Creepy Crawly Spiderweb Cake

Bubby's friend was coming over after a bike ride and I wanted to make them a Halloween-themed treat.  I've been wanting to make a spiderweb cake for a while.  I sure came away with some do's and don'ts!

I chose to use this recipe from King Arthur Baking.  Not sure why but I had my heart set on making it in an 8x8 square pan, and this recipe fit the bill. It's a recipe that calls for no eggs and no butter! I was a bit anxious about greasing but not flouring the pan, but the cake didn't stick to the sides when cutting it so that was fine.  The cake baked for 32 minutes (should have been 31) in my Corning Ware pan. Had I used an aluminum pan I'm sure it would have been ready much sooner.  

I'd never made ganache using chocolate chips and I wanted to try it so this was my opportunity.  This recipe also calls for half and half rather than heavy cream, for the ganache.  It was more difficult to melt the chocolate chips and incorporate the into the half and half than using chopped chocolate and heavy cream.  I had to microwave it (at 50% power) for a long time, in short bursts of course. It took a long time microwaving and stirring for the chips to dissolve completely.  They set up and cooled much sooner than a chopped chocolate/cream ganache, though, but never actually hardened.  So it was quite gooey when cutting, and I didn't like the taste as much.  Well I tried! But next time if I make this cake, regular buttercream or classic ganache it will be.

For the spiderweb, I was going to use white chocolate but I thought buttercream might be easier to work with so that's what I used. I piped it in a spiral, and the minute I started piping the line broke and I wished I'd used creamier buttercream. I only used one tablespoon of milk for this batch. So that's a note for future reference. After piping the spiral I dragged a toothpick through it to create the impression of the spiderweb.  The whole thing looked kind of messy.  I'm not sure if the ganache should have set more, or the buttercream should have been creamier or if I should have used a smaller piping tip (I used Wilton #3).  I ended up piping over the lines I'd made with the toothpick, and that did make it look a bit better and more like a cobweb.  But if I were doing this again, I would try it with white chocolate.

I wanted to make candy spiders to sit on the cobweb as a decoration. I used Wilton chocolate candy melts, because I had them in the house and I knew they would set up faster than chopped chocolate.  I always have a hard time using candy melts. I tried melting a batch in the microwave, but I should have used 50% power and stirred the more because I ended up burning them into a chalky powder and had to throw them out. Next batch I melted over a bain marie and that worked much better. It just takes longer than you think it will, certainly longer than chocolate.

Since I don't have spherical silicone molds, I improvised with a plastic measuring spoon. I used the half-tablespoon size and coated the inside with shortening and cocoa powder. I had no trouble releasing them after only 5 minutes. I ran a toothpick along the edge of the spoon then pushed into it with my finger. However, the domes didn't look good because the candy melts weren't fully melted, and there were holes on the tops of the domes where apparently not enough candy flowed to coat the bottom of the spoon.  Also the cocoa powder made the chocolate look patchy.  

I melted more candy melts and put them in a piping bag with a #2 tip and piped legs on the sides of the domes. I made 3 this way, and to hide the patchiness I also piped lines over the domes connecting the legs on either side of the spider's body. After the candy set for a couple of minutes I piped lines over the legs again to reinforce them.  Lastly I piped legs onto two unmelted candy melts that I had rubbed with shortening to make shiny, and made smaller spiders.  

The creepy crawlies up close.

The spiders looked fun on top of the cake but if I were doing this again I'd use white chocolate because these didn't stand out sitting on top of the dark ganache, so it wasn't that decorative. I think a white chocolate spiral and white chocolate spiders would look much prettier.

The boys liked the cake though! Everybody went in for seconds, they ate the spiders, and Bubby's friend wanted to take a piece home.  It was fun to make and I would try it again!