Let them eat cake

It's been a while since my last baking blogpost. I've been baking loads recently and so I thought it was about time I shared a new recipe with you. Especially since these oreo spider cupcakes might inspire you to bake some Halloween treats; whether you're planning a party or just want to scoff the lot yourself. These are ginger and cinnamon cupcakes with orange frosting - I thought it would be fun to try with some more classic flavours seeing as I plan on being the next Mary Berry one day. Oh and FYI, taking photos mid-baking when you're the only one in the house is a very difficult task so I hope you appreciate the hard work that went into this blogpost.

Start by creaming together 150g of butter and 150g of soft brown sugar until it looks paler and fluffy.

Then beat in 3 eggs; do this one at a time so they don't curdle (how skilled am I, I actually managed to crack it one handed!)

Then fold in 150g of self-raising flour; use a figure-of-8 motion so that you don't beat the air back out of it.

The recipe I used called for 1 tsp of ground ginger, 1/2 tsp of ground cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg but I didn't think that was nearly enough so I used more like 2 tsp of ginger, 2 tsp of cinnamon and 1/2 tsp of nutmeg. I wanted a really autumnal spiced cupcake but it just depends on your preference.

Then finish with 1 tbsp of milk and combine until it looks smooth like this.

The recipe supposedly makes 12 but mine actually made 24 (they never make as many as they say). Fill a muffin tin (or two) with cupcake cases; I used these cool green and black Halloween themed ones. Spoon mixture into each case until they're all about 2/3 full.

Bake them at 180C/160C fan/gas mark 4 for 20-25 minutes until they're risen, springy to the touch and light brown in colour. then transfer them to a cooling rack.

While your cakes are cooling you can make the frosting. Whisk together 350g of butter and 450g of icing sugar, adding 100g of icing sugar at a time so that you don't make as much of a mess. Then squeeze in the juice of a large orange (catch the pips) and add some orange food colouring. Orange food colouring is quite hard to get so you could just use both red and yellow colouring.

Then for the fun bit! Fill a piping bag with your frosting and top each cupcake with a generous amount (don't worry you'll have loads). I find that going round the outside and then swirling inwards works best. Then top each cake with an oreo and stick eyes on using small blobs of frosting. I used edible eyes from Hobby Craft but you could always just use chocolate buttons or something. The original picture I saw used liquorice as legs but I went with chocolate orange matchmakers instead. I cut each one into quarters and then added 8 pieces to each cake And then let them eat cake.