I have a standard go-to chocolate cake recipe; this time I have different ingredients on hand and wanted something very simple to make Halloween cupcakes. The decoration was a spiderweb design (basic chocolate frosting and gel icing for the web). I am not a big fan of chocolate but think that these cupcakes were fine. People ate them, after all.

Basic Chocolate Cake Recipe

Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
2 eggs
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 cup hot water
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350F/175C.

Cream sugar, shortening and eggs until fluffy. In a separate bowl, mix the cocoa with hot water, set aside to let it cool slightly. Sift flour, baking soda and salt together. Once cooled, add milk to the cocoa mixture. Add flour mixture alternately with milk mixture to creamed sugar-shortening mixture. Add vanilla. Pour into well-greased cake pans dusted with flour or sugar. Bake in a preheated 350F/175C oven for 35-40 minutes. (Or put into well-greased cupcakes molds or cupcake papers and bake for about 20-25 minutes until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.)

Frost and decorate as desired.