Chocolate and Caramel Spider Cupcakes – Halloween Baking Championship ep 1 preheat

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!

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.

So here is my quick 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!

TUNE in next week for episode 2 – Food Network, every Monday night in October, 9/8 c! I still can’t believe that me, a home, self taught, baker made it onto the show AND into episode 2!!!

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Chocolate and Caramel Spider Cupcakes

Prep Time

20 mins

Cook Time

18 mins

Total Time

38 mins

 

Caramel Cupcake with Chocolate Frosting and snickers center

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: cupcakes, food network, halloween baking championship, halloween cupcakes, snickers cupcakes

Servings: 36 cupcakes

Calories: 230 kcal

Author: Ashlee Marie

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

1. Preheat oven to 350 (or convection oven at 325)
2. If you don't have vanilla sugar already - Split the vanilla beans and scrap out the seed.
3. 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.
4. In a medium-sized mixing bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, mix together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
5. Add butter and mix on medium-low speed until you end up with a fine crumb
6. Add the vanilla bean sugar and mix until well combined.
7. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, yogurt and mayo until smooth.
8. Add the dulce de leche while beating on low.
9. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined.
10. Slowly add milk and mix on low speed until just combined. The batter will be runny
11. Fill 24 cupcake liners just over 1/2 full.
12. sprinkle the chopped candy bar on top, about 4 small pieces per cupcake
13. Bake for 14-18 minutes and then test to see if they are done. They should not turn a golden brown.
14. When the cupcakes are done, remove from pan and let cool

Frosting

1. Beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth
2. add 3 C powdered sugar, salt and vanilla and beat until smooth
3. add more powdered sugar 1/4 C at a time until you have a very THICK frosting, too thick to spread easily.
4. In a separate bowl whisk the whipping cream until it forms stiff peaks
5. 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

1. Frost the top of the cupcake with a flat round circle of frosting
2. dip the cupcake into a bowl of the black nonpareils until the frosting is completely coated
3. using a toothpick to help push 8 licorice "legs" into each cupcake (4 on each side)

Recipe Video

All the Halloween Baking Championship recreations