Looking for ghoulishly fun goodies to take to a Halloween party or bake sale? Sure, you can buy pre-made baked items from the grocery store, but what fun is that? Making these one-of-a-kind Halloween recipes for cupcake toppers lets your whole family join in on some frightful fun. Whether you prefer your Halloween treats cute or creepy, these cupcakes provide just the trick. Our time-saving tip: make one batch of chocolate cupcakes, then frost 12 cupcakes with vanilla buttercream and 12 with chocolate buttercream. This is one of those easy Halloween recipes that you can share with your kids. Once your cupcakes are frosted, invite your kids to join in on the decorating fun.


NEEDED INGREDIENTS
- One box devils' food cake (prepared according to package directions for cupcakes)
- 2 2/3 cup confectioners' sugar
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
- 6 T butter
- 5-6 T milk
- 1 t vanilla
- Chocolate sprinkles
- 24 black licorice twists, cut lengthwise into four strips, or alternately use black licorice laces, separated
- 24 edible eyes
- Glue pen or adhesive of your choice
How to make it
- Prepare devils' food cupcakes according to package directions on box. Let cool completely.
- While your cupcakes are cooling, prepare frosting:
- Cream butter with a mixer.
- Add cocoa and powdered sugar alternately with milk.
- Beat until you reach a spreading consistency, adding more milk if necessary.
- Blend in vanilla.
- Frost cupcakes once cooled.
- Top each cupcake with chocolate sprinkles.
Yield: About 12 frosted cupcakes.
How to make your Halloween cupcakes into scary (maybe a little silly, too?) spiders:
- Select two Dum Dum Pops in the same flavor.
- Snip about an inch off the end of each stem.
- Unwrap the Dum Dum Pops. These will be the spider's eyeballs.
- Using a glue pen, adhere an edible eye to each lollipop, then place them side by side into the cupcake.
- Next, prepare the spider "legs."
- Take a black licorice twist and cut in half lengthwise, then cut in half again lengthwise. You should end up with four thin strips of licorice from each twist.
- Repeat with a second piece of licorice.
- Alternately, if you can find black licorice laces, simply separate the laces and use one lace as each leg.
- Place four "legs" into each side of the cupcake, trimming excess licorice if needed.
(Note that unless you use edible glue (homemade or store-purchased) the eyes will not be edible.)