Oh Yes - that age old (seems like it, anyway) trick of icing circles on top of a cake
and then dragging a toothpick across them to create "spider webs."

This cake and blackberry-candy spider incarnation comes to us from

Some original non-dessert recipes inside
- I'd say it's actually worth the $3.99 sticker price.


Country Living usually brings us some very interesting autumnal desserts,
starting with this black-sugar cat stenciled on orange buttercream icing...


But then DEFAULT! FOUL!
That old hat?
Well at least they glazed the cake.
That's different if not a little messier.

Maybe the Ladies of the Ladies' Home Journal

can work up some better Halloween desserts
than pumpkin pie with a Jack-o-Lantern crust face...


Whew! Now I'm feeling inspired!
While the design may not be original,
it at least incorporates the entire cake surface
and doesn't require much frosting expertise
beyond smoothing, blobs, and continuous lines.
Nice 'n easy C:

Thank you, Ladies' Home Journal. You have restored my cake-crafting faith.

And if you want all the crafty kudos for a spider web cake
without resorting to "spider web" lines,
pick yourself up one of these MSC stencils

and just rake in the compliments.

Anna Wallace
The Children of Israel wanted bread
And the Lord sent them manna;
Old clerk Wallace wanted a wife
And the devil sent him Anna.

abi normal

PS - From today (September 30) until, oh say, November 2 (El Dias de los Muertos)
I'll be posting at least once a day
with all the progress of my Halloween projects,
internet/real life finds, photographs,
favorite phantasmal films, macabre music,
ghost stories, and maybe a Halloween special or two.

So keep that dial set, stranger,
And you may see stranger things yet.