I made a giant Edible Halloween Land last year. While I probably won’t take on that ambitious a project again (okay, that was a lie…I already want to make a Christmas one!), it was amazing! The cutest, most impressive item on there were the Halloween Cake Bite Spiders. They were also pretty time-intensive compared to the other items. But it was worth it. The kids were so excited when they saw them. They look fabulous in person, even better than the photos!
I do want to say that the taste was very potent with both the red velvet and dark chocolate frosting. If you desire, substitute the “White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting.” They won’t be as “blood red” colored, but they’ll taste a little more mild. If I make them again, I’ll use the white chocolate cream cheese frosting. It is included in the printable recipe in the “recipe notes” section.
If you’re interested in making the other stuff in the edible landscape, the second best-looking and the easiest were “Halloween Buckeyes.” The village consisted of a chocolate brownie castle, buck’eyes’ , strawberry and white chocolate cream cheese mummies, peanut butter white chocolate ‘ghosts,’ and the spiders below.)
Cake Bites:
1. As always, with cake pops, go ahead and use boxed cake mix. But include the tips for making it taste better: use melted butter instead of oil, add an extra egg, and use milk instead of water.
2. After the cake is cooled, don’t just crumble it up. First, cut off the edges. Scrape off a very thin layer of the top (picture in gallery below). Then crumble it up very well.
3. Frosting:
1/2 C. unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 C. boiling water
1/2 C. Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa powder
4 & 1/2 C. powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
Directions:
1. Mix all ingredients on low speed for 30 seconds. (I divided everything in half and layered the ingredients as I added them to the bowl; and poured the boiling water directly onto the cocoa powder).
2. Increase speed to medium. Beat for 1-2 minutes until smooth.
~~Note: I got this recipe from “Cookies & Cups” (though I added extra powdered sugar). If you visit, for some reason their frosting turned out lighter than mine. Mine was deep, deep brown. Which was good/fine. Just wanted to note the difference. First time I’ve tried this recipe…and it was great! And easy. I think I have a keeper.
As always, you CAN use store-bought. But this is one area in cake pops where you can taste the difference- the frosting.
If you end up using store-bought frosting, you can make it a bit better. Mix in a teaspoon or so of good-quality vanilla extract and 1/2 tsp. cocoa powder. Whip them together well. Make sure you get the powder incorporated. Trust me, you would not believe the difference. Doesn’t quite taste homemade, but it’s better.
4. Make the cake bites: Mix approximately 1/2 cup of frosting into entire crumbled cake (sides and top removed).
5. To form: scoop up enough mix to make 1″ ball, squash it together, then roll the ball back and forth between your hands. This will do a few things:
• If your mix doesn’t have enough frosting to hold it together, the rolling will cause it to crumble apart.
• Makes a perfectly round shape.
• Provides a very smooth outside for dipping.
6. Chill for 2 hours (minimum of 10 minutes is *required*).
Decorating:
1. Melt the chocolate. A microwave works perfectly fine, you don’t need a double-boiler. Heat for 30 sec. at 50% power. Stir well. Even if nothing looks melted, stir the wafers.
2. Continue to heat at 30 second increments, always 50% power, until chocolate melted. Stir well between each heating cycle. Feel free to stir and let it sit a minute or so, then stir even more. You would not believe how much the chocolate will melt as you stir (as the heat gets distributed). Always error on the side of waiting a bit before another heating cycle. Your bowl should never be too hot to touch with your bare hands.
3. After the chocolate is mostly melted, dump in another handful of wafers. Stir them in, using the heat already in the chocolate and bowl to melt them. Keep stirring…they will melt. If necessary, heat 10 seconds at 50% power.
Note: Do NOT overheat. It is a bit counter-intuitive: normally if you heat something up, it becomes runnier. However, with this, if you heat it too long, it scorches, clumps, and becomes less runny. Chocolate scorches very easily.
4. Remove the cake bites from refrigerator and let sit at room temperature for a few minutes. This both lets them warm up slightly and lets the chocolate cool slightly. A large temperature differential is the #1 reason for cake pops cracking.
5. Dip each chilled cake pop straight down into the melted coating until the cake ball is completely covered and sealed. If you need to angle the cake pop, gently tilt it in one direction and then another. Resist the temptation to stir the coating with the cake pop. If you do, your cake pop may fall off of the stick into a candy coating abyss. I used a thick lollipop stick. They fall off toothpicks too easily and this is one project where the “touch up” gets covered up!
6. Remove the cake pop from the melted coating by pulling it straight up. Then, turn the cake pop at an angle and gently tap off any excess coating. Don’t get fancy, keep it simple.
7. Immediately sprinkle generously with black sprinkles. Set cake bite down on parchment paper. Using a toothpick to hold it in place, remove lollipop stick. Dab a little melted chocolate over the hole. Sprinkle generously with black sprinkles.
