Halloween '12 Inspired Cupcakes

So Halloween is finally upon us! Here are my cupcakes that I made for a little kids 'Pumpkin Party' tonight. They are all very easy. All you need is cupcakes, icing, m&m's, licorice string (I couldn't find any, so you can cut up normal licorice or in my case, I cut jet plane lollies into strips.. this was rather time consuming but totally worth it in the end), white chocolate buttons (for the eyes on the cat and owl ones), chocolate sprinkles and jet plane lollies (which I also used for the beak and eyebrows on the owls). 

Spiders

Chocolate cupcakes (I used a packet mix since I baked about 40 cupcakes and it was just a lot faster)

Chocolate icing 

Chocolate sprinkles (mine were called "choc hail")

Licorice strings/any lolly cut into strips

M&M's or similar sweet (I used Nestle Pebbles because they were cheaper and didn't have the writing on it)

Ice the cupcake and sprinkle with chocolate hail. I recommend doing this over a plate/tray to catch the excess which you can simply tip back and use.

Spread a little frosting on the M&M's and stick onto the cupcake. 

Make 4 holes on each side with either a chopstick or skewer depending on the size of the 'legs'. 

Insert the 'legs', use a bit of frosting to keep it in the hole if necessary. 

Note: You might find six legged spiders look nicer than the eight legged ones, but many of the kids at the party are at that age where they will ask why the spiders don't have eight legs.

Cobweb

Cupcakes
Chocolate Buttercream icing
Icing in a different colour (I used the 'Queens' brand of writing icing that comes in the tube)
M&M's
Chocolate Sprinkles

Spread the icing on the cupcake and then draw a dot in the centre of the cupcake before drawing larger circles outwards. Pull a toothpick through the circles from the centre, creating a cobweb affect. To draw the circles, use an very small nozzle on your icing bag. If you don't have that, try cutting a tiny snippet off the end of a ziplock bag. Unfortunately I've never tried that, so I can't guarantee it works.

Owls and Cats

Cupcakes
Chocolate Icing
White chocolate buttons
M&M's
Triangle lollies (I cut off the tips and sides of Jet Plane lollies, but candy corn would be amazing. Sadly we don't have that in New Zealand)
Strips of candy

Ice the cupcakes and place the buttons on while it hasn't hardened and using a chopstick or skewer, dot pupils on the eyes. Place the strips of candy on the cupcakes as either eyebrows or cat ears. Put a triangle on the owl ones and an M&M on the cats. You can also draw the mouth for the cat but I thought it looked quite mysterious without it.

Elise and I wish you a very happy halloween!