Spider Web Cake

By MJH

The spiders are made from pre baked cupcakes that are frosted with black frosting and then placed perfectly on the orange frosted cake with spider webs.

Ingredients

• 1 packages 2-layer-size desired cake mixes
• 2 cans creamy white frosting
• 2 (2 1/2-inch) baked cupcakes
• 1 (1 3/4-inch) baked cupcake
• Orange paste food coloring
• Black paste food coloring
• 3 tiny marshmallows
• 6 black pearl sprinkles or other tiny black candies
• 24 black shoestring licorice pieces
• Desired paste food coloring(s)
• Cocoa powder

Preparation

Step 1

Prepare, bake, and cool cakes as directed for 8-inch round layers.

Tint one can of frosting with orange food coloring.

Place one cake layer on a serving plate.

Spread top of cake with orange frosting. Add second layer; spread top and sides with additional orange frosting.

If desired, spoon some of the orange frosting into a decorating bag fitted with a small round tip; pipe a border around bottom of cake.

Remove 1 cup of the remaining recipe of frosting and tint with black food coloring.

Spoon black frosting into a decorating bag fitted with a coupler and a small round tip.

Pipe frosting in a spiderweb pattern over top and sides of cake.

For spiders, cut the rounded tops off two large cupcakes and one mini cupcake.

Place one large cupcake top and the mini cupcake top on cake; place the remaining large cupcake top on plate.

Change decorating tip on the bag of black frosting to a small star tip.

Pipe stars of black frosting onto tops of cupcakes to cover completely.

For eyes, cut marshmallows in half crosswise; use a small amount of frosting to attach a black candy pearl to each marshmallow half.

Place eyes on spider cakes. Attach eight licorice pieces to each spider cake for legs.

For spiders on cake, secure ends of legs in frosting. For spider on plate, use small dabs of black frosting to secure legs to plate.

Tip:
To reduce the amount of black paste food coloring needed, stir in some cocoa powder before tinting the frosting black.