halloween themed cupcakes

Cupcakes are always a big hit around our house - and I like to theme them with holidays if I can. Last year I came across a blog post about spooky spiderweb cupcakes (Definitely Not Martha - one of my favorite blogs to read - I won't try 98% of her meal ideas because I am nowhere near as talented - but I like reading about them. My favorite chocolate cake recipe I got from one of her posts)

I absolutely fell in love with the chocolate cake recipe she is talking about in her post - however, I was short on time so I used a box. I attempted the icing recipe she used, and it was a big fail; instead I used the standard buttercream recipe that I generally make (from the pillsbury cookbook - 3/4 softened butter, 4 cups of icing sugar, 1 tsp vanilla and 2-4tbsp milk)

I made one pan of mini cupcakes and one pan of regular sized cupcakes. For the spider webs, I used a piping bag with the finest round tip that I had - once they were piped, I put them in the fridge to set - I did have trouble with some of them breaking - but I am still happy with how they turned out, and the kids loved them!