Spider Web Mini Muffins / Cupcakes for Halloween

I had big plans for this Halloween. I wanted to make something huge - probably as big as a large pumpkin. But I ended up making these cute li'l spiderweb muffins for my son's Halloween parade in school. No complaints. Except that I wish I could spend some more time and make them a little neater. I also wanted to add an edible spider and a couple more tasty accessories. But I was terribly short on time and decorated 24 mini muffins in less than 15 minutes! (dear hubby helped too). Anyway, that's just about how much time it takes to make these cute spiderwebs.

To make these spiderweb muffins, first of all, you need some delicious muffins. I used homemade banana muffins but you can use any store-bought ones too. Since it's for Halloween I chose liners with pumpkin designs.
To make the spider webs, you need two ingredients - white chocolate and semi-sweet (or milk) chocolates.
I used 3/4 cup white chocolate chips and  5oz semi sweet baking chocolate squares. You could use semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips too.

Microwave semi-sweet chocolate squares (or chips) for 1 minute. Stir well. Microwave for another 30 to 50 seconds. Mix well. Allow to cool.
Separately microwave white chocolate chips for 1 minute. Mix really well. Microwave for additional 15 seconds. Mix well. Allow to cool. Transfer into a piping bag or a ziploc. Snip off a tiny piece of the edge using a pair of scissors.

Now take a mini muffin and spread the melted semi-sweet chocolate around it. Take the piping bag filled with melted white chocolate and draw concentric circles on top. Using a toothpick, immediately pull lines along the diameters. There, you got your spiderweb! Thank you internet.

Do not touch the muffins (as tempting as it may be) for a few minutes till the chocolate hardens.

Note -
Before you decorate the muffins, make sure they have cooled down.
The melted chocolates (especially white chocolate) tend to harden even at room temperature, so work fast. If you feel it's hardening as you work, microwave for a few seconds and mix well. You can place the piping bag in the microwave.

Accessorize with toy spiders.

Mini Banana Muffins

I find mini muffins cute. Very very cute. Specially when they are held by tiny little hands. Like my son's. He absolutely loves mini muffins. I first baked these when his friends came over for a playdate. I baked these again today. Thought I'd share them with you. I found the recipe in Sweet Oven Lovin' and made a couple of minor changes. Both times these have turned out pretty good. 

I made these today specially for my son's Halloween parade at school. These are the shots taken before decorating. If the decoration comes out good, these will probably feature in my next post too.

Ingredients :

2 medium or large ripe bananas

1 2/3 cup all purpose flour or maida

1 tsp baking soda

1 pinch salt

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup oil

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Method :

Peel and mash bananas.

Preheat oven to 375ºF. Line mini muffin pan with liners. If you don't have liners, grease them well.

Combine flour, baking soda and salt.

In a large bowl, with a hand held electric mixer, beat sugar and oil. Add eggs one at a time and beat. Add vanilla and beat further.  To this add the mashed bananas and beat well.

Add flour mixture little by little and beat at low speed. [Don't add all at once as the flour will fly all over]. Do not over mix. You can even mix with a fork or large spoon. A few lumps are ok.

Pour the batter into the muffin liners, till each liner is almost full. The muffins will expand so leave some room. [ I used two spoons to fill the liners. One to scoop out the batter from the bowl and the other to scoop out the batter from the spoon and scoop it into the liners].

Bake for 11 to 12 minutes or till fork inserted in the muffin comes out clean.

Allow to cool completely. Tastes better after you refrigerate for sometime.
Makes 24 to 28 mini muffins.