Halloween Vanilla Cobweb Frosted Cupcakes

Position oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Butter muffin pans for cupcakes or line them with paper cups. There's no need to grease the paper liners. Set aside.

In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside. Add the vanilla and almond extracts to the measured buttermilk and combine. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar: beat the butter on low speed with a paddle attachment until softened.

Add the granulated sugar in a steady stream at the side of the bowl until combined. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat for 3 minutes until creamy, light in color and fluffy. During beating, stop the mixer and scrape the bowl often.

With the mixer on low, add the eggs one at a time and beat 20 seconds after each addition until combined. Beat the mixture for one minute on medium until it is smooth and fluffy. Stop the mixer during mixing and scrape the bowl often.

With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture in 2 equal portions, alternating with the buttermilk mixture, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Mix after each addition until JUST combined.

With the last addition of flour, mix the batter for 1 minute or until smooth. DO NOT OVERMIX.

Scrape the bowl and divide the batter evenly among the muffin tins (about 1/4 cup of batter in each) and fill 2/3 full. Do not smooth the tops. Fill any unused muffin tins 1/3 full with water so they won't smoke in the oven.

Bake the cupcakes for 20-30 minutes. To test for doneness, insert a toothpick in the middle of a few cupcakes at a time and remove. It should have a few moist crumbs attached, but not batter. Lightly touch of the tops of a few cupcakes with a cupped hand until the top feels firm and gives slightly. It should also smell done.

Take the cupcakes immediately from the oven in their pan to a wire cake rack and let them sit for 5 minutes before turning out onto the rack to cool right-side-up.

Frost and Serve the Cupcakes: When the cupcakes have cooled, optionally frost with the frosting and decorate.

Frosting and Cobweb Decorations

After frosting the cupcakes, smooth them with an icing spatula or table knife dipped in warm water and then dried before using.

With a stand mixer on medium speed, beat the butter until smooth, light and fluffy. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add half of the powdered sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, and beat until incorporated.

Add the smaller amount of heavy cream and beat well on medium-low speed. Add the vanilla extract. Add more milk until the mixture is stiff and creamy. Beat an additional 3 minutes on low speed until fluffy. Adjust consistency with more powdered sugar or milk.

After mixing the icing, tint the all-purpose buttercream Frosting Recipe to a deep orange color using the red and yellow food color. Use multiples of 2 drops red and 3 drops yellow until you get it to the desired orange color you want. Add the color slowly in multiples and mix the frosting before deciding to add more.

Frost cupcakes and prepare cobwebs:

Spread top of each cupcake with about 2 tablespoons frosting.

Melt chocolate chips in top of a double boiler over barely simmering, not boiling, water, stirring until smooth. Spoon into a small plastic food-storage bag. Snip off a very small corner.

Starting in center and ending at edge, pipe chocolate in a spiral on top of each cupcake. To create a cobweb pattern, lightly drag tip of a paring knife or wooden pick through spiral from center to edge; repeat 7 or 8 times, in wheel-spoke fashion.

Storage: The icing and filling that covers your cake determines how you store your cake. The frosting recipe is not perishable because the sugar in it acts as a preservative.

The frosted cupcakes are good keepers and can be stored, unfrosted or frosted, at room temperature for about 3 days. (Butter cakes should not be refrigerated because it dries the cake.) Store the unfrosted cupcakes wrapped individually with plastic wrap and then in foil or multiples stored in an airtight container. Cover the frosted cupcakes with a cake keeper or an inverted bowl so as not to mar their finish.

The unfrosted or frosted cupcakes can be frozen for about 2 months. Wrap the unfrosted cupcakes well in plastic wrap and then in foil before freezing or store multiples in an airtight container. Or, freeze the cupcakes without a wrapper until hard. Wrap in plastic and then in foil. Thaw the unfrosted or frosted cupcakes in their wrappers at room temperature.