Well, I took the plunge. I tried an intimidating recipe today: spider cupcakes. I’ve made cupcakes before but have never done anything “fancy” to them. I’m really good at spreading frosting on them and calling it a day. That, I can do. Design a spider out of the thing? I’m not so sure.
We live right next to a preschool so I thought who better to make cupcakes for than preschoolers? They’ll appreciate my “craft” regardless of what it turns out like, aka they’ll eat anything with enough sugar. Plus, I would feel somewhat pathetic making 24 spider cupcakes for myself (husband’s out of town). I can just picture myself alone, stuffing cupcakes in my mouth watching soap operas…sad.
The ingredients were relatively easy but I knew putting each cupcake together would take some time. I allowed myself about an hour and a half, but it ended up taking a solid 2 hours! The original recipe says it takes 25 minutes to decorate…I’d like to watch someone do this in 25 minutes who isn’t Martha Stewart. By that I mean Martha Stewart has access to a whole team of people so absolutely she will get them done in 25 minutes!
Anyway, first up was cooking the cupcakes. The cupcakes themselves were make from Devil’s Food Cake mix so that part was easy.
While the cupcakes were baking, I started prep work on the spider body parts (ew). Each cupcake needed legs that were made from Twizzler Pull n’ Peels. I used around 9 Twizzlers and peeled each one, then cut each string into 4 sections (this got a little tedious).
Once the cupcakes were done, I prepped my frosting. All I did was scoop out 2 full tablespoons of chocolate frosting and placed it into a zip lock bag. I’ll come back to that later, the rest of the frosting was used on top of the cupcakes.
Frosting time! Somehow, I managed to get frosting on everything: the floor, in my hair, on my shirt…it was a mess.
Now that the cupcakes were good and frosted, it was time to add the hair! How gross is that? A hairy spider mmm. I guess if your hair is made of chocolate sprinkles it’s not that bad.
Now the real work started: the spider’s face and legs. To make the whites of the eyes, I used large marshmallows. Cut 1 marshmallow in half, then use a dot of the reserved frosting to “glue” it to the cupcake.
Next, grab 3 M&M’s, 2 the same color (unless you want crazy eyes!). Dot some frosting on the back of the M&M’s and stick them in the whites of the eyes and below the whites for the mouth (or nose? I don’t know).
Now that the face is done, it’s time for some leg action. Take a toothpick and make 4 holes on each side of the cupcake. Insert a Twizzler piece into each hole and you’ve got your legs! I found that the cupcakes fell apart easily when I was doing this, so some cupcakes had 8 legs and others had 6…hopefully the kids won’t notice.
Spider cupcake! They turned out pretty cute but putting together the face and legs took some serious time. I think the preschoolers liked them though so it was well worth it!
Not only were they time consuming, but my kitchen turned into a disaster! I suppose that’s not the cupcakes fault..
Look towards the upper right hand corner: I have a bag of M&M’s in the dish dryer and a pan with cupcakes in them, sitting right behind it (next to the knives). The ground may have been a better place for that…
Anyway, I delivered 30 cupcakes to the preschoolers and they were a success! Obviously I had to make one for myself too..
Spider never tasted so good..
It’s about to get crazy…if you can’t handle cupcake gore I suggest you look away…and hide ya kids, hide ya wife, and hide ya husbands too (kudos to those who get that 🙂 If you don’t, check out this video).
Mmmm delicious spider. I will say right now, Halloween is probably my favorite holiday. I dress up every year..I love it! I always buy candy for kids too but they usually never come :(. Maybe this year?
These cupcakes are time consuming, but if you have a Halloween party to go to or some kids to feed, definitely give them a try! They will absolutely be a hit!
All that work was worth it- those are absolutely adorable!
I’ll bet those preschoolers are going to be expecting you to come thru with something special at xmas too. The spiders are great. I would never have the patience for putting those together.
i know i’ll have to step it up for xmas!
So cute! I’m going to make these for my kids, they will love them!
This is the cutest thing ever! I love it! (and cupcakes in general but even more when they’re holiday themed!) 🙂
Holy Smokes! Those are amazing! I have always wanted to make these cutie cupcakes, but never had the patience! I bet they did taste extra delicious!
I found your blog today and though I’d leave a comment.
My kid’s preschool has a “no homemade foods rule.” I asked why and they explained it was new food safety guideline in our state. all foods have to be pre-packaged (like little debbies) or made in a health certified kitchen by health certified people, like a “real bakery.” poor kids lose out on neat treats!
When i do make stuff like this, I heat up the icing a little bit, like 30 seconds in the microwave, so it spreads easier and ice the cakes while warm (but not hot). After done icing/decorating, i like to pop the cakes back into the oven for about 2 mins until the icing just melts (but not the candy!) and then put them in the fridge overnight. i know, it takes up a lot of space but this “sets” the icing and makes it smear resistance if you have to put the treats in baggies. It’s horrible to spend all that time decorating a fancy cake and it smears in seconds! Also, when i “sprinkle” i put the sprinkles in a bowl and mush the iced part of the cake into the sprinkles instead of scattering sprinkles over the top, just to cut down on the mess.
my mom loves to give me fancy cupcake tutorial books, but i never make any. since we’re allowed to make food AT my kid’s preschool but not at home, I’ve played with the idea of using icing and sprinkles to decorate pretzel sticks for the kids. It wouldn’t take but a few minutes but they’d like it. rold-gold pretzels are a magic food that the gluten-free kids can have.
oh, i always have like 3/4 or more of the tub of frosting left and it usually goes to waste. pillsbury has a recipe book of stuff you can make out of the frosting. My fav thing to do with that stuff is pour a bag of chips (like pb or chocolate) into the tub of frosting, nuke for about 90 seconds, mix well and dump into a greased cake sheet or jelly roll pan and pop in the fridge for an hour. You can add 1-2 cups of nuts or other candies. makes about 36 pieces. YOU NOW HAVE FUDGE!
oo i love that fudge idea! i have leftover chocolate chips and frosting so i’ll have to give it a try! ya i was honestly surprised the preschool allowed me to bring food over. i asked her first because i expected them to say no, but she said it was fine! maybe it’s a small town thing i have no idea? it is kind of too bad..but i guess i understand parents concerns. thank you so much for the comment and all the new ideas!!