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
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.
Mmmmm! Yes, please! Cute and kitschy, but oh, so good! You gotta love a holiday cupcake worthy of the classroom party!
Hey! At least you used wholemeal flour, right? That's healthy.. and one can only make so many compromises, haha!
Seriously though, these cupcakes look flawless! The colour of the frosting is sooo nice, and there isn't too much of it, it's the perfect amount 🙂 The ones you get in the cupcakeries have too much frosting on them…
Nah, I'd wanna get my claws on these any day, especially now to help overcome this stupid cold I've got! Thanks for the recipe Cathleen! ^ ^ I hope you have a lovely weekend! x
Oh, these are fantastic! So cute – but also really impressive!
Next time you just bake him muffins.
These cupcakes look excellent!
Wow these are really gorgeous!
These cupcakes are so cute! Love how festive you decorated them!
Lovely cute muffins
These look great! It kills me to waste food too! Frosting is my weakness.
Cathleen, I can see that you love your frosting!
Gahhhhh! It is so wrong to scrape cream cheese frosting off of a cupcake! There's never too much frosting when it's made of cream cheese! I love that bite shot – now that's some frosting!!! 🙂 And, I love the little webs on top – so cute!
These are so cute and festive! I love the little spiderwebs.
These are gorgeous! I love your frosting job 🙂
Ooft these cupcakes are BEAUTIFUL 😀
I wish I had time to bake for halloween but my exams fall smack bang after!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
I love the spiderwebs on this. So creative!
Dannii – http://www.hungryhealthyhappy.com
Oh my gosh I'm in love with these! The colors are awesome and they sound so delish. Love that web on top too; how perfect for a class party!
These are adorable! Perfect for Halloween!
I have very few Halloween recipes, too…3 that I can think of. Your cupcakes are so cute! The spiderwebs are such a cute, delicious garnish!
pipe the frosting into your mouth? that will scare off your boyfriend, i'm sure! LOL! i like the colour of your frosting, very lovely!
What sweet cupcakes! Love that yellow frosting too. Meanwhile your site upgrade is really lovely!
These look great and the frosting looks amazing.
These cupcakes look so fun and so yummy! Thanks for sharing! PINNED!
What cute cupcakes!!! I definitely didnt make enough Halloween treats this year!