Spider Birthday Cake

Gasp! I have only done two posts for October. I am embarrassed. And I promise I have some good posts coming. Today I am giving you something simple and fun. My daughter asked for a spider cake for her birthday. Let's just say, if we counted handicaps in the cooking world like they do in the golf world, cakes would be my handicap. I have issues with cakes. But this year I am reaching outside my comfort zone and decorating them myself. Now I think this spider cake was a perfect October themed cake and I thought it would be a fun idea for all you love to bake cakes people. I think it came off pretty decent, considering my cake issues. However, let it be known that the first cake I baked, I burned and it didn't come out of the pan in one piece. Which is why I think it is a really, really good idea to stock up on cake mixes when they are on sale. Just in case you have to re bake a cake at 10:30 at night. Here is how this spider cake came about. Please keep in mind that we baked the cake the night before so I could freeze it and I decorated it in time to let it defrost entirely. While this cake was simple to make it does take some planning.

You will need:

1 boxed cake mix

eggs (depends on your mix)

oil

2 Cups chocolate frosting

1 Cup accent color frosting

skittles

candy corns

8 long thin black licorice ropes

Bake cake according to directions. I used a glass pampered chef 8-cup measuring bowl for the cake body. A bundt pan would also be cute for the spider.

When finished baking, run a knife between the pan and the cake to loosen the sides. Let cake cool in pan for 15 minutes. Remove carefully from the pan and place on a plate or platter. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze. Freezing the cake eases the frosting process. You don't end up with crumbs breaking off with the frosting.

Remove frozen cake and put a thin layer of frosting on cake.

Next use a cake decorating tip with a manual cake decorating bag or pump. I used the 8 pronged tip for the furry spider effect and cover your cake. I accented the cake with the pink frosting (it needed to be a little girly) Make small holes in cake (Your cake will probably still be mostly frozen) where you want your spider legs and place licorice ends in top of cake. A chopstick end makes perfect sized holes for skinny licorice legs. Drape down to plate. Use skittles for eyes and border spider with candy corns. We also used the candy corns as spider feet.

Have Fun. I am positive you can improve on this decorating, absolutely positive.