Cooking with Kids is an ongoing series where we share recipes that are easy enough to make with assistance from a two-year-old. If you’re new to the series, our first post provides detailed tips for cooking baking with little ones.
On Tuesday Sarah shared a Halloween appetizer. Yesterday I shared a well-wrapped main dish, and today we’re sharing the dessert that’s sure to make your little trick-or-treaters squirm giggle.
The focus of this Cooking with Kids post is all on the decorating, and in this post we give you sources for all of our fun supplies (including the spider cupcake holders!). Kids LOVE decorating treats, and Halloween is the perfect time to let them go wild. Make it spooky, creepy, silly, cute. It definitely doesn’t have to be perfect. And that’s what makes this project such a hit with big and little people.
I like to plan projects for us to do throughout the season, some more time and energy intensive than others. Decorating spider cupcakes purposefully falls on the easier side. It’s something that you could do on an afternoon when you want to add a little bit of Halloween excitement (and sugar!) to their day.
The Cupcakes
For these cupcakes, we used our favorite black sesame cupcake recipe. The black sesame seeds can be hard to come by – I buy mine in bulk from an Asian market, but if you can’t find them, we included a link to the seeds below. You could use any cupcake recipe, or even pick up some plain cupcakes from your favorite bakery.
We baked the cupcakes in the morning (look at those sleepy heads!)… and, as always, I let them in on all aspects of measuring and tasting ingredients. On this particular day, that included letting them taste the cocoa powder, but with a fair warning that it will taste bitter and not like the sweet chocolate they are used to. They still went ahead and tasted, and I was there with the cups of water when they needed them!
For the frosting we used our go-to chocolate frosting recipe. It comes from the back of the Hershey’s cocoa container.
Decorating the Spiders
Decorating treats with kids can get out of control quickly. Spills. Spilling sugar directly into their mouths. Sticky fingers. etc.
I like to contain the mess in a couple of ways. I start by giving them each their own cookie sheet or tray to work in. Then, I give them a small fraction of the decorating supplies (keeping the whole container safe and out of reach). If there were a spill, it’s small and can be contained to the tray, AND you won’t end up with sticky sugars from the kiddos double-dipping with sticky fingers.
Once everything is distributed – I let them go crazy! They can decorate their spiders however they want without any input from me (unless requested). Kids love the uninterrupted freedom to work on a project like this. Our job is to figure out how to make it happen in a way that keeps it safe and keeps us sane.
Supplies
The supplies used for decorating these cupcakes are easy to come by. We link to everything below, including the spider cupcake holders! You can place an order today and delight your kids with this project next week. Don’t have kids? Maybe it’s time to send a care package to nieces and nephews. Imagine getting this care package in the mail as a kid?!… Just remind their adults to pick up some iced cupcakes, and they’re good to go.
- spider cupcake holders (so cute! we pull them out every year and they make great holders for pumpkin muffins as a special breakfast treat.)
- web cupcake wrappers (these are great if you’re baking for a crowd)
- small eyes
- red veined eyeballs
- spiderweb apron (this is for the mom that really wants to get in the spirit… I just put on my best witches hat wow them with my baking tricks)
- black sesame seeds (if you want to make the sesame cupcake batter, otherwise, bake up your favorite chocolate cupcakes)
- Halloween sprinkles
- chocolate jimmies
Is it an understatement to say that holidays with kids become 100x more exciting? I already loved any reason to celebrate before we had kids, but now? Now it’s a whole new messy ball game, and I love it!