The Marshmallow Hack For A Truly Spooky Halloween Spider Web Cake

If you're looking for a fun and easy way to decorate your bakes for Halloween, some melted marshmallows could create the perfect spooky decorations for your holiday-themed treats. Melted marshmallows (we recommend these brands) can be pulled apart to create a stringy, webby consistency. You can then drape those sugary webs over your cakes, brownies, and cupcakes, making the sweets look like they've been infested with spiders...in a yummy way, of course.

If you're a fan of frosting on your cakes, the white, webby look will stand out more amongst darker colors. Try frosting your cake first with dark chocolate frosting, or using food dye to color a lighter frosting. Alternatively, you could forgo the frosting altogether, and allow the marshmallow to be the only sweet topping.

Regardless of whether you choose to frost your cake or leave it bare, making some marshmallow webs is as easy as heating up the sweet treats and spreading them out — it'll just require your hands to get a little messy.

To get the marshmallows to a workable consistency, you'll need to heat them up after you've frosted your cake. The quickest and easiest way to do that is to pour some marshmallows into a microwave-safe bowl and heat them up for about thirty seconds. Stir the marshmallows after heating and if they've begun to melt a little and are pliable, you're ready to make some webs.

Make sure your hands are clean (or don some gloves), then carefully grab some marshmallow goo in your hands. Once it's stuck on your fingers, stretch your fingers out to create strands of marshmallow. Work these strands over the cake, gently touching the marshmallow down to make it stick. You'll want to make sure that the strands you create are thin and wispy. Thicker, clumpier pieces will look less realistic, though a few here and there could make it look like the strands are overlapping. The more marshmallow you add to the cake, the more it will look like it's covered in webs.

When you're satisfied with the webbing on your cake, wash your hands off so you can add some other Halloween-themed decorations on top of your treats.

If you really want to play into the spiderweb theme, you can add some candy bug toppers, making them look like they've been caught in the webs. Gummy worms are pretty commonplace in most candy aisles, though some brands make sweets shaped like other insects, as well.

You can also use icing to create little spiders on top of the webs. Simply make a small circle for the body, then pipe out the icing legs protruding from either side of the circle. If you'd rather let a candy mold do the work for you, you can pipe melting chocolate into a silicone spider-shaped mold, allow it to set, then pop the candies out and place them on top of the cake.

Whether you choose to add some extra decorations or leave your marshmallow web cake as-is, the sweet, marshmallow web will help your Halloween treats look perfectly spooky — and professional — for the season.