Boris the Spider Cake

In honor of Boris the Spider, I decided to make this cake today, Halloween. I don’t like spiders, but the Boris song (by the WHO) is pretty cool.

The cake itself is pretty easy to make, so is the decorating. I am disappointed that I resorted to using plastic spiders, but I couldn’t find the large gummy spiders I had originally seen at the bake shop. I bought little gummy spiders but they just looked like a little gummy glob of nothing. Now, if I had read Jenn’s left-over queen’s blog before completing this, I could have made my spiders out of prunes like she did. They look really cool – so life-like. Be sure and check out her blog to see for yourself.

Anyway, back to the cake. No recipe really, just a devil’s food cake mix, some Hershey’s fudge frosting or chocolate frosting of your choice. I used the Wilton Cookie Icing Ready to Use frosting in a bottle to create the web.

The spider eggs on top are brownie bites covered in melted chocolate and sprinkled with some black and orange sprinkles. If you have white cotton candy, you can wrap some around the eggs to make it look like a sack. I didn’t, maybe next time. The sides of the cake are just shaved chocolate from a Ghirardelli Bittersweet bar.

Making a holiday like Halloween fun for your family isn’t difficult. It’s fun with a little imagination. I love Halloween. It’s different now with the kids gone, but it doesn’t mean I can’t still have some fun.

Yeah, it’s a big cake for Bob and me, but I think sharing with our next door neighbors kids will be cool.

Happy Halloween everyone. Here's a clip of the Boris the Spider song just for you.

Other Halloween posts you might enjoy:
Rat’s, Cat’s and Witches Hats

Mexican Chocolate Capirotada

Mexican Chocolate Drizzled Caramel Popcorn

Chocolate Tiramisu for 2

Still trying to reduce the cooking and baking quantities to accomodate 2. We love Tiramisu, but making a huge cake or pie would be just too much. This recipe - in chocolate of course, comes from the Sandra Lee magazine for October. Making this in one of my latte cups made it a perfect dessert to share with Bob. Sandra's recipe calls for assembling it in espresso cups, but I figured since Bob and I would be sharing, this cup would be just fine. Hope you try it. It's DELICIOUS.

Chocolate Tiramisu Cups
(recipe from the Semi-Homemade Magazine, Oct. 2009)

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
¾ cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 cup heavy whipping cream, divided
3 tablespoons Kahlua
¾ cup espresso or strong-brewed coffee cooled to room temp
1 (3-ounce) package soft lady fingers
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
Garnish: cocoa powder

In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, ¾ cup powdered sugar and cocoa powder. Beat at medium speed until smooth. Add ½ heavy cream and 2 tablespoons Kahlua, beating until blended and smooth.

In a small bowl, combine espresso and remaining 1 tablespoon Kahlua.

Fill bottom of espresso cups (or other decorative dessert cups) with a quarter teaspoon espresso mixture. Line the bottom of each cup with lady fingers, tearing them to fit the cups. Drizzle with 1 teaspoon espresso mixture. Spoon about 1 ½ tablespoons cream cheese mixture over the lady fingers. Repeat layers.

In a small bowl combine remaining ½ cup heavy cream and 3 tablespoons powdered sugar. Beat at high speed with mixer until soft peaks form and carefully spoon over tiramisu cups. Garnish with additional cocoa powder if desired. Store covered in refrigerator until ready to serve.

Here you can see the bits of lady fingers sticking out. (Should have made TWO!)