Ingredients:

I have kept the recipe for these simple as they are probably mainly for children, so no exotic flavours, just simple vanilla with lots of colour and detail in the finishing.

Use a mixture of petal paste and sugar paste to make your shapes for the cakes which can be done free form or with cutters. Make these the day before to give them time to harden off.

CAKES

6oz Unsalted Butter.

2oz Baking Margarine

8oz Caster Sugar

8oz S.R. Flour

4 Large Eggs

2 Teasps Vanilla Essence

2 Tablsp strawberry jam (no bits)

Butter Cream

8oz Unsalted Butter

1lb Sieved Icing Sugar

1 Teasp Vanilla essence

Purple, green and Orange Colours.

Water icing for the ‘spider cakes’

4 good tablsp icing sugar

Cold water to mix

Black Colouring

Muffin tins and Halloween cupcake cases.

Method:

1. Cream the butter, margarine and sugar together until light and fluffy

2. Gradually beat in the beaten eggs and vanilla essence, adding a little flour if the mixture starts to curdle.

3. Fold in the sieved flour.

4. Place in the cup cases and bake at 180ºC for about 20 mins.

5. Leave to cool.

6. Using an apple corer make a hole in the top of the cakes to about halfway down and fill with the jam Cut your little plugs’ in half and put the baked half back on top of the jam

7. Make the butter cream by creaming the butter and icing sugar together, if a little stiff add some milk.

8. Divide the butter cream into 3 and colour one purple, one green and one orange.

9. Make the water icing to a fairly stiff consistency and use immediately to ice 6 of the cakes

10. Mix up a little more water icing and add some black colouring.

11. Pipe circles on to the white topped cakes and using a pin or needle pull through the circles to create the web’ Top with a spider if you have made some.

12. Use the coloured butter cream to pipe swirls on the other cup cakes and top with your pre made shapes.