Creepy Crawly Party Food

*Scroll down for recipes!*

My older son just turned three and I wanted to make him this delicious chocolate cake I found as I was looking for book-related recipes. The cake is Bruce Bogtrotter's cake from Roald Dahl's Matilda, as it appears in the Revolting Recipes cookbook. The Bruce Bogtrotter chapter in Matilda is one of my favourite pieces of literature, it's so cleverly written, you read it with bated breath even the tenth time. I was imagining a Little Chefs session, where we prepare the cake and read the chapter - but for this we have to wait for the Little Chefs to get a bit older. At this age some of them (certainly mine) are only calibered to sit through The Very Hungry Caterpillar, just about. But in any case, I've tried the recipe, and can safely say it's the best chocolate cake ever. And of course, only the best for my boy! So this was going to be his birthday cake, but I also wanted a theme, and this is how I got to....

...spiders! It's a round and dark brown cake, so I though two of these - one larger than the other - eight legs and some round eyes would make a pretty spider. So near Halloween a purely spider themed party would have been a bit confusing, so I chose to expand to all sorts of creepy crawlies. My husband and I spent the nights leading up to the party drawing decorative bugs (see pics below), I bought some sticky slugs in WH Smith, baked bug shaped cupcakes (Orange and Carrot, Chocolate, and Banana and Pecan), topped sandwiches with ladybirds, prepared caterpillar grape skewers, and asked everyone to come in creepy crawly costume. 

I also drew lots of butterflies that the guests could colour in and organised a spider hunt: hid a bunch of plastic spiders in my sons' bedroom and the kid who found the most spiders won a handful of... spiders. They did really well, but we still find the occasional little black friend in the sock drawer or under the cot mattress.

To make the bug shaped cupcakes you need this mould. I realise it's not a kitchen essential, but with two boys who love bugs it keeps on giving... for the party I even bought a second one, they're only £4. It took a few practice rounds to work out recipes which ensure the cake comes out easily from the mould. Also I would recommend to let them cool before you pop out the cakes, and do it gently, holding the mould with the cake holes down, over a plate, letting gravity help you out.

Of course, you can make the cupcakes without the mould, in a traditional 12-hole muffin tray, and decorate them with an icing pen.

Spider Chocolate Cake

Ingredients for 20 cm cake tin. (If you're making a spider, this will be the cephalothorax and you'll need to bake a 24 cm cake for the abdomen. For the latter, multiply each ingredient with 1.5 and increase baking time to 1 hour 10 minutes. Also double the ingredients for the ganache.)

225 g dark chocolate (about 50% cocoa solids is fine)

175 g unsalted butter

225 g caster sugar

4 tbsp plain flour

6 eggs

Ganache:

225 g dark chocolate

225 ml double cream

Spider legs: 

8 cocktail sticks

Eyes:

White chocolate buttons

Method

- preheat oven to 170'C/fan 150'C

- grease and dust with flour a 20 cm cake tin

- melt chocolate and butter together in a pan, then allow to cool slightly and pour into a large bowl

- separate the eggs

- mix yolks, caster sugar and flour in another bowl

- stir egg mixture into chocolate

- whisk the egg whites till stiff peaks form

- gently fold half of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture, then fold the other half in just about, no problem if little bits of egg white are showing

- bake for 40 minutes, or until skewer comes out more or less clean

- while it's baking, make the chocolate ganache: melt together the chocolate and the cream in a bowl over simmering water

- then make the spider legs: break the cocktail stick in two places, making sure they stay connected, and dip them in the chocolate ganache. Hold the sticks by the tip, so there will be about a cm that's not covered in chocolate. Line a tray with baking paper, and leave the legs on it to dry

- when the cake is ready, leave it in the oven with the door open for a few minutes, then allow to cool on a rack

- when it's completely cool, carefully take it out of the tin - it will probably be slightly cracked or sunk on top, but no problem - and turn it upside down. This way you'll have a lovely smooth surface on top, and nobody will ever know how the other side looks

- cut the cake into two layers with a large serrated knife (bread knife) and spread a few spoonfuls of ganache on top of the lower half. Don't worry if the middle of the cake seems slightly uncooked - this is how it should be.

