Halloween Spider Cookies

5 from 2 votes

Make festive Halloween Spider Cookies—easy, fun, and perfect for parties or spooky snacks.

Prep Time10

Cook Time15

Total Time25

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: cookies

Calories: 345kcal

Preheat the oven to 350°F and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or nonstick mats.
In a bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
2 cups all-purpose flour, ¾ cup dark cocoa powder, ½ teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
In a different large bowl, beat together the melted butter, brown sugar, and sugar. Mix in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk. Stir together the espresso powder and warm water, then mix it into the batter as well.
14 tbs unsalted butter, 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar, ¾ cup sugar, 1 teaspoon espresso powder*, 1.5 tablespoon warm water, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 egg, 1 egg yolk
Slowly add the flour mixture, and stir until completely combined.
Scoop rounded tablespoonfuls of the dough into your hands and roll into balls. Then roll each ball in sugar to coat it completely. Place on your baking sheet, and press down each dough ball slightly with the bottom of a glass. Space each cookie about 2-3 inches apart.
Bake until the cookies are set and have cracks on the edges and top, 8-10 minutes. Then allow to cool completely.

In a mixer, whip the butter until it is fluffy. Add in the vanilla and salt and mix until combined.
½ cup butter, 1 tbs vanilla, Pinch salt
Add in powdered sugar and heavy whipping cream. Alternating between the two. I like to add 1 cup of powdered sugar, followed by 2 tablespoon of heavy whipping cream, let it combine, and then add the next round of powdered sugar and heavy cream.
5-7 cups powdered sugar, ¾ cup heavy cream
Once everything is added, mix on high for 20-30 seconds. Then add in the orange food gel and mix on medium-low until full incorporated.
Neon Orange food gel coloring

To decorate, simply frost a nice layer of the orange buttercream onto each cookie.
Then make a web by using the black gel/black frosting to make three circles, and then drag a toothpick from the center out, crossing the black lines, creating a web effect.
Black sparkle edible gel*, Toothpick
Place a Lindor truffle in the center of the web and add a chocolate-covered blueberry for the head.
24 lindor dark chocolate truffle, 24 chocolate covered blueberries
Using the chocolate frosting and a piping bag or a little baggie with a corner cut off, pipe on the 8 spider legs. Then serve and enjoy!
½ cup chocolate frosting

Tips and Tricks

If you don't have espresso powder for the cookies, you can use coffee instead or just omit it altogether.
I bought the black food gel at my local grocery store, but you can use black frosting as well. Black frosting will set up, but gel won't and is messier. You can also use a piping bag with a writing tip for finer lines.
I did use chocolate frosting from the store for this since I knew I wasn’t using a ton of the frosting and didn’t feel like making my own. However, whip up a half batch of my chocolate frosting if you want homemade.
Nutrition info will be off due to the amount of frosting you use to frost the cookies, which will vary, and doesn't account for the Lindor Truffle or chocolate-covered blueberry/whopper.