Creepy Crawly Halloween Cupcakes

I really, really love holidays. I've probably said it before, but Halloween to New Year's is my most favorite time of the year. There are so many fun things to look forward to during this time period, and more importantly - so many excuses to bake!

With Halloween just around the corner, today I'm going to show you how to make some fun, creepy, crawly cupcakes. You don't have to be a baking expert to whip these up, and they definitely have a wow factor. Whenever I make chocolate cake I always use the recipe I've listed below, but if you are rushed for time (or baking just isn't your thing) I would suggest using Pillsbury Moist Supreme Devil's Food cake mix. It's the next best thing and basically fool proof.

Best Chocolate Cake Ever

2 cups of flour
2 cups of sugar
3/4 cup of cocoa
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Place all of the dry ingredients (except cocoa) into a large bowl and combine. Add the eggs, buttermilk, and vegetable oil to the dry ingredients. Add the cocoa and vanilla extract to the boiling water. Slowly combine with other mixture at medium speed until everything is combined. Line a cupcake tin with silver baking cups and fill 2/3 of the way full. Bake until toothpick inserted into cupcake comes out clean (approx. 15-20 min).

While your cupcakes are cooling, it's time to make the frosting. Here is where I'll tell you not to skimp out and buy store bought frosting. It just isn't the same. Trust me. Whip up some buttercream frosting (it's easy I promise), and tint to your desired shade of orange. I'm partial to Hobby Lobby's AmeriColor gel food coloring, but any brand will work.. In order to get a pretty swirl effect with your frosting, attach a Wilton 1M decorating tip to your decorating bag, and fill with orange buttercream. Frost in a circular motion (step by step instructions are in the previous link), and sprinkle with orange sanding sugar. Place plastic spiders sporadically on the cupcakes. I probably went a little bit overboard with mine so they are extra festive. Lastly, in order to jazz up these cupcakes a little bit, I made the silver baking cups look more like spider webs by using these cupcake wraps. And that's it! These are cute Halloween cupcakes that anyone can master! :)