Ahh cupcake contests how I love you. Clara over at I heart cuppycakes obviously has an affinity for cupcakes hehe. She is constantly churning out amazing cupcakes and has a seriously awesome sense of humor! (ok it totally sounds like I'm sucking up to bribe her... hahahaha... wa-wah i'd never do that *bribe bribe bribe*) Plus I hear she prefers small unmarked bills ;)

Anyway she rocks and is hosting a Halloween decorating cupcake contest!!! After seeing her amazing bat over a moon cupcake I was going to throw in the towel... I mean seriously how cool is this!! Clara convinced me that I should still submit something so off I went brainstorming...

Later in the week I went home and started making some chocolate cupcakes, knowing for sure they would be the base for my creation. After taking them out of the oven to cool I turned around to see a SPIDER crawling across the plate I was about to use...

Why why must spiders always sneak up on you!?!? And it doesn't end there!! That little thing kept crawling towards me forcing me to run away from my cooling cupcakes and hide upstairs in my room!

After some time I decided to venture back downstairs (baseball bat in hand) to save my wonderful chocolate cupcakes from the big scary spider... alas what I found was even more horrifying!!!

spider eggs!!!!! BLEHHH!!!!!!


Chow!

So you're probably wonder what those "eggs" are huh... or maybe you are a super smarty pants and already know :) Tapioca pearls!! You can buy them dry at an Asian Market. Normally they go in things like bubble tea but they were too gross and eyeball/egg looking not to use for halloween! They are super easy to make

Tapioca Pearls (for use in bubble tea or to gross someone out!)
1/3 cup dry pearls
3 cups water
simple syrup (aka sugar water)

Bring 3 cups of water to boil. Add the tapioca pearls then turn down the heat to medium and cover. Cook for 25 minutes.

After the 25 minutes is up, remove from heat and let sit for an additional 25 minutes.
After that, drain and rinse. They are going to be slimy so don't let them sit in the colander for too long.

Put the tapioca into a jar and fill with sugar syrup until they are covered.

Simple syrup is two parts sugar to one part water, heat the mixture until the sugar is completely dissolved. (I totally remember learning about super saturating in science class, i loved science class!!)

Once pearls are cool and have soaked awhile add them into tea to make bubble tea or use in all types of places to creep people out!!

Chow!