- place the top layer back and cover the whole cake with ganache - it won't be completely smooth, it should be smothered in chocolate, which makes it irresistible

- if you're making the two-cake spider, cover a large sturdy piece of cardboard, or a tray with baking paper, and carefully place both cakes on it, right next to each other

- then stick the legs into the smaller cake - with clean tip first, and try to touch the chocolate covered part as little as possible, as it will come off - four on each side. If you have any ganache left - and you should, unless you've eaten it - retouch the legs if necessary

- place 4 white chocolate buttons on the front of the smaller cake for eyes

- if you have it in you, you can draw spider webs on the baking paper with the ganache in a piping bag - this may be more suitable if you're going for the scary spider look

Bug shaped Cupcakes (aka Bugcakes)

Carrot and Orange Bugcakes

Ingredients for 16 bugs

100 g unsalted butter

150 g light brown sugar

2 eggs

200 g grated carrots

150 g self raising flour

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cloves

juice of 1 orange

Method

- preheat oven to 180'C/fan 160'C
- put the butter into the preheating oven to soften
- mix butter and sugar with a spoon, add eggs one at a time, and then stir in grated carrots
- mix flour with cinnamon and cloves
- stir flour into the carrot mixture, until just combined, leaving some bubbles of flour
- spoon into cake mould (this amount makes 2 trays of bugs)
- place a rack on the bottom of the oven, put mould on it and bake for 25 minutes, until skewer comes out clean
- poke each cake a few times, and spoon over orange juice
- wait for the cakes to cool completely, then turn mould upside down over a plate and gently ease the cakes out of the mould

Chocolate Bugcakes

Ingredients for 24 bugs

200 g unsalted butter
200 g dark brown sugar
200 g dark chocolate (50% cocoa solids is fine)
100 ml hot water
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
200 g self raising flour

Method

- preheat oven to 160'C/fan 140'C
- in a pan on low heat, melt together butter, sugar, chocolate with the hot water, then allow to cool slightly
- mix eggs with vanilla, then stir into chocolate mixture
- place the flour into a big bowl, then stir in chocolate mixture just about, leaving some flour bubbles
- spoon the mixture into the mould (this amount makes 3 trays of bugs)
- place a rack on the bottom of the oven, put mould on it and bake for 20 minutes, until skewer comes out clean
- wait for the cakes to cool completely, then turn mould upside down over a plate and gently ease the cakes out of the mould

Banana and Pecan Bugcakes

Ingredients for 16 bugs

125 ml sunflower oil
100 g light brown sugar
1 egg
4 ripe bananas, mashed with a fork
50 g pecan nuts, chopped
185 g self raising flour

Method

- preheat oven to 180'C/fan 160'C
- mix oil, sugar, egg and bananas
- stir in pecan nuts
- stir in flour, until just combined, leaving a few flour bubbles
- spoon the mixture into the mould (this amount makes 2 trays of bugs)
- place a rack on the bottom of the oven, put mould on it and bake for 20 minutes, until skewer comes out clean
- wait for the cakes to cool completely, then turn mould upside down over a plate and gently ease the cakes out of the mould

Ladybird Sandwiches

bread

butter, cheese, ham or anything else you'd like on your sandwich

cherry tomatoes

black olives

Prepare the sandwiches, then place half a cherry tomato and half an olive on top of each.

Caterpillar Grape Skewers

red and green grapes

cocktail sticks

Start with green grapes, then finish with a red grape for the head. The trick is to spear each grape at an angle and increase the angle till you reach the middle - the middle grape should be vertical - then mirror it till you reach the head. The grapes might spin around on the cocktail stick, ruining your composition, so make sure you lay the stick down flat to serve.