Spider Web Halloween Cupcakes
Royal icing is quick and easy to make, and can be a ton of fun to work with - especially when you make things like these Spider Web Halloween Cupcakes!
I mean, if you’re feeling a bit masochistic, you can use royal icing to try your hand at the Lambeth Method for Cake Decorating... but it's not what I'd call “A ton of fun”, LOL!
What IS a lot of fun though, IMHO, is being able to customize cupcakes - or cakes, for that matter - with almost any design you can think up.
While you CAN print out designs to use as a template for these Spider Webs, I tend to just freehand it.
Anyway, you pipe your design out on parchment paper and leave it to dry out. As it dries, it hardens. Then, you simply - CAREFULLY - remove it from the parchment paper, and stick it to whatever treat you want to decorate!
In this case, I wanted to make some little Spider Webs to put on top of cupcakes. Halloween is coming up, after all!
While I’m specifically demonstrating how to make Halloween Spider Web Cupcakes here, this technique can be used for almost any design - freehand or traced.
Before You Start
Just a few things to keep in mind, mostly around the fact that Royal Icing is FRAGILE:
- The bigger your design, the more fragile the design, and the more likely it is to break, but...
- The bigger your design, the easier it is to pipe more details
Conversely
- A smaller design will be more durable... but
- A smaller design will need to be more simple in design
Also, you’ll want to consider your logistics. If you’re making a dozen cupcakes that will be stored in a cupcake holder, you need to consider that when deciding on the design.
- The design shouldn’t be much wider than the top of the cupcake, or it will not fit in with the other cupcakes in the holder
- If your design stands up, make sure the container has some clearance for that design!
So, try to strike a balance between appearance, durability, and logistics when dealing with your templates.
For me, I tend to go on Google and find an image I’m looking for. From there, I’ll size it and edit it, usually to remove detail - and colour. Plain black outlines on a white background is the easiest to work with.
Finally, make several extras. These are quite fragile and you will very likely break some - even just lifting them off the work surface. We all do, no judgement here!
Anyway, better to end up with too many, than too few... especially with the 12-24 hour dry time!
So, with all that said, let’s get to the Halloween Spider Web Cupcakes Tutorial!
1. Bake Your Cupcakes
Once baked, allow them to cool to room temperature. (My Black Velvet Cupcakes recipe follows this tutorial, but you can use any cupcakes you’d like - homemade or not!)
2. Make your Royal Icing
My recipes for Royal Icing follow this tutorial, just after the cupcake recipe.
The traditional way uses a raw egg white and lemon juice - which is not ideal for very young kids, pregnant women, etc.
The safer way uses meringue powder, which is expensive but relatively easy to come by. You can get it at any cake decorating store, or on Amazon.
3. Prepare Your Work Surface
You’ll need to pipe your spider webs on something flat and stable - you DON'T want them to bend or flex while they’re drying.
I like to use a cutting board, or the back of a baking sheet. Either one is small enough to make them easy to work with, but nice and sturdy to keep it safe.
4. Secure Template to Work Surface
If you're using one, tape your design template down to your work surface. Masking tape works fine for most surfaces.
5. Affix Parchment Paper
Tape some parchment paper down over your template, being sure to leave a bit of space around the edges of your design.
As a heads up: While most tapes work fine for most surfaces, parchment paper is a unique case, as most tape does NOT stick to it.
I like to use hockey tape here. It’s not the most amazing hold, but it’s SOME hold - which is better than most tape, and is good enough in this case!
As you tape your parchment paper down to the template and board, be sure to keep it smooth, straight, and with any excess air pushed out.
6. Prepare Your Piping Bag
Here’s where we - once again - get into some “do as I say, not as I do”. You know, kind of like the time I wrote my Dalek Sugar Cookie Decorating tutorial... just with a totally different excuse this time!
As you can see in the pics - and video, below - I didn't use a coupler and tip in my piping bag. You see, I got rid of ALL my caking stuff... sometime between when quit decorating cakes and when I moved to Canada.
Then I eventually decided to do these tutorials, so bought a little cake decorating set on Amazon. I put it aside until it was time to film and shoot this tutorial.
... and that’s when I discovered that this basic set did NOT have the smaller sizes of basic round tips. FOILED.
So, I’m demonstrating with just the very end of my piping bag cut off. It’s not as clean, the edges aren’t as pretty - but you can do it!
If you’d like to do it the more proper/professional way, I recommend a #2 or #3 round tip.
7. Tint Some Icing, Optional
If you'd like to pipe some little spiders to include on your cupcakes, tiny a bit of the royal icing black. I like to use gel colouring for this - I find it gives a stronger, richer colour.
8. Check Icing Consistency
A good way to figure out if your icing is the right consistency is to pull a spoon through the middle of the frosting bowl.
– If the frosting settles out in less than 5 seconds, it’s too runny. Add a little more powdered sugar.
– If the frosting settles out in 5-10 seconds, you’re good to go!
– If the frosting takes longer than 10 seconds to settle, it’s too thick. Add a little water or lemon juice and try again.