8. While chocolate is still semi-soft, stick the eyes on.
—Yes, this is a lot to do in the short time that the chocolate is soft. But after the first two or three- as you become practiced- it will take less time.
9. As cake bites set, cut licorice. Error on the side of longer and thinner. I had to re-do my first batch because they were too thick.
10. Make three neat holes on each side of the spider. I used a toothpick to poke through chocolate and then the handle of a little decorating brush to widen. Dab end of licorice in melted chocolate. Poke into hole. Repeat with all six & let set.
-I went to the trouble of re-melting the chocolate because it made it much easier to move them around and adjust the legs later.
11. Impress everyone with your adorable and delicious red velvet and dark chocolate cake bite spiders!
Red Velvet and Dark Chocolate Cake Bite “Spiders”
Ingredients
Cake Bites
- 1 box red velvet cake mix
- unsalted butter equal to amount of oil called for
- Milk equal to amount of water called for
- Eggs amount called for plus 1 extra
Frosting
- 1/2 C unsalted butter room temperature
- 1/3 C boiling water
- 1/2 C Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa powder
- 4 & 1/2 C powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
Cake
- Mix cake according to package directions. But: use melted butter instead of oil, add an extra egg, and use milk instead of water.
- Bake cake according to package directions.
- After it has cooled, scrape off thin layer of top. Cut off edges. (this step is optional).
- Crumble remaining cake.
Frosting
- Mix all frosting ingredients on low speed for 30 seconds. (I divided everything in half and layered the ingredients as I added them to the bowl; and poured the boiling water directly onto the cocoa powder).
- Increase speed to medium. Beat for 1-2 minutes until smooth.
Cake Bites
- Mix approximately 1/2 cup of frosting into entire crumbled cake (sides and top removed).
- To form: scoop up enough mix to make 1″ ball, squash it together, then roll the ball back and forth between your hands. This will do a few things:• If your mix doesn’t have enough frosting to hold it together, the rolling will cause it to crumble apart.• Makes a perfectly round shape.• Provides a very smooth outside for dipping.
- Chill for 2 hours (minimum of 10 minutes is *required*).
Decorating
- Melt all but a handful of the the chocolate. A microwave works perfectly fine, you don’t need a double-boiler. Heat for 30 sec. at 50% power. Stir well. Even if nothing looks melted, stir the wafers.
- Continue to heat at 30 second increments, always 50% power, until chocolate melted. Stir well between each heating cycle. Feel free to stir and let it sit a minute or so, then stir even more. You would not believe how much the chocolate will melt as you stir (as the heat gets distributed). Always error on the side of waiting a bit before another heating cycle. Your bowl should never be too hot to touch with your bare hands.
- After the chocolate is mostly melted, dump in another handful of wafers. Stir them in, using the heat already in the chocolate and bowl to melt them. Keep stirring…they will melt. If necessary, heat 10 seconds at 50% power.
- Remove the cake bites from refrigerator and let sit at room temperature for a few minutes. This both lets them warm up slightly and lets the chocolate cool slightly. A large temperature differential is the #1 reason for cake pops cracking.
- Dip each chilled cake pop straight down into the melted coating until the cake ball is completely covered.
- Remove the cake pop from the melted coating by pulling it straight up. Then, turn the cake pop at an angle and gently tap off any excess coating.
- Immediately sprinkle generously with black sprinkles. Set cake bite down on parchment paper. Using a toothpick to hold it in place, remove lollipop stick. Dab a little melted chocolate over the hole. Sprinkle generously with black sprinkles.
- While chocolate is still semi-soft, stick the eyes on.
- As cake bites set, cut licorice. Error on the side of longer and thinner.
- Make three neat holes on each side of the spider. I used a toothpick to poke through chocolate and then the handle of a little decorating brush to widen. Dab end of licorice in melted chocolate. Poke into hole. Repeat with all six & let set.
- Impress everyone with your adorable and delicious red velvet and dark chocolate cake bite spiders!
Notes
Ingredients
• 2 cups & 1/2- 3 powdered sugar sifted• 8 oz Two pkgs. cream cheese at room temperature
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 12 oz . baker’s white chocolate
Instructions
-
Set out cream cheese and butter and allow it to warm to room temperature.
-
Sift the powdered sugar.
-
Cream together room tempature cream cheese and butter. Scrape down bowl and make sure there are absolutely no lumps.
-
Melt chocolate in microwave- 30 seconds at 50% power. Stir well. Microwave in additional 15 second increments, stirring every time, until melted. Do NOT overheat. Allow to cool slightly.
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Add melted chocolate and vanilla to cream cheese and butter. Mix well.
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Add sugar gradually, beating well, until light and fluffy after each addition. Add sugar to desired sweetness; may not use all of the sugar.
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