Sooooooooo at my work, we just got our cubicles.
Needless to say, it’s been likeDesign Star all up in hurrrr.
I’ve been picking out cute notepads, printing off my favorite pictures of Mannie and I, and collecting trinkets to display to make me oh-so happy while I’m tinkering away at work.
Meanwhile, other coworkers have caught the nesting bug as well. It’s hard not to want to hang up Christmas lights, bring in your Keurig and have pizza delivered to your cube just to break up the banality of the dull office. Most are doing the usual: bringing in a small figurine, family photos, or their favorite scented lotion. Others have brought in more elaborate items, like candles (??), books about positive thinking, and a variety of catalogs spread out just-so on their shelves to peruse while on breaks.
And then there’s the plant people.
I, myself, am not a plant person. I do not like plants and I cannot keep them alive, so I usually avoid them like the plague. However, there are lots of plant people in the world and I totally respect that. I like walking by other cubicles and they look like lush botanical gardens within a steel-gray cube.
I mean, at this point I wouldn’t be surprised if I walked by someone’s hydroponic garden at work with a farmer’s market set up shop during breaks. The plant thing at my work can get kinda serious.
Anywho, I have a cube-neighbor who decided to jump on this work-plant bandwagon and transform her cube into a tranquility zone by purchasing some medium-sized potted plants and placed them feng-sui-ish around her space. I didn’t think anything of it until one day I arrived at work and she giddily greeted me with her plant in hand, practically shoving the dirt in my face and exclaimed, “Look!! I have pets!!”
Immediately, my mind flashed to a few days prior when I tried convincing my supervisor to enact ‘Bring Your Pet To Work Day’ because it makes me less homicidal when I’m sitting in a gray square all day. So naturally, I wondered if this had been enacted without my knowledge and glanced in her cube to look for a furry, cuddly kitten or a sweet, mellow dog.
Instead, at the emptiness of her cube, I looked down into the plant thrust into my face and saw what she meant by pets.
Three syllables. Squiggles. Squirms. Leggy. POISONOUS.
Time’s up! Centipede. A motherfriggin’ CENTIPEDE. Times like, six, because there was a freaking family living in there. Along with little white flies, a couple moths, and what looked like millipede neighbors (I only wish I were joking).
I’m not usually one to squirm around this kinda stuff (I actually like snakes and spiders, as well as conventionally cute rollie pollies and butterflies), but arthropods are not something I can tolerate. Frankly, I think they make snakes look like cuddly bunnies in comparison. They areso foul.
So you can imagine my inner OH HELLLLLLL NAAAAAHHHH coming out when she showed me her pets. I spent the remainder of the afternoon advising her (kindly and not so) that she needed to get rid of the plants because I shoooooo as hell wasn’t working with creepy crawlers around me all day long. And thankfully, she took my advice and the arthopod visitors left the building shortly thereafter (but not before I raced home and took 8 scalding hot showers).
Most people are totally disgusted by anything creepy and crawly (I hear ya!). However there are a rare breed of weirdos (I say that lovingly, I promise!) who enjoy all things scary, slimy and squiggly. And sour! I could never get behind that kinda stuff. Like those 90’s commercials advertising create-your-own-edible-slime for boys? GROOOOOOSSSS. Pass me my Barbie bubblegum maker, please & thanks.
And Halloween is the perfect time to break out everything truly gross and unnerving. No bugs are off limits! So I decided to whip up a spine-tingling, goosebump-popping cupcake to bring out that oogey boogey in all of us, whether you love it or not.
*No real bugs were used in the making of these cupcakes. Trust me, I will only handle bugs made out of sugar.
5.0 from 2 reviews
Creepy Crawly Cupcakes
Author:Hayley Parker, The Domestic Rebel
Recipe type:Cakes/Cupcakes
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves:18
Scary, slimy and spooky, these Creepy Crawly Cupcakes are the perfect spell-binding treat at Halloween!
Ingredients
- 1 box white cake mix, plus ingredients on back of box
- 3 packets Duncan Hines Blue Raspberry Flavor Creations
- 2 sticks butter, softened
- ¼ cup milk
- 1 tsp vanilla
- About 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 Baby Bottle Pop in Blue Raspberry
- Sour gummy worms
- Bug sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 muffin tins with about 18 paper liners. Prepare the cake mix according to package directions. Stir TWO packets of the Blue Raspberry flavoring into the batter to combine.
- Evenly distribute the batter among the muffin cups, about ¾ths full. Bake until set and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 15 minutes. Cool completely.
- Meanwhile, in the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the butter, milk, vanilla and the remaining blue raspberry flavoring until creamy. Gradually add the powdered sugar, about one cup at a time, until light and fluffy.
- Pipe the frosting high onto the cooled cupcakes; sprinkle liberally with the baby bottle pop sour candy and adorn with the gummy and sprinkle bugs. Serve.
If you or your kids are a fan of sour candy, these cupcakes are meant for you! They have that nostalgic, tart blue raspberry flavor swirled throughout the moist cupcake and the sweet buttercream frosting. And the powder on top just enhances that lip-puckering feeling sour-lovers enjoy. Feel free to adorn these with any other sour candies or gummy bugs/body parts etc for a really spooky cupcake that tastes really yummy!
Have a deliciously creepy day!
xo Hayley
