Black Widow Spider Halloween Cupcakes

Do come into my parlour asks Mr Spider on this eerie Halloween Night! My venomous bite awaits anyone who “DARES” to step this way!!

Wishing you and your family a most spook- tastic Halloween.

My Black Widow Spider cupcakes are chocolate sponged based, covered in a layer of icing with black icing piped around in a circle and drawn into a web shape, perfect for a themed Halloween party. You don’t need to add the plastic spiders; the webs look pretty on their own. They can be made very quickly for anyone wanting to bake something in a hurry.

Here is my recipe

Black Widow Spider Halloween Cupcakes

Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients
For The Sponge
110g (4 oz) self-raising flour
50g (2 oz) cocoa powder
175g (6 oz) soft butter
3 eggs
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp chocolate extract
For The Icing
225g (8 oz) icing sugar
Few drops of lemon juice
Few drops of water
Edible black sugar flare icing colour

You will need 12-hole muffin tin and line with 12 paper cases and an Icing bag with a writing nozzle.

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C/400°F/Gas mark 6.

For The Sponge, in a bowl add the butter and sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add each egg one at a time and beat until all incorporated then add the chocolate extract and milk and mix in well.

Sift the flour and cocoa powder together and fold in the mixture gently until all is combined.

Fill the sponge mixture to 3/4 full in each paper case. Place into the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes or until firm to touch and skewer inserted into the centre of the sponge comes out clean. Lave to cool for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.

Make the icing, sieve the icing sugar into a bowl and add a few drops of lemon juice and a few drops of water to make a stiff but runny icing. Leave a little of the icing in another bowl, colour black by using a cocktail stick dipped into the black colouring then into the icing, mix and add more colour until the required colour is achieved.

Spoon the white icing over the top of the cupcakes and fill the piping bag with black icing. Pipe in circles around the top and then with a cocktail stick or skewer draw a line outwards, carry on at intervals doing this until it forms a spider web appearance. Stick a toy spider on top if using them to decorate. *Please be careful that the spiders are removed before eating the cupcakes*.

Note. You can use vanilla extract instead of chocolate extract and/or add orange zest for a choc-orange combo.