Snackin’ on the Spiderwebs

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I know that summer is coming to close when two things happen: 1. I no longer have to get up before the sun to take my dogs for a walk without dying, and 2. I begin to have an uncontrollable yearning to put pumpkin spice or caramel in literally everything. Both of these things occurred over the weekend, so between that and 31 Nights of Halloween premiering on FreeForm, I’d say we’ve safely made it to my favorite season, as well as my favorite month, of all: BAKETOBER! I had initially planned to make my first Baketober event a Hocus Pocus cake, but since I am still feeling victimized by the Disney-fied second movie that dropped last week (it couldn’t hold a black flame candle to the original), I just wasn’t up to running amok, amok, amok, if you will. Instead I was feeling a little creepy, a little crawly, and a little like something sparkly might make things better. So, I made these sparkly spiderweb cupcakes instead, and I gotta tell you, as much as I hate spiders (the only thing with 8 legs that can be trusted is an octopus), these filled me with great, spooky glee.

Pictures simply do not do the sparkles justice; since I refuse to shell out money to WordPress so I can upload videos, head to my Instagram to get the full sparkle effect; truly, the only time spiderwebs have been mesmerizing and not terrifying. I tried a new gluten free cake mix to make these scrumptious caramel-flavored cupcakes with caramel cream cheese frosting. I’d rate it a 6 of 10 purely because there’s so much cornstarch in the mix that it tastes more like a caramel-flavored cornbread recipe than a cupcake. It’s not bad though, and the caramel cream cheese frosting brings it back into dessert and not side dish territory. I can’t really complain since they’re also only 154 calories for one cupcake, so I can eat two at a time and still fit into my Halloween costume later this month.

For this recipe, I used:

• 1 box gluten free yellow cake mix
• 2/3 cup fat free milk
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 tsp caramel extract

Start by preheating the oven to 350 and lining two muffin tins with 12-15 cupcake liners (this made 15 cupcakes for me). Mix all ingredients on low in a stand mixer for 30 seconds before turning to medium-high speed for one and a half minutes. Divide batter evenly into the cupcake liners and bake for 22-25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out with some crumbs.

Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a cooling rack. You can put this in the fridge or freezer to speed up the process while you make frosting.

The frosting is the clear winner in this recipe, but that’s usually the case when you have a sweet tooth or 32. To make this totes fall apropes caramel cream cheese, you’ll need:

• 8 ounces (225 g) of 1/3 the fat cream cheese at room temp
• 1 cup (226 g) plain, non-fat Greek yogurt, strained overnight
• 4 cups/1 bag of Lakanto powdered monkfruit or regular powdered sugar
• 2 tsp caramel extract
• 2 tsp clear vanilla extract
• To make black frosting later:
  • 1 ounce (2 TBS) black cocoa
  • Black gel dye
  • 1 TBS fat free milk

Start by mixing the cream cheese and yogurt until smooth and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Add in half the powdered monkfruit or sugar and half of the extracts. Mix on low until incorporated, then add remaining monkfruit and extracts. If the frosting seems too thick after mixing together, add 1 tsp of milk at a time until you get an easily spreadable consistency.

Before you do anything else to the frosting, load some plain white frosting into a piping bag and snip a decent chunk off. Use this to pipe a circle of frosting on top of each of your cooled cupcakes. Then take a sheet of Parchment paper and place it on a large cookie sheet. Flip a cupcake upside down and gently press onto the surface of the Parchment paper. Repeat on all cupcakes, then place in the freezer to set for 30 minutes.

I found this template on the web (irony). The whole design process is actually very simple. You only need the template, some black edible glitter, and if you want to also pipe spiders, a #12 round tip and a #5 round tip, and some eerie sprinkles for eyes.

Once you’ve got your cupcakes in the freezer, you can dye your remaining frosting black. Honestly, my spidey senses tingled a little, and I wish I had set aside plain white frosting to dye bright purple or lime green because my black spiders on sparkly black background got lost. So if you want to pipe spiders, save a little frosting to dye a brighter color. Then add 1 ounce of black cocoa and squeeze of black gel dye to the white frosting and mix. Things will probably get pretty thick, so a tablespoon of milk will thin things out.

Take your cupcakes out of the freezer, and set your stencil on top of a cupcake. Press gently to secure the template to the cupcake.

Slather a thick layer of black frosting on top of the template, then use an angled spatula to smooth across the top of the cupcake to get into the grooves of the stencil before swiping away excess frosting, wiping the spatula off with each pass over the top of the stencil to remove more black frosting. Once you can start to see the white of the stencil again, stop swiping and dip a food-safe paintbrush into the edible black glitter and tap this on top of the cupcake. Repeat until the top of your cupcake sparkles like the darkest abyss.

Very carefully, peel the template off the top of the cupcake to reveal your spiderweb. It can be a little tricky, but use a slow, steady hand (and beweave in yourself) to remove the stencil completely.

To make a spider, load your purple/lime/orange/yellow/red whatever color you choose to dye a little frosting into a piping bag with a coupler and a #12 tip. Pipe a large blob for the body and a smaller blob for the head. Switch to a #5 tip to draw all eight ungodly gross legs, then finish with a few bright sprinkles for eyes.

If you like cornbread with honey, then boy is this the box cake mix for you. If you like your cupcakes a little more dessert-y, skip Nature Made brand. We’re still gonna eat the whole bundle because 1. Spooky cupcakes, and 2. Caramel cream cheese frosting is absolutely divine. It’s like getting a caramel apple without risk of losing a tooth when you bite into it- smooth, creamy, caramely. Keep leftover cupcakes in the fridge for as long as they last (if you make it past three days without devouring every last one, congrats, you have more willpower than I do). I am SO HAPPY it’s finally October, and I’ll be back again next weekend with a spooky breakfast bake. Because dessert shouldn’t be the only meal (it’s a meal in this house) that gets to be frightfully delightful. ‘Til next time, my fellow eaters!

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