A Halloween Spider Cupcakes Recipe with homemade cake batter better than any boxed cake mix, plus light and fluffy dark chocolate ganache filling? You can't go wrong!

Well. You can, and I did. But even a spider Halloween cupcakes FAIL tastes like your new favorite Halloween treat (and therefore a WIN), when you use any of our delicious Halloween recipes on Sarah Scoop.

A Tale of Two Spider Cupcakes for Halloween

If you make the recipe as written to the dot, you will come up with something exactly like (or very similar, at least) the simple but cute cupcakes topped with chocolate frosting, chocolaty sprinkles, candy eyeballs, and licorice legs. 

The delicious hidden (and technically optional) secret is dark chocolate ganache injected into the chocolate cupcake base with a pipette.

This is only a secret, however, if you don't continue, using the pipette like a piping bag and trying the ganache as the body of the spider.

Rather than use candy eyeballs, I tried a mini marshmallow cut it half, one half per eye.

The creative dessert couldn't stop there! I grabbed a little black molding chocolate to make the spider legs.

Using black edible ink, I dotted their little marshmallow eyes... then, unsatisfied, attempted to add a tiny ganache iris around each pupil. The results?

Well. The good news is you can't really go wrong with both cupcakes are death-by-chocolate delicious.

Don't judge spooky spiders by their messy little faces but by their tasty insides! Wait...

Here's the scoop on how to (effectively) create this Halloween Spider Cupcakes recipe. Get ready to make the best spooky masterpiece, step by step.

Ingredients

Chocolate Cupcake Base

• 1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour
• 1 ⅔ cup sugar
• 1 ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• ¾ cup vegetable oil
• ⅔ cup cocoa powder
• 1 ¼ cup water
• 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Dark Chocolate Ganache

• 1 ⅓ cup dark chocolate chips
• 1 cup heavy cream
• optional: 2 tablespoons corn syrup

Spider Cupcake Toppings

• chocolate royal icing
• chocolate sprinkles
• black licorice strips
• candy eyes

Instructions

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line the cupcake pan with liners.
2. In a large mixing bowl, add eggs, oil, cocoa, water, and vanilla extract. Combine well.
3. In a separate bowl, add flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. Combine well.
4. Add flour mixture to a large mixing bowl of wet ingredients. Using a hand-held mixer, beat at medium speed until well combined.
5. Fill cupcake liners a little over ½ way. (If using a large ice cream scoop, fill each liner with one full scoop.)

Cooking

1. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out mostly clean.
2. Remove the cupcakes from the oven, allowing them to cool on a cooling rack for 5-10 minutes.
3. While the cupcakes cool, prepare ganache filling by heating heavy cream on the stovetop at medium heat.
4. Once the heavy cream starts to bubble, remove it from the heat and add chocolate chips. Mix well until thoroughly combined.
5. If desired, add corn syrup for shine and add vanilla extract for flavor.
6. Fill a pipette or syringe with ganache, inserting in the top center of each cupcake to fill carefully.

Serving

1. Cool completely before decorating.
2. Prepare your chocolate royal icing in a piping bag and pour the sprinkles into a bowl or tray.
3. Pipe flood-density icing onto a cupcake like a chocolate glaze, immediately rolling in the bowl of sprinkles. Repeat for each cupcake.
4. Press candy eyes on each cupcake, using a little icing or ganache on the back of any eyes that aren't sticking.
5. Divide strips of peelable licorice into short 2-inch segments, inserting eight legs on each cupcake.
6. Store in an airtight storage container or single-serving containers, or serve on a kid-friendly Halloween dessert platter or board.

Tips & Variations

• No pipette or handy dandy syringe to fill your easy spider cupcakes? Using a butter knife, core out the middle of each cupcake. Partially fill the cupcake cavity with ganache filling, lightly replacing the cored-out crumb before icing.
• Out of sprinkles? After you frost cupcakes, roll them instead in mini chocolate morsels, chips, or shavings.
• Another great option is rolling your just-iced cupcakes in crushed Oreos before placing a mini Oreo spider head off-center atop the cupcake. Pipe white frosting onto the Oreo cookie head as eyes, using a dot of black or orange frosting as the pupil.
• Instead of using the royal icing to create a smooth spider skin, you can thicken it just a bit with powdered sugar and pipe it in repetitive quick kisses to make the cupcakes into spikey spiders.
• If you can't stand black licorice but your spiders can't stand without legs, then try mini pretzel legs instead.
• When possible, give the cupcakes a day in the fridge before decorating, to lengthen each spider's life.

