We hope you all had a nice Halloween – however you’ve spent it this year! As things are a little different in 2020, we thought we should cheer you up with this cute and „spooky“ recipe of bat & spider Halloween cupcakes.
As you know: after Halloween is before Halloween so you can never be too early to prepare for the next one.
With a lot of love for the details, these little bats and spiders will be the highlight of every Halloween buffet. Boys and girls of every age, wouldn’t you like to see something strange? 😉
In fact, we swear that you have never seen such cute spiders before! Nothing to be afraid of, just scroll down this recipe and take one step at a time.
Wishing you lots of fun with this one and let us know your results in the comments!
Things to know before you start
Time Schedule
| Steps | Work time | Waiting time |
| Crumble Oreo cookies | ~10 minutes | – |
| Beat egg whites | ~10 minutes | – |
| Mix – Dough | ~15 minutes | – |
| Fill muffin pan | ~10 minutes | – |
| Bake | – | 25-30 minutes |
| Cool | ~5 minutes | 1-2 hours |
| Maple syrup frosting | ~10 minutes | – |
| Decorate cupcake spiders | ~20 minutes | – |
| Decorate cupcake bats | ~15 minutes | – |
In about 3 to 4 hours you will have created some adorable and super tasty bat & spider Halloween cupcakes.
Total ingredients
| Weight | Ingredient |
| 27x | Oreo cookies |
| 3x | Eggs (large) |
| 120 g | White sugar |
| 8 g | Vanilla sugar |
| 300 g | Butter |
| 120 g | All-purpose flour |
| 20 g | Cocoa powder (unsweetened) |
| 5 g | Baking powder |
| 120 g | Milk – 3,5% fat |
| 100 g | Dark couverture chocolate |
| 55 g | Maple syrup |
| 9 g | Vanilla extract |
| 2 g | Salt |
| 10 g | Corn starch |
| 320 g | Powdered sugar |
| – | Orange food coloring |
| 24x | Edible googly candy eyes |
| 48x | Chocolate sticks (from Mikado or Pocky) |
All these ingredients will yield you 12 Halloween cupcakes with an orange maple syrup frosting. You will have 6 bats and 6 spiders.
Info: Unfortunately we can’t tell you how much orange food coloring you will need exactly as it really depends on how strong the color is and how orange you want your frosting to be (we couldn’t get orange food coloring and therefore used yellow and red). Also if you can’t get the chocolate sticks (used for the legs of the spiders) you could use pretzel sticks.
Difficulty
A very simple recipe for basic muffins with just 4 easy steps.
Baking tools
You will need 12 cupcake cups and a muffin pan to hold the structure. We recommend silicone cupcake cups, because they are reusable and the filling won’t wet out like the ones made out of paper.
For the frosting you will also need a piping bag, but a freezer bag can also be used.
Besides that, a stand mixer or simple hand mixer and two to three bowls are enough to make these cupcakes.
Steps
1. Crumble Oreo cookies
| Weight | Ingredient |
| 12x | Oreo cookies |
- Remove the top of each Oreo cookie, take off the cream and save it for later (you will need the cream for the decorating steps)
- Take the Oreo cookies without the cream and crumble them
- The finer they are at the end, the better
- Best way we know to do that is the following:
- Take a sturdy bag, for example an airtight bag
- Fill it with the Oreo cookies
- Place the bag on the counter
- Use a rolling pin and move it back and forth until all Oreo cookies are crumbled
2. Beat Egg Whites
| Weight | Ingredient |
| 3x | Eggs (large) |
| 120 g | White sugar |
| 8 g | Vanilla sugar |
- Separate the eggs and put the egg yolks aside for later use
- Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form
- Gradually add the white and vanilla sugar and beat for about 2 more minutes
- Put the beaten egg whites also aside
3. Mix – Dough
| Weight | Ingredient |
| 3x | Egg yolks |
| 140 g | Butter (softened) |
- Mix softened butter and the previously separated egg yolks together
| Weight | Ingredient |
| 120 g | All-purpose flour |
| 20 g | Cocoa powder (unsweetened) |
| 5 g | Baking powder |
| 120 g | Milk – 3,5% fat |
- Sift all the dry ingredients together in a second bowl and stir until combined
- Add the dry ingredients and milk to the previously created egg yolk butter mixture by alternating between them
| Weight | Ingredient |
| – | Beaten egg whites |
| 100 g | Dark couverture chocolate |
| – | Crumbled Oreo cookies |
- Very carefully, fold in the previously beaten egg whites into the mixture
- Chop the couverture chocolate in chunks
- Also carefully fold in the chopped couverture chocolate and crumbled Oreo cookies
4. Fill Muffin Pan
- Place one cupcake cup per muffin tin in the muffin pan
- Fill each cupcake cup nearly to the brim with the previously made dough
- Give the whole muffin pan a slight shake so the dough sets a bit
5. Bake
- Preheat oven to 180°C (356°F) for ~20 minutes with the upper and lower heat function
- Place the muffin pan on a baking grill in the middle rack and bake for 25 to 30 minutes
- After baking, take your finished cupcakes out immediately, but keep them in the muffin pan
- Tip: Check if the cupcakes are ready by sticking a skewer in the middle until you reach the bottom and pull it out again. If it comes out clean, the cupcakes are done. If not, bake for 2 more minutes and check again.
