Zombie Cupcake Recipe + Zombie co*cktail Recipe! | Let's Eat Cake (2024)

How do you make zombie cupcakes? Not the undead, brain-eating kind of zombie cupcake, but cupcakes fashioned after the Zombie co*cktail invented by Donn Beach in 1934? The Zombie co*cktail that kickstarted the tiki co*cktail movement? Well, if you’re inventing the zombie cupcakes from scratch, it takes a little research and some mad scientist testing in the kitchen, but if you’re making them based on the recipe below, it’s easy if you have all the ingredients!

Scroll for the story and the zombie co*cktail recipe or skip to the zombie cupcake recipe!

Zombie co*cktail History

In 1934, at a Polynesian-themed restaurant in Los Angeles, a Texan by the name of Ernest Raymond Beaumont Gantt, invented the Zombie. Or, as the better known version of the story goes, in 1934 Donn Beach invented the Zombie co*cktail at his Tiki restaurant Don the Beachcomber in Hollywood, California. Both versions are true. And, at least as far as history is concerned, Beach is also, reportedly, responsible for creating most of the tropical drinks we know today, including the Mai Tai.

I love a perfectly-made, subtle co*cktail. And there are plenty of fantastic places here in LA where I can enjoy those (the Raymond 1886 in Pasadena, the Chestnut Club in Santa Monica, the Corner Door – and wherever Beau duBois goes after this as he’s a co*cktail genius.). But, sometimes, an over-the-top rum co*cktail fitted with all sorts of garnishes is just the thing. And then, I go to a tiki bar.

One of my all-time favorite tiki bars is the Zombie Hut in Brooklyn. But, I have to be honest, I really preferred it before they moved locations. Their original location in Carroll Gardens was dimly-lit, island-inspired, and atmospheric as all getout. Though you didn’t really want to sit on the couches for fear something might crawl on you. And that’s where I had my first Zombie. Their version came frozen with a shot of 151 in the straw. And you were only allowed two. (This is a general bartender rule with Zombie co*cktails, but I don’t think I’d be able to stand after two anyway.) It was strong and tart and all sorts of delicious. Their new location had giant flatscreen TVs. Enough said.

I hear there’s a good zombie drink at Disneyland, though I don’t know which is better: the secret menu one at the Cove Bar or the one at Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar. Let me know in the comments if you’ve tried either! I do know Trader Sam’s has a rad shrunken head Tiki mug for their Zombie drink.

How to Make a Zombie co*cktail

This is where the creating the Zombie Cupcakes got fun. There are many different recipes for the Zombie drink out there and many zombie co*cktails has different ingredients. That’s because Donn was super secretive about his co*cktail recipes. So that his employees (or other bar owners posing as patrons) wouldn’t steal his recipes, he premixed his spices and mixes and numbered the bottles. According to an interview tiki expert and author Jeff “Beachbum” Berry did with the New York Times, “His recipes were all in code. So a recipe might say one half-ounce of number two, a dash of number four.”

But, thanks to the work Berry did uncovering the coveted, closely-guarded secret Zombie co*cktail recipe, I was able to recreate it in Zombie cupcake form.

Zombie co*cktail Recipe

• 1 1/2 ounces gold rum
• 1 1/2 ounces dark rum
• 1 ounce 151-proof rum
• 1 tsp. grenadine
• 6 drops Pernod
• dash Angostura bitters
• 1/2 ounce Don’s mix (2 parts grapefruit: 1 part cinnamon syrup – Beachbum Berry has the recipe in his book Sippin’ Safari)
• 3/4 ounce fresh lime juice
• 1/2 ounce falernum

Blend with ice, pour into a mug, add ice, and garnish with mint.

How to Make a Zombie Cupcake

Now that I had the recipe, I had to go about turning this zombie co*cktail into a zombie cupcake. And not one that just tasted like rum. To create the cupcake, I first converted the non-rum ingredients (the grenadine, bitters, grapefruit, cinnamon syrup, lime juice, and falernum) into teaspoons to get a sense of how much liquid there was going to be in this cupcake.

I then combined all of the ingredients (swapping grenadine for maraschino cherry syrup since I had some leftover from the Pina Colada cupcakes) and added crushed fennel seeds in place of Pernod to give the mixture a hint of anise flavor and cinnamon instead of cinnamon syrup. I toned down the cinnamon so it wouldn’t overpower the other flavors and added a splash (1/2 tsp.) of gold rum.

I set the mixture aside and started mixing together my go-to cupcake recipe. After adding the wet and dry mixtures, I added the zombie liquid and tasted the batter. To help the zombie flavor come through, I added more bitters, lime, and grapefruit juice. Then I baked them, frosted them with a grapefruit and lime frosting (for that 151-in-the-straw zing!) and, voila! Sweet, tart, Zombie Cupcakes!

Enjoy them at your next tiki party or bake them for Halloween and add a fun scary frosting design on top!

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Oh, and if you’re curious what things looked like behind-the-scenes for this shoot…