Halloween Eats & Treats: Spider Cupcakes

I had so much fun coming up with treats to serve for our Halloween party last weekend. One treat I knew I had to make was cupcakes! I had picked up a copy of Martha Stewart's Cupcakes awhile ago and really wanted a good excuse to begin trying the recipes.

I settled on the Devil's Food Cupcakes because, they ARE chocolate and I can't resist a chocolate cupcake. The only drawback to this recipe is that it has several more steps to it. You have to mix the cocoa with hot water, melt butter with sugar and combine all of these ingredients at different times. I had the time to spend on the cupcakes for this party, but many times I don't and for those times I'd go with a simpler recipe. Head over to Martha's website (HERE) for the full recipe - after you read the rest of my post first, of course!


I must say, I was so happy with the way they turned out! I got the idea on how to decorate them from the ghoulish goodies cookbook. There were so many fun Halloween recipe ideas and I've got many marked to try next year. I used the cream cheese frosting from that book to decorate these spooky spiders. Then, dipped them in chocolate jimmies. The red "legs" are cut pieces of the Twizzler pull apart licorice. I ended up using a chop stick to poke holes into the cupcake to make sure that the "legs" would stay inside. Then, two red mini M&M's for eyes.

If you are not confident in doing the fancy icing work that decorated cucpakes often call for, this is a great way to create a fun Halloween treat for the kids! I will definitely be marking this as one to repeat!

Be sure to come on back, I have a few more Halloween recipes to share this week!


Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
Source: ghoulish goodies

Ingredients

• 1 (8 ounce) package of cream cheese - at room temperature
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter at room temperature
• 6 cups confectioner's sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Directions

1. Mix all ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer until well-blended. Immediately spread on completely cooled cupcakes or cake.
2. Refrigerate any leftover frosting.

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