Spiderweb Cupcakes

This year is going to be the year that I make more Halloween treats than ever before.

And since the only time I have ever made a Halloween treat was last year, and it was just the one recipe, this year with my candy corn peanut butter and this cupcake recipe, I have already DOUBLED the amount of Halloween recipes I made last year. Take that 2013.

Now I would like you to look at these cupcakes. What do you see?

Other than deliciously orange frosting, I just see a regular cupcake. But what does my boyfriend see? “Too much icing” he claims. Armed with a butter knife, whenever he takes a cupcake I catch him scraping half of the icing into the garbage.

Horrified, as I often am when people waste food (or FROSTING!) I take the knife away from his hand and scoop half of his frosting into my mouth. Even though he looks at me disapprovingly, I am not going stand and watch some cream cheese laden, rich frosting go to waste. My new life mission.

And while these cupcakes are orange, I am sad to say that they are not pumpkin in any way. If you are asking me what is my problem, and why I have not yet baked with pumpkin even though it is well into fall, my response is..I don’t know. I bought a can of pumpkin a week ago, and it’s just sitting in my shelf. Staring back at me with pleading eyes. Waiting to make my baking life a little better.

To this can of pumpkin all I can say is…soon.

But let me talk about these cupcakes just a little more. The cake part: so moist. The frosting part: SO good! My boyfriend is one of those people who likes things plain and healthy, so I’m not sure I can get him on board with my frosting techniques, which oftentimes include piping some of the frosting into my mouth. Shh, don’t tell.

The chocolate spiderwebs are what sends these cupcakes over the top. I made only a handful of them because, unlike my sister, I am NOT an artist. Half of the spiderwebs I made turned out to look like lifeless blobs of chocolate. Of course, since I couldn’t put them onto the cupcakes, what is a girl to do but to eat all the defective ones? Which somehow ended up becoming more and more when I came to that realization.

I would suggest maybe using a spider web template such as this one to avoid what happened to me. But my chocoholic self is not endorsing that piece of advice one bit.

Spiderweb Cupcakes

These Spiderweb Cupcakes are perfect for Halloween desserts. Made with a chocolate spiderweb to decorate the cake and orange colored frosting. 

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Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes minutes

Servings: 24

Ingredients

Cupcakes

• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water

Frosting

• 8 oz butter, softened
• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 6 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• orange food color ( I mixed yellow and red gel icing color)

Spiderwebs

• 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Instructions

• Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line two muffin tins with paper liners. Set aside.
• Cake: In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt until fully combined.
• Add in the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla, mixing until fully incorporated.
• Stir in the boiling water. The batter will be very thin..
• Scoop the batter into the muffin tins, around 3/4 full. Bake in the preheated oven for 14 – 17 minutes or until a toothpick comes out with some moist crumbs, but no liquid.
• Let cool for 5 minutes in the pans, and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool. Let cool completely before frosting.
• Frosting: In a large bowl, cream together the butter and the cream cheese until light and fluffy. Mix in the icing sugar 1 cup at a time until fully incorporated. Mix in the vanilla, cinnamon, and icing color if using. Pipe onto cooled cupcakes.
• Spiderwebs: In a microwave safe bowl, melt the chocolate in 30 second intervals, stiring until the chocolate is melted. Pour the chocolate into a large freezer bag. Place some wax paper on a baking sheet. Cut the end off of the freezer bag, and pipe the chocolate onto the wax paper, creating your spider webs. Freeze until hard, then place on the cupcakes.