Food for Thought

When you go to bake cupcakes for your next Halloween party, make spider cupcakes and make a scene.

This Halloween spider cupcakes recipe is incredibly easy to make, and you'll enjoy these spider cupcakes almost as much as all of your friends will.

Whether your cute Halloween dessert ends up lopsided with 4 legs or looking better than those designer recipes on Facebook, the taste will be irresistible every time.

Yield: 12 cupcakes

Halloween Spider Cupcakes Recipe

Print

Got a Halloween party and need spooky chocolate cupcakes NOW? This Halloween Spider Cupcakes Recipe gives Halloween cupcakes sure to please.

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients

CHOCOLATE CUPCAKE BASE

Toggle ingredient group

• 1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour
• 1 ⅔ cup sugar
• 1 ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• ¾ cup vegetable oil
• ⅔ cup cocoa powder
• 1 ¼ cup water
• 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

DARK CHOCOLATE GANACHE

Toggle ingredient group

• 1 ⅓ cup dark chocolate chips
• 1 cup heavy cream
• optional: 2 tablespoons corn syrup

SPIDER CUPCAKE TOPPINGS

Toggle ingredient group

• chocolate royal icing
• chocolate sprinkles
• black licorice strips
• candy eyes

Instructions

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line cupcake pan with liners.

2. In a large mixing bowl, add eggs, oil, cocoa, water and vanilla extract. Combine well.

3. In a separate bowl, add flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. Combine well.

4. Add flour mixture to large mixing bowl of wet ingredients. Using a hand-held mixer, beat at medium speed until well combined.

5. Fill cupcake liners a little over ½ way. (If using a large ice cream scoop, fill each liner with one full scoop.)

Cooking

1. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out mostly clean.

2. Remove the cupcakes from oven, allowing to cool on a cooling rack for 5-10 minutes.

3. While cupcakes cool, prepare ganache filling by heating heavy cream on stove top at medium heat.

4. Once the heavy cream starts to bubble, remove from heat and add chocolate chips. Mix well until thoroughly combined.

5. If desired, add corn syrup for shine and add vanilla extract for flavor.

6. Fill a pipette or syringe with ganache, inserting in the top center of each cupcake to fill carefully.

Serving

1. Cool completely before decorating.
2. Prepare your chocolate royal icing in a piping bag and pour the sprinkles into a bowl or tray.
3. Pipe flood-density icing onto a cupcake like a chocolate glaze, immediately rolling in the bowl of sprinkles. Repeat for each cupcake.
4. Press candy eyes on each cupcake, using a little icing or ganache on the back of any eyes that aren't sticking.
5. Divide strips of peelable licorice into short 2-inch segments, inserting eight legs on each cupcake.
6. Store in an airtight storage container or single-serving containers, or serve on a kid-friendly Halloween dessert platter or board.

Notes

• No pipette or handy dandy syringe to fill your easy spider cupcakes? Using a butter knife, core out the middle of each cupcake. Partially fill cupcake cavity with ganache filling, lightly replacing the cored-out crumb before icing.
• Out of sprinkles? After you frost cupcakes, roll them instead in mini chocolate morsels, chips, or shavings.
• Another great option is rolling your just-iced cupcakes in crushed Oreos before placing a mini Oreo spider head off-center atop the cupcake. Pipe white frosting onto the Oreo cookie head as eyes, using a dot of black or orange frosting as the pupil.
• Instead of using the royal icing to create a smooth spider skin, you can thicken it just a bit with powdered sugar and pipe it in repetitive quick kisses to make the cupcakes into spikey spiders.
• If you can't stand black licorice but your spiders can't stand without legs, then try mini pretzel legs instead.
• When possible, give the cupcakes a day in the fridge before decorating, to lengthen each spider's life.

Be brave and bold, my glorious ghosts, and have a delicious Halloween!

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