Creepy Spider Cake

Candy melts are the easy secret to make the sweet spiderwebs on this frighteningly good treat.

Ingredients

• 1 (15.25 oz.) pkg. yellow cake mix
• 3 eggs
• ⅓ cup oil
• 1 (12 oz.) bag white candy melts, melted
• Regular and mini Oreos cookies, split
• M&M’s Minis candy
• Black licorice laces, cut into small pieces
• 1½ cups butter, at room temp.
• 4½ cups confectioners’ sugar
• ½ tsp. grated orange zest
• 3 Tbs. orange juice
• 1 sp. orange concentrated food coloring

Instructions

• Heat oven to 325°F. Coat 2 (8”) round cake pans with baking spray with flour. On low speed, beat cake mix, 1 cup water, eggs and oil, 30 sec; on medium, beat 2 min. Evenly divide batter between pans. Bake until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean, about 30 min. Cool in pans 10 min. Transfer from pans to rack; let cool completely.
• On sheet of paper, draw 3 spider webs; place on baking sheet. Cover drawings with wax paper. Transfer I cup candy to plastic sandwich bag; snip hole in corner. Pipe some of candy onto wax paper, tracing drawings. Chill until set, 5 min. Using dots of melted candy, attach M&M’s to tops of Oreos for eyes and licorice to filling side for legs. Attach 1 regular Oreo to wooden skewer with melted candy.
• On medium-high, beat butter until fluffy, 2-3 min. On low, gradually beat in confectioners’ sugar, then zest, juice and coloring. On medium-high, beat until fluffy, 2-3 min. Place 1 cake layer on serving plate; spread top with 1 cup frosting. Top with remaining layer. Spread top and side of cake with remaining frosting. Drizzle candy lines over cake as shown; let set. Decorate cake with webs, propping up with skewers as needed; add spiders, as shown.