6. Cool
- Let your soon to be Halloween cupcakes cool in the muffin pan for about 10 minutes
- Afterwards, transfer each cupcake on a cooling rack or something else and let it cool completely for about 1 to 2 hours
- It is very important that the cupcakes are cooled down completely or otherwise the frosting will melt on top
7. Maple syrup frosting
| Weight | Ingredient |
| 160 g | Butter (softened) |
| 55 g | Maple syrup |
| 9 g | Vanilla extract |
| 2 g | Salt |
| 10 g | Corn starch |
| 320 g | Powdered sugar |
| – | Orange food coloring |
- Mix the softened butter, maple syrup, salt, vanilla extract and cornstarch until smooth
- Add the powdered sugar step by step while mixing further
- Afterwards carefully add the orange food coloring (until you reach your desired tone) and continue mixing until light and fluffy
8. Decorate Spider Cupcakes
| Weight | Ingredient |
| – | Maple syrup frosting |
| 6x | Oreo cookies |
| 12x | Edible googly candy eyes |
| – | Oreo cream |
| 48x | Chocolate sticks (from Mikado or Pocky) |
- Put the maple syrup frosting in a piping bag
- Frost 6 cooled cupcakes
- Cut each chocolate stick to about 4 cm pieces on the chocolate side to create the spider legs
- Remove the top of all 6 oreo cookies
- Press 8 of the cutoff chocolate sticks in the cream-side of the Oreo cookie
- Put some of the previously saved Oreo cream on the chocolate stick ends that are inside the Oreo cookie
- Press the blank Oreo cookie halve on top of the legs
- Use the previously saved Oreo cream to secure the candy eyes
- As the last step place the Oreo spiders on top of the frosted cupcakes
9. Decorate Bat Cupcakes
| Weight | Ingredient |
| – | Maple syrup frosting |
| 9x | Oreo cookies |
| 12x | Edible googly candy eyes |
| – | Oreo cream |
- Frost 6 additional cupcakes
- Remove the top of 3 oreo cookies and remove the cream
- Cut the 6 cookie parts in half to create 12 wings
- Use the previously saved Oreo cream to secure the candy eyes on the 6 whole Oreo cookies like you did for the spiders
- Place the 6 whole Oreo cookies with the candy eyes vertically inside the frosting
- As a last step, place one Oreo Cookie half on each side of the vertically placed Oreo cookie so they form wings
Conclusion
Taste
It is no surprise that the leading taste here is… chocolate! With Oreo cookies inside and outside and on top of these little monsters, there is no other chance.
Even though these Halloween cupcakes look very stable they are super soft, fluffy and chewy, almost melting in your mouth.
The cream on top – the frosting – has a vanilla taste mixed with the slightly hearty flavour of maple syrup and is super fluffy. The perfect addition to the chocolate bottom. For the little crunch, that never should be missing, we have the chocolate sticks, Oreo cookies and googly eyes. That’s what you call a perfect match!
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