It is already Autumn and that means one thing. Halloween is nearly here!
Maybe you’re already making plans. Organising parties and thinking about costumes. Or perhaps you’re more of a last minute person. Either way is fine. Whilst this recipe is reasonably quick and simple, Teacake Spiders are a creative sweet treat to share with friends.
Ingredients:
(makes 6)
- 1x pack of Tunnock’s Teacakes
- 1x pack of strawberry laces
- 1x pack of smarties
- 1x bar of milk chocolate
(All ingredients can be found in Tesco. Quantities vary depending on how many spiders you intend to make!)
1.Place the Tunnock’s Teacakes upside down on a tray or flat surface. Take the strawberry laces out of the packet and with scissors cut them into shorter lengths. There is no specific length measure, just however long you would like your spider legs to be.
2. Melt just over half of the bar of milk chocolate. This can be done in two ways.
- Bain-marie: fill a pan with hot water and heat on a hob. Break the chocolate into pieces and place in a glass bowl on top of the boiling pan, with the bottom of the bowl slightly touching the hot water. Stir until melted
- Microwave: microwave the chocolate in a bowl. Make sure to keep taking the bowl out and stirring regularly otherwise the chocolate will burn quickly!
3. Using a teaspoon, add a blob of melted chocolate onto the bottom of each Teacake. Whilst doing so, place the pre-cut laces evenly into the melted chocolate, allowing them to set with it. Technically spiders have 8 legs, however I usually use 3 laces, making it look like the spider has 6 legs. Sometimes this is easier when there isn’t much space.
NOTE: During this step, try not to push too hard on the bottom surface of the Teacake. As seen by the photo above, this can lead to the shell breaking!
4. Once the legs have set, melt the remaining pieces of the chocolate bar. Dip one side of the smarties into this and then carefully stick these to the front of the spider, to give them eyes. I usually try to colour coordinate the smarties on each spider but this isn’t too important.
5. Finally, place the spiders in the fridge to set. Then enjoy!
Overall it is a very simple recipe, so feel free to experiment, e.g. using liquorice laces for legs or alternative sweets for the eyes. Happy Halloween everyone!