Halloween Cupcakes and Spooky Spider Eggs

No Halloween is complete without cupcakes. I’m not talking about those cupcakes from the store either. I’m talking about homemade, melt-in-your-mouth, gooey cupcakes. I think some mom brought them in for a class Halloween party one year, and I forever associated them with the holiday. I’ve been making this Halloween cupcake recipe for pumpkin cupcakes with orange cream cheese frosting, and devils food cupcakes with chocolate cream cheese frosting since my kids were toddlers, and they are a much anticipated treat every year. I think the recipe came from Sunset magazine, but I end up modifying it a little every year.

The biggest part I keep fooling around with is the marshmallow cream filling. In the past I tried skipping that step because it sounded like too much work. Then I looked at the jar of marshmallow fluff in the store one year, and just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I got some brown rice syrup based stuff instead that was kind of tan colored and didn’t work out. This year I tried getting little natural marshmallows and baking them in the middle of each. They sort of erupted like volcanoes and make little caves inside each cupcake. We’ll see what I do next year. The other big alterations I made were using Bob’s Redmill Gluten Free Baking Mix and coconut milk. It worked fine. I have even used Tofutti or other cream cheese substitutes in the past. So, here’s the recipe folks:



1/2 cup butter at room temperature

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 cup mashed pumpkin

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cup flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup milk

On medium speed, blend butter and sugar until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, beating well and scraping down the sides of the bowl. Add pumpkin and vanilla and blend well.

Mix dry ingredients, and stir half into pumpkin mixture. Stir in milk until just blended. Add remaining flour mixture and stir. Spoon into 12 muffin cups and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Cool and mix up frosting.

6 oz. cream cheese

6 Tbsp. butter

1 1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 Tbsp grated orange peel

1/2 tsp orange extract

On low speed beat cream cheese and butter both at room temperature. Beat in powdered sugar, orange zest and orange extract. Pipe onto cupcakes with 3/4″ star tip in a pastry decorating bag to make little peaks all around the top.

3/4 cup butter at room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

2 cups flour

1/2 cups cocoa powder

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup milk

1 jar marshmallow cream

Beat butter and sugar until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each.

Mix flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Stir half of the flour mix into the butter mixture. Stir in milk just until blended. Add remaining flour mixture and stir. Spoon into 16 muffin cups and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Cool and make frosting.

8 oz. cream cheese

1/2 cup butter

1 1/2 cup powdered sugar

6 Tbsp. cocoa

Beat butter and cream cheese both at room temperature. Sift in powdered sugar and cocoa. Pipe through a star tip on a pastry bag to make little peaks all over the top.

And then….Enjoy!

And since it is Halloween, and we need something a little tricky and spooky to go with our treats, here is my recipe for Devilled Spiders Eggs:

Start out by making your regular old, run of the mill devilled eggs. I could give you a recipe, but I’m sure everyone has one.

Put them all together and slice up some black olives to look like little spiders and place them on top. It’s an easy recipe that is always a hit at Halloween parties and potlucks.