Spiderweb Cupcakes

I was planning on baking and blogging these delicious halloween cuties earlier in the week, but then a certain little lady came into our lives and took all my attention.

Nico the kitten likes feather teasers, purring loudly, cat milk and having her stomach stroked. Now that she's sleeping I can press on with blogging my halloween cupcakes. but allow me one more photo please before I do. Aaaah the blissful life of a kitten.

Recipe
Cupcake base recipe my own.
Chocolate icing adapted from the recipe Death By Chocolate Cupcake by Lisa Harris at Good Food Channel, see the recipe online here.
Spiderweb topper idea and design by Jessica Dodell-Fedder at countryliving.com, see it here.
Makes 12 large cupcakes.

for the batter:
150g unsalted butter, room temperature
2 large eggs, room temperature
200g self raising flour
half a teaspoon baking powder
200g caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
100ml milk
80g dark chocolate (70% solids)
2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1. Turn oven to 180C (160C fan ovens). Fill a 12 hole muffin pan with medium sized cupcake cases.

2. In a large bowl, throw in all the batter ingredients except the milk, chocolate, and cocoa powder, and beat well until combined.

3. Next add the milk, and stir again.

4. Melt the chocolate over a low heat in a saucepan before leaving to cool for a moment. Add the cocoa powder and stir carefully. Then pour in the melted chocolate and continuing stirring gently until the batter is smooth and combined. 

5. Spoon the chocolate batter into the cases. Fill until they are two thirds full.

6. Put the muffin tray in the oven and bake for 18-20 minutes. You'll know they're done when a skewer comes out clean.

7. When done, leave the cupcakes for a couple of minutes before placing them on a wire rack to cool, and you can get on with the icing.

for the chocolate icing: 

50g cocoa powder

325g icing sugar, sifted

1 tbsp whole milk

225g unsalted butter, room temperature

8. Mix the icing sugar and cocoa powder in a large bowl. When combined, beat in the butter.

9. Add the milk, and whisk briskly for at least 2 minutes until smooth and the colour has lightened.

10. Use a palette knife or the back of a spoon to spread the icing over the cupcakes, before adding the spiderweb toppers.

for the spiderweb toppers:

150g white chocolate, broken into small pieces

11. Melt the white chocolate gently over a bain mairie (a bowl placed over a pan of almost simmering water). Once melted, take off the heat and pour into a piping bag with the smallest circle nozzle. If you don't have this you can make a piping bag by snipping a hole in the corner of a freezer bag.

12. Print out the spiderweb toppers template that you'll find here. Next line a baking sheet or tray with parchment or baking paper, and slip the spiderweb template underneath the paper. Pipe white chocolate onto the paper over each template, making sure that all the lines join up. It's worth practising this, if like me you've never made chocolate toppers before, as the first few may be a disaster. Continue until you're created 12 toppers, then place the sheet into the fridge to chill for 10 minutes.

13. Using a spatula, gently lift the toppers from the paper, and place one atop each iced cupcake.

These cupcakes were idly baked while listening to the Kings of Leon album Only By The Night.