Spooky spider cupcakes and witches

Even though I’ve never trick or treated, or had clusters of kids roaming my streets in dress-ups, I love that there are parts of the world which are neighbourly enough for this to happen! I’ve got some pretty decent neighbours, but I know that there are a few grinches on the street as well… my brothers and I used to think that one elderly woman who lived next door was a witch!!

We’re yet to see evidence to prove us wrong.

She used to hoard our tennis/bouncy/basket/cricket balls when they went over her fence – she’d line them up so that we could see them from the top of our steps, as though goading us into knocking on her front door. Then when we ran out of balls, we’d play scissors, paper, rock to determine who would knock on her door.

If she did answer her door, she’d make a big deal of having to do so, as though she had a really busy life inside her house that nobody else was privy to.

She’d tell us to open her side gate ourselves and be speedy. The latter of these instructions was totally unnecessary, we wouldn’t have dreamed of sticking around in her sparse, soulless backyard, we didn’t want to risk having a spell cast on us!

Whenever I saw daddy long legs I’d imagine that they were her minions. Needless to say, I still get creeped out by daddy long legs, even though I know they’re harmless. These cupcakes are harmless AND they’re delicious – I love that they’re packed with extra lollies on top, because the only thing that can improve a cupcake in my eyes is adding extra sugar!!

Spooky spider cupcakes

You’ll need:

• 1 chocolate cupcake mixture
• Vanilla buttercream (150g butter, 2 cups icing sugar, 1 tsp vanilla)
• Rainbow laces (or licorice straps)
• Chocolate freckles

I used the chocolate cupcakes found here, but you  can use whatever cupcake recipe you want as a base for these critters.

When you’ve got your cupcakes baked and cooled, whip the butter, icing sugar and vanilla together until smooth and pale. Pipe or spoon enough buttercream, onto each cupcake to cover it generously.

Spread the icing around the cupcake with a palette knife until you’ve got a smooth surface. Grab your chocolate freckle and place one in the centre of each cupcake.

Now take your rainbow laces and cut them into 2cm strips. I got my rainbow laces from the $1 lolly section of K-Mart…I have no idea what they’re made of, but they were colourful and sweet! You could substitute licorice straps or raspberry straps, anything that is tube-like and kind of resembles spiders’ legs. Take the small sections of leg and arrange them on either side of the freckle so that they look like legs.

Easy, right?

I take no responsibility if these little creatures scurry off once you’ve put them out on your serving platters – you’ve been warned!

Serve the cupcakes to your Halloween victims (or guests, whatever) and put the the rest of the leftover rainbow laces out labelled as something gross like “frog guts”, or “witch’s hair” – use your imagination!!