Double chocolate, moist (I said it!), light yet rich cupcakes topped with an easier-than-it-looks spider web are the perfect Halloween treat!
I made these cupcakes for the first time 6 years ago now which is actually crazy to think about! We were living in our first house in Cold Spring and Addie slept the entire time–something that rarely happened! Since the girls are old enough to actually appreciate them and we have a crew of guys coming over to help take out things out of the water for the season I thought a sweet “thank you” was in order! I have a feeling they pair well with Busch Light 😉 I guess we will find out this afternoon!
The spiderwebs are made of candy melts or you could absolutely use melted white chocolate. They are super easy to make–I just printed off a template from this website and laid a piece of parchment paper (wax paper would work as well!) over the top and “traced” with the melted candies. I think I should have stirred in just a little bit of coconut oil so it was a little runnier but, honestly, no one cares how perfect the webs look! I use piping bags because I had them on hand but you could easily use a plastic zip top type bag and snip just a tiny corner off and use that! As you can see from the pictures I did some webs and some piped frosting cupcakes. I used a star piping tip (2D) with a piping bag and the bottom of the barrel of these sprinkles I was thankful I had leftover!
Not only are these cuppies cute as a button, they are so.dang.tasty! I am a huge fan of chocolate and these totally fit the bill! Not overly sweet–light yet decedent, perfectly paired with your morning coffee so be sure to save one…or two! I think Emmie’s face says it all when I told her to hand over the beater!
Give these cuties a try and be sure to tag me when you do! I’m @Krysten_Schwartz on Instagram and use #schwartzandcoeats so we can all follow along! 🙂
Happy Halloween!
Chocolate Spiderweb Cupcakes
Ingredients for the Chocolate Cake
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups white sugar
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup melted (and cooled!) coconut oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 cup strong coffee, cooled
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Give it a quick stir and set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the buttermilk, eggs, oil and vanilla. Turn on the mixer, just to combine. With the mixer on low, pour in the dry ingredients. Once you have added the dry ingredients, pour in the coffee and mix just until they are combined.
Scoop or pour the batter (it is very thin, don’t worry) into a muffin tin that has been lined with cupcake liners. Fill the liners 1/2 way full and pop the pan in the oven for 12-14 minutes or until a toothpick is stuck in the middle and comes out clean. Mine took exactly 12 minutes. Remove from the oven.
If your cupcakes came over the liner and on to the pan, gently take a kitchen knife and separate the cake from the pan. Let the cupcakes cool in the pan until they are set and easily removable. Take them out and place on a cooking rack to cool.
Ingredients for the Spiderwebs
- 2/3 cup white candy melts or white chocolate chips
- 1 teaspoon coconut oil
Pour the white candy melts/chocolate chips into a microwave safe bowl. Pop in the microwave for 20 seconds, remove and stir. Place back in the microwave for another 20 seconds. Continue to do this. If your white chocolate hardens add a bit of the coconut oil to thin things out. Just keep stirring, and stirring and adding a little coconut oil if needed.
Once you are at a good consistency (not to runny but able to pipe with it) place in a zip top or piping bag bag and cut the corner out of it.
Print off this spiderweb template and place it on a flat surface, I just did this on our kitchen counter. Place a piece of wax or parchment paper over the template and trace the template with the white chocolate. I used one large piece of parchment paper and just moved the template around to fill up the paper. Set aside to let them harden.
Ingredients for the Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
- 1 cup room temperature butter
- 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 3 3/4 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the butter and vanilla on medium speed for 3 minutes. Scrape the sides.
While the butter and vanilla combine, take a medium, sized bowl and combine the powdered sugar, cocoa powder and salt. Give it a quick stir.
Once the butter and vanilla are done mixing, slowly add in the dry ingredients. Once those are added, pour in the milk or cream and whip for at least 2 minutes on medium high.
That’s it! Note: that the frosting will darken as it sits.
To Assemble:
Take the chocolate buttercream and frost the cupcakes with a knife. Gently place the white chocolate spider webs on top. The spiderwebs are surprisingly more sturdy than I thought they would be!
*NOTES:
1. The frosting recipe makes quite a bit of buttercream. If you are simply frosting with just a little frosting like I did in the pictures above with the spiderwebs, you can cut the recipe in half and will have enough. If you choose to pipe some and frost some using a knife, you will need a full recipe as piping uses more frosting.
2. The coconut oil does add a little coconut taste to the white chocolate spiderwebs. They taste awesome but I like coconut. If you do not care for coconut, you could use vegetable shortening.
3. These recipes are absolutely amazing but you could totally have the same visual effect by using a boxed cake mix and pre made frosting. I love making things from scratch because it puts joy in my heart and I can control the quality of the ingredients but you do you, boo! 🙂
