercream Frosting

  • ¾ cup 1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, softened
  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3 tablespoons milk
  • orange gel food coloring
  • yellow gel food coloring
  • violet gel food coloring

Equipment

  • 12 cup muffin pan
  • black cupcake liners
  • piping bags
  • large star tip

Instructions

Devil's Food Cupcakes

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners.
  2. In a large bowl, combine the sugar, flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder.
  3. Add the egg, milk, oil, and vanilla extract and beat on medium speed until fully combined, about 2 minutes.
  4. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin and runny).
  5. Pour batter into prepared cupcake liners and bake for 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.
  6. Cool cupcakes in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
  7. Once cupcakes have cooled, use an apple corer to remove the center of each cupcake.

Peanut Butter Filling

  1. In a medium bowl, beat butter and peanut butter until fully combined.
  2. Add powdered sugar and milk and beat until fluffy. Add more milk if needed.
  3. Transfer to a piping bag.

Buttercream Frosting

  1. In a medium bowl, beat butter and vanilla until smooth.
  2. Add the powdered sugar and milk and beat until combined.
  3. Beat on high speed until light and fluffy.
  4. Separate the frosting into three bowls. Add a few drops of yellow gel food color to one of the bowls, a few drops of orange gel food coloring to a second bowl, and a few drops of violet gel food coloring to the last bowl. Stir each bowl of frosting until the color is completely distributed.
  5. Transfer one of the frostings to a piping bag fitted with a large star piping tip. After decorating with one icing color, clean the piping tip and repeat with remaining colors of frosting.

Assembly

  1. Cut off the tip of the piping bag holding the peanut butter filling. Fill each cupcake with peanut butter frosting.
  2. Using piping bags fitted with a large star tip, decorate the tops of the cupcakes with the colored buttercream frosting.
  3. To make the Winifred cupcake, pipe a swirl of orange frosting on top of a cupcake. Then, pipe two small rounds of frosting on the sides of the frosting swirl.
  4. To make the Mary cupcake, pipe a swirl of violet frosting on top of a cupcake. When you’re piping the swirl, make the rounds smaller as you go up so that it looks a bit uneven and off balance.
  5. To make the Sarah cupcake, pipe a swirl of yellow frosting on top of a cupcake.