Halloween Spider Cupcakes

Spider cupcakes are a fun way to add a touch of horror to your Halloween party. The base of these delicious cupcakes is a Shrek-esque green base and dark dark gray buttercream dyed with activated charcoal.

Try a citrus version

I would have added citrus to the base in some form, for example grated lime zest in the dough, but this time at the kids’ Halloween party, where this batch was going, there were people allergic to citrus so I left it out. However, I would recommend testing this with citrus notes! Try adding the zest of 1-2 limes is grated into the dough! The vibrant green base gives a fun contrast to the dark gray frosting. Inside the cupcakes, I added pieces of Panda's orange Halloween chocolate as a surprise.

Spider web from marshmallows

I made "spider web" from marshmallows for the frosting of the cupcakes. The marshmallow spider webs felt like a difficult thing to do, but in real life it was super fun and easy to make, and didn't require any special skills. I would dare to say that it is sure to succeed -type of decoration and I plan to try it n in the future for all kinds of different baked goods! The cupcakes were perfected with home-made spiders made from black sugar mass.

Halloween Spider Cupcakes

Yield: 12 cupcakes

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INGREDIENTS

CUPCAKES

• 3 dl (1 + 1/3 cup) wheat flour

• 2 dl (3/4 cup) sugar

• 1 tsp of vanilla sugar

• 2 tsp of baking powder

• a pinch of salt

• 2 eggs

• 1 dl (0,4 cup) milk (room temperature)

• 2 tsp of apple cider vinegar

• 1,5 dl (2/3 cup) olive oil

• blue + yellow or ready green caramel color

Frosting

• 500 g powdered sugar

• 200 g room temperature butter

• 2 tsp activated charcoal powder

• 0.5 dl (1/4 cup) milk

DECORATIONS

• blue and green nonparelles

• 1/2 bag marshmallows

• black sugar paste or ready-made spider candies

Preparation

1. Heat the oven to 175 °C. Place the paper liners in the recesses of the muffin tin.

2. Prepare the cupcakes. Mix the dry ingredients together. In another bowl, mix egg, milk, apple cider vinegar, oil and food coloring. Add the dry ingredients to the liquids through a sieve and mix the dough just until it is smooth.

3. Divide the batter into muffin tins (12 pcs) and bake on the middle level of the oven for approx. 17 minutes or until no more batter sticks to a stick inserted into the center of the cupcake.

4. Immediately transfer the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool.

5. Prepare the frosting. Beat the butter, powdered sugar and activated charcoal until foamy.

6. Add the milk while mixing on medium speed. When the milk is completely mixed in, increase the power to full power and continue beating, at least 5 min. The longer you beat, the fluffier the frosting will be.

7. Pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes and sprinkle the edges with colorful nonparelles. I used a mixture of blue and green nonparelles.

8. Refrigerate the frosted cupcakes before decorating. Preferably overnight, so that the frosting is as hard as possible before adding the marshmallow mixture.

9. Decorate with marshmallow webs and spiders. Make spiders out of the black sugar paste. It's almost easiest to make them the day before and let them dry at room temperature.

10. Put the marshmallows on a plate and heat in the microwave for 30-60 seconds. I heated them for 30 seconds at 800W power. The marshmallows become a sticky mass. Insert your fingers into the mixture and take a pinch of mass on all of your fingertips. Take the mass between the fingertips of both hands and then pull the fingers apart and further apart. After a few pinch & pull actions, a “spider webby” marshmallow web should form between your fingers, which you can then stick to the surface of the cupcakes. If necessary, you can re-heat the marshmallow mass again if it starts to harden too much. The job is sticky and messy, but the candy gue comes off easily by washing with warm water.

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