Spider Cupcakes for Halloween

These easy Spider Cupcakes for Halloween are the perfect Halloween treat for kids and adults alike!

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Spider Cupcakes for Halloween

If you aren’t a longtime reader of my blog, or in case you weren’t already clued into it previously in other posts, hi, my name is Lisa, and I’m deathly afraid of spiders. I super-de-duper love Halloween so much – I love decorating for Halloween, I love dressing up for Halloween, baking for Halloween, throwing a Halloween party.

But when it comes to sharing Halloween treats, I don’t want to scare kids with our baked creations. You won’t find any spooky spider cupcakes here, just adorable friendly looking Halloween spider cupcakes that aren’t scary for kids.

Easy Spider Cupcakes Recipe

I like creating and sharing easy recipes, and this fun Halloween recipe is no different! The decorating on top is the most important part of this recipe, which is why I give you the opportunity to use either your favorite boxed chocolate cake mix or your tried and true trusted chocolate cupcake recipe!

I get into the nitty gritty of the decorating details with creating the perfect homemade buttercream frosting as a base for the fondant and icing spiders. Makes it easy for you and easy for kids to help create, too!

Halloween Spider Cupcakes

For this recipe, I used regular disposable paper cupcake liners but you can use reusable silicone cupcake liners (my personal fave, I just didn’t have enough on hand this time), or Halloween-themed cupcake liners! You can even use the regular liners with this spiderweb cupcake wrap if you wanted, it really adds more fun!

Halloween Treat Recipes

Check out my other Halloween recipes perfect for parties!

• Frankenstein Cupcakes
• Halloween waffles
• Alien cupcakes
• Pretzel Spiders
• Ghost Pudding
• Mummy Hot Dogs
• Homemade Halloween Whoopie Pies

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Tips to Make Halloween Spider Cupcakes

We made this spider cupcakes recipe super simple using ready-made black fondant (my hero!) for the spider bodies and black decorating frosting to draw on their spider legs. Can’t find black decorating frosting? You can easily use black licorice pieces if you want! I rather using the frosting though, not only is it fun to draw on their little legs, but I feel it tastes better too!

How to Make Spider Cupcakes for Halloween

To make these adorable Spider Cupcakes for Halloween, you will need the following ingredients:

• Your favorite chocolate cake mix with all ingredients to make it (or you can use your favorite tried and true chocolate cake/cupcake recipe) to prepare 24 chocolate cupcakes
• Black fondant
• Softened butter
• Confectioners’ or powdered sugar
• Milk
• Wilton Christmas Red gel food coloring
• Wilton Buttercup Yellow gel food coloring
• Green decorating frosting
• Black decorating frosting

You will also need the following tools:

• Electric mixer
• Wire rack
• Whisk
• Mixing bowl set
• Toothpicks
• Wilton tip #12
• Piping bag
• Wilton tip #3
• Wilton tip #5

To begin, prepare cupcakes using your favorite chocolate cake mix or recipe in a large bowl and be sure to preheat your oven to 350 degrees (or whatever temp recommended in your recipe/box).

As soon as your chocolate cupcakes are done baking in the oven, move them to a wire rack for cooling. Cooling your cupcakes on a wire rack allow for air to travel below the cupcake through the rack to cool them more quickly, evenly, and thoroughly in order to decorate safely.

As the cupcakes cool down, let’s move on to preparing the fondant spider body! Grab the black fondant and roll out twelve (24) 1-inch (or so) black fondant spheres and set aside.

Next, roll out 24 half-inch black fondant spheres. They don’t have to be perfect! On one toothpick, insert one 1-inch sphere, followed by the smaller sphere. Gently squeeze the end of the larger sphere, giving it a rounded-cone shape for the spider’s hiney. It should look somewhat egg-shaped!

Repeat for all spheres with toothpicks. Trim the toothpicks so that they are no longer visible. NOTE: Please share with the kids when serving that there is a toothpick inside the spider bodies so they don’t accidentally chomp on them!

Now that the spider bodies are done, let’s start on the frosting! Using an electric mixer, beat together your softened butter, powdered sugar, and milk until smooth. Start with the electric mixer’s speed set to low and gradually increase to high speed.

Add the red and yellow gel food coloring into the buttercream mixture and beat until completely tinted to create the perfect shade of orange. Scoop your fully mixed orange buttercream into a piping bag with Wilton tip #12 attached. Before frosting, check to make sure your cupcakes are room temperature (so your frosting doesn’t slide off from the warmth).

Frost each cooled cupcake starting with the center and moving it around in a circle, gradually getting larger, until the top of the cupcake is completely covered with frosting, as shown.

Place one fondant spider body onto each of the frosted cupcakes.

Using Wilton tip #3 attached to the green decorating frosting, frost two small eyes onto each spider head (the smaller fondant sphere) with the green decorating frosting. Just two small green dots side by side, as shown.

Using Wilton tip #5 attached to the black decorating frosting, frost four legs onto each side of every spider with the black decorating frosting.

Serve and enjoy! Because the ready-made fondant and black decorating frosting will stay fresh, you can bake these in advance and keep them covered for any Halloween party or gathering (so the homemade frosting doesn’t dry out)!

Full recipe, instructions, and measurements for this recipe are just below!

What do you think? Will your family geek out over this adorable Halloween Spider Cupcakes recipe? Save and/or share this recipe by sharing it with this handy Pinterest graphic below!