Soft Fluffy caramel cupcakes with chunks of snickers bars and topped with a chocolate frosting. Its easy to use candy eyeballs, black non perils and licorice ropes to turn these cupcakes into Halloween spiders.
Did you watch the first episode of Halloween Baking Championship? It’s still CRAZY to me that I’M ON FOOD NETWORK! Like INSANE.
Either way it still feels totally crazy. I will say that it IS as crazy as you think it is. They give you the assignment, say go AND YOU GO.
AND the time limit is LEGIT. The boys had watches and timed it to be sure. They don’t baby us or give us extra time or time to think about it.
If we were given more time i’m sure we all would have come up with something different, I know I would have, but when the time goes that fast you just have to commit and go with the first thing that comes to mind.
So for me that was these spider cupcakes, I do CUTE Halloween, not bloody, gory or gross, so I thought of something I’d make for my kids. They seriously loved these when I remade them.
Below is a quick video tutorial for how I created these. They aren’t hard, but the legs are time consuming, cutting and inserting!
If you have a suggestion for me of how to make it go faster let me know! The best part is… while the judges didn’t love my simple design, they DID love my flavors, and I hope you guys do too!
Snickers Cupcakes
If you love these caramel chocolate cupcakes as much as I do, I’d love a 5 star review. Be sure to share on social media and tag me if you make it @ashleemariecakes! If you want to stay updated on new recipes sign up for my newsletter and join my Facebook Group!
Here are the other six recipes I made while on Food Network’s Halloween Baking Championship
Charred Blood Orange Tart | Graveyard Pumpkin Blondie | Bloody Mummy Crepe cakes
Bloody Caramel Apple Pie Donuts | Chocolate Peanut Butter Ghost Brownie | Store bought monster donuts
Connect with Ashlee Marie Online!
I have a Halloween ecookbook with 18 fun treats including 3 edible “blood” recipes – berry coulis, caramel and buttermilk syrup. Perfect for a Spooky Halloween Party or after school treats!
To watch me make these spider cupcakes play the video in the recipe card. You can find all my cooking show style recipe videos on YouTube, or my short recipe videos on Facebook Watch, or my Facebook Page, or right here on our website with their corresponding recipes.
Chocolate and Caramel Spider Cupcakes
Ingredients
Cupcake
- 2 C vanilla sugar or 2 C sugar and 2 vanilla beans
- 3 1/2 C cake flour
- 1 Tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 C butter softened
- 4 lrg eggs room temperature
- 2/3 C greek yogurt
- 1/2 C Mayonnaise
- 1 1/3 C whole milk
- 1/2 C dulce de leche
- chopped up peanut caramel nougat candy bar aka snickers
Frosting
- 8 oz full fat cream cheese softened
- 1/2 C butter softened
- 3-4 C powdered sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 Tbsp Dark cocoa powder
- pinch salt
- 1/3 C heavy whipping cream
Decorations
- Black nonpareils
- Black licorice wheels un-wound, split and cut into 2 1/2 in long strands
- candy eyes
Instructions
Cupcake
- Preheat oven to 350 (or convection oven at 325)
- If you don’t have vanilla sugar already – Split the vanilla beans and scrap out the seed.
- Put the sugar, vanilla seeds and vanilla bean pods into a food processor and process until well blended, and seeds are throughout, let sit to the side.
- In a medium-sized mixing bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, mix together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Add butter and mix on medium-low speed until you end up with a fine crumb
- Add the vanilla bean sugar and mix until well combined.
- In a small mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, yogurt and mayo until smooth.
- Add the dulce de leche while beating on low.
- Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined.
- Slowly add milk and mix on low speed until just combined. The batter will be runny
- Fill 24 cupcake liners just over 1/2 full.
- sprinkle the chopped candy bar on top, about 4 small pieces per cupcake
- Bake for 14-18 minutes and then test to see if they are done. They should not turn a golden brown.
- When the cupcakes are done, remove from pan and let cool
Frosting
- Beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth
- add 3 C powdered sugar, salt and vanilla and beat until smooth
- add more powdered sugar 1/4 C at a time until you have a very THICK frosting, too thick to spread easily.
- In a separate bowl whisk the whipping cream until it forms stiff peaks
- add 1/2 the whipped whipping cream to the frosting and mix until just combined, adding more if needed to get a smooth frosting
Assemble
- Frost the top of the cupcake with a flat round circle of frosting
- dip the cupcake into a bowl of the black nonpareils until the frosting is completely coated
- using a toothpick to help push 8 licorice “legs” into each cupcake (4 on each side)
Kara
So glad you are sharing the recipe! I wanted a bite that night. You were awesome by the way, and we can’t wait to watch you next week!
Ashlee
I did too! we never got to try our own finished product! HA and thanks for watching and cheering me on!
Carolyn Garcia
Hi Ashlee, Carolyn Garcia here I loved watching your video above. I had also seen you on t.v. you were so awesome. I watched the Halloween wars every week, so yes I am a fan of yours. I have followed many of your sites, blog, F.B., G+, Twitter, and of course Pinterest. You have many amazing recipes and I have copied quite a few. So I want to thank you for the recipes and videos. Keep up the good work and keep them coming. Sincerely Carolyn Garcia, Oh by the way I entered my website below, however I’m far from finishing it I don’t have anything on there but name and title, an image. I thought I would let you know just in case you decided to go there you wouldn’t be surprised, Thank you again Ashlee!
Ashlee Marie
Thank you so much for being so supportive! Good luck with the website!