Though the title may creep you out, these cupcakes are actually super cute with their googly eyes! I remember making Halloween treats with my mum when I was younger. We had a few Halloween parties in our old house, as we had a basement that was perfect for kids’ parties. Spider biscuits with cola lace legs are one of the treats I remember making, so I thought I’d do a twist on them and turn them into chocolate and banana cupcakes.
The recipe is actually for a banana loaf, but it can easily be modified to make cupcakes or muffins. They are vegan, although the googly eyes were found in a supermarket and contain egg white, so if you need them to be fully vegan then make your own eyes with white ready-to-roll icing and black food colouring gel.
Halloween parties are probably off the cards this year, so you’ll have to make sure you eat them all up as a family – I’m sure that won’t be too difficult! With this recipe I made six cupcakes and six muffins, so there are baby and adult spiders (or tarantulas as my mum said)! Depending on your preference, you could make a smaller batch of bigger bakes, or lots of smaller ones. Just be sure to calculate how many legs you need as that will affect how many packs of cola laces you need to buy!
Ingredients:
For the cupcakes:
3 medium-sized ripe bananas
250g plain flour
50ml coconut oil, melted
2 tablespoons maple syrup
160g caster sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
Chocolate chips – I’ll let you decide how many!
For the icing:
75g dark/plain chocolate or dairy-free ‘milk’ chocolate
100g dairy-free butter
250g icing sugar
To decorate:
Cola laces (chopped in half)
Giant chocolate buttons or extra chocolate to make your own
Googly eyes from your local cake shop or white ready-to-roll icing and black food colouring gel
Method:
1. Pre-heat your oven to 180°C fan (200°C). Put your cupcake and/or muffin cases on a tray.
2. Mash the bananas in a mixing bowl until soft. Sift in the flour and mix.
3. Add the coconut oil, maple syrup, sugar, vanilla extract and bicarbonate of soda, and mix with an electric hand whisk until the mixture is light and fluffy. Alternatively, you could put all the ingredients in a food processor. Mix in the chocolate chips.
4. Spoon the mixture into the cases until it nearly reaches the top – you want to leave a bit of space for the cakes to rise. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. You may have to cover the tops with foil after 15 minutes so they don’t burn on top.
5. While the cakes are baking, prepare your icing. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of boiling water. Once melted, put the bowl in some cold water to cool the chocolate without it setting (approximately 10 minutes).
6. Beat the butter in a bowl until it’s creamy. Add the icing sugar a bit at a time to avoid a massive sugar cloud!
7. Pour the chocolate into the butter mixture and stir until smooth.
8. Get your giant chocolate buttons ready. If you’re making your own, melt some more chocolate, spoon it onto greaseproof paper and make even rounds. Pop in the freezer for a few minutes to set. If you choose to make muffins, you’ll definitely need to make your own, as shop-bought buttons won’t be big enough.
9. Make sure your cupcakes have completely cooled before you ice them, otherwise it will melt off. Spread a small dollop of buttercream over the top of each cupcake and smooth over. Add four cola legs to each side by pressing them into the buttercream.
10. Put a little more buttercream on top and then stick on a giant button.
11. Finally, put a tiny blob of buttercream on the back of your googly eyes and stick them on the buttons. Now you can enjoy creating a spooky scene with black tissue paper and cotton wool spider webs – or just start eating them!
Have a spook-tacular Halloween! 🕷️👻🎃