If your icing is too runny, add a little powdered sugar to thicken it up. If it’s too thick, add a little water to thin it out.
9. Start Piping
Holding the tip / end of your white icing bag about 1 cm away from the surface, carefully pipe out your outlines and design details, as shown:
If you're piping spiders, Start with the bodies and use a small tip - or a piping bag with only the smallest bit of end cut off - to pipe the legs:
Try to keep them kind of short and a little fatter than you'd normally see spider legs - they're likely to break off!
(If you're feeling a bit wild, you can do a "Spiderman" style spider... I'm still shocked this one worked out, without breaking the legs off when I took it off the parchment!)
10. Wait
Set the work surface somewhere safe and dry, and leave it to harden overnight at minimum (depending on how humid your house is), but 24 hours as an ideal.
11. Make Your Cupcake Frosting
I prefer Swiss Meringue Buttercream, but American Buttercream is cheaper and easier. For that matter... you can use canned, if you’d like.
Whichever way you go, tint and flavour it as desired! I went with a few bright "Halloween" colours, Love how cute they turned out!
12. Pipe Your Frosting
Set up a piping bag with a coupler and a wide round or star tip (optional), or cut the end off.
Pipe a generous helping of frosting on each cupcake. Frosting is the best part - especially if we’re talking Swiss Meringue Buttercream!
13. Liberate Your Spiders and Webs!
VERY carefully, lift each Spider web from the work surface. I like to slip a fingernail under an edge and just really gently lift.
If the webs or spiders feel stuck, they’re likely not dry yet - give them a few more hours!
14. Assemble Your Cupcakes!
Carefully stick each web - and spider, if you're doing one - into the frosting of a cupcake.
15. Admire Your Work
And you’re done! Be sure to take some pics of your work! If you instagram it, be sure to tag me - @CelebrationGenerationCA - or post it to My Facebook Page - so I can cheer you on!
Here is a video of the whole process, BTW:
If you're still considering ideas for Halloween, be sure to check out my:
Bloody Eyeball Halloween Punch
Halloween Pavlova
Halloween Themed Shooters
Halloween Spider Web Cookies
Easy Halloween Bat Cupcakes
3D Halloween Bat Cupcakes
How to Carve a Halloween Pumpkin Like a Pro
Also, be sure to subscribe to my free monthly email newsletter, so you never miss out on any of my nonsense.
Well, the published nonsense, anyway!
Enjoy!
Black Velvet Cupcakes
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3 cups Cake flour
- ⅓ cup Cocoa powder
- 2 ¼ cups Granulated sugar
- 2 Tbsp Baking powder
- 1 ½ tsp Salt
- 3 ½ oz Instant vanilla pudding mix*
- 6 Eggs
- 1 ½ cups Butter melted
- 2 Tbsp Pure vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cup Buttermilk **
- Black food colouring Gel works best
- 1 batch batch Swiss Meringue buttercream
- or
- 1 batch American buttercream
- 2 tsp Flavor extract of choice
- Food colouring optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).
- Line 24 muffin tins with cupcake liners.
- Combine flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, salt, and pudding mix in a large mixing bowl. Add in eggs and butter, beating until smooth.
- Carefully add melted butter and vanilla to the mix, mixing on medium speed until smooth.
- Add buttermilk to batter, mix until well incorporated and smooth.
- Use food colouring to tint batter black.
- Divide batter among prepared muffin pans. Bake until golden and knife inserted into center of batter comes out clean - about 20-22 mins .
- Allow to cool to cool to room temperature, before decorating.
- Prepare either Swiss meringue buttercream or American buttercream, following the applicable recipe and flavouring and colouring it as you like.
- Frost your cupcake as desired, enjoy!
Notes
milk, and let sit for 5 minutes.
Nutrition
Traditional Royal Icing
Ingredients
- 4 Large Egg Whites
- 1 Tbsp Lemon Juice
- 4-6 cups Confectioners / Icing / Powdered Sugar
Instructions
- In clean stand mixer, whip egg whites until foamy.
- Add lemon juice, whip for another minute.
- Slowly add powdered sugar until cookie icing reaches desired consistency. You will want a fairly thick frosting – but still smooth and workable – for piping details and borders.*
- If you're not using it immediately, transfer to an airtight container, cover surface with plastic wrap, and secure lid tightly.
- Re-whip before use.
Notes
Nutrition
Meringue Powder Royal Icing
Ingredients
- 4 Cup Icing Sugar
- ¼ cup Meringue Powder
- ⅓ cup lukewarm water ideal or large mixing bowl (to beat with an electric hand mixer)
Instructions
- Combine icing sugar and meringue powder in the bowl of a stand mixer - ideal - or large mixing bowl (to beat with an electric hand mixer)
- Add water, mix on low speed until combined.
- Turn speed up to high, beat for a couple minutes until thick, smooth, and glossy.
- Check the frosting for consistency, adjust as needed for your intended usage. You will want a fairly thick frosting – but still smooth and workable – for piping details and borders.*
- If you're not using it immediately, transfer to an airtight container, cover surface with plastic wrap, and secure lid tightly.
- Re-whip before use.
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