Edible Marzipan Spiders


Published: October 13, 2020 · Updated: March 11, 2024 by Sacha

Looking for a fun way to celebrate Halloween? These adorable spiders are fully edible and would make great Halloween party food! These sweet treats are super simple to make and 100% kid-approved—and if you make your own marzipan using the provided recipe, they’re also more cost-effective than you think!

Edible spider with liquorice legs and candy eyes.

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I have a confession to make. Of all the projects I’ve written about, this is my favourite.

And not just because I love marzipan. Which—don’t get me wrong—I do.

No, the reason that this project is my favourite is not because it’s fully edible and made using my favourite dessert (though obviously that does help). The reason I love it so much is simply because it’s just so adorable.

Seriously, just look at them!

Edible spiders with liquorice legs and candy eyes.

You may be thinking that even though this project is super cute, marzipan is pricey and there’s no way you’re going to shell out that kind of money just to turn it into spiders. But actually, you can easily make marzipan at home for a fraction of what it would cost to buy it at the store!

So there’s really no reason at all not to try making these adorable edible spiders for Halloween!

How to Make Marzipan

Unlike many traditional recipes, which use raw egg whites as a binder, my marzipan recipe calls for agave syrup. This makes it vegan, gluten-free, and safe for pregnant women and little kids to eat! (Note: If you’re pregnant, do your own research to make sure you’re comfortable with eating it.)

Here’s what you’ll need to make your own marzipan at home for a fraction of the cost:

I personally use a food processor to speed up the mixing process and yield more even results, but if you don’t have one, you can easily combine the ingredients by hand. This delicious homemade marzipan literally takes minutes to make, and it can be eaten as is, used in recipes or even given as a gift!

Read the full recipe: Homemade Marzipan (Vegan + Gluten-Free)

Required Ingredients

Here’s what you’ll need to make these sweet marzipan Halloween treats:

Ingredients to make edible marzipan spiders.

For this project, I chose to use icing gel rather than traditional liquid food colouring. It’s what I happened to have on hand, and I like how pigmented the resulting colour is. However, it’s possible that you could achieve good results with black liquid food colouring if that’s what you have at home.

As far as the liquorice is concerned, my original plan was to use black shoestring liquorice, but it turned out to be almost impossible to find. So after visiting six separate stores that didn’t carry it, we decided to settle for black Twizzlers.

They ended up working perfectly, and way more stores carry them, so you shouldn’t have any trouble finding them if you decide to try this project for yourself. You can even order them from Amazon if you’re short on time!

Required Materials

Note: If you decide to use a paintbrush, please do not use one that typically comes into contact with acrylic paint or any other substance that is toxic or unsafe for human consumption. The paintbrush I used was brand-new, thoroughly washed and had never been used to apply anything other than food colouring.

How to Make Edible Marzipan Spiders (Step-by-Step)

1. Roll Marzipan into Balls

Start by rolling the marzipan into balls using your hands.

2 balls of marzipan.

Each ball of marzipan will be used to create two separate spiders, so be sure to make them big enough. (I used roughly 3 tablespoons of marzipan for each ball.) You should be able to make about 10 spiders using the recipe I provided above.

2. Cut Balls in Half

Carefully cut each ball of marzipan in half and press it onto your work surface, cut side facing down. If needed, gently mould the marzipan with your hands to give it the perfect shape before you start painting it.

Four half-balls of marzipan.

3. Paint Marzipan

Use a basting brush or paintbrush (see above note) to cover the marzipan in black food colouring.

Marzipan painted black with a paintbrush.

Because I was using gel colouring, I created edible “liquid watercolours” by diluting some black gel in water, and used that to paint the first layer. Then, I used undiluted gel to create a darker second layer and fill in the lighter spots.

Note: Food colouring stains. Please protect your work surface with parchment paper or something similar!

4. Add Candy Eyes

While the spiders are still wet, press the candy eyes into the spiders. I didn’t have any trouble getting them to stick, probably because of the residual wetness from the food colouring.

Black marzipan balls with eyes.

The particular set of candy eyes that we purchased included three different sizes, so I may have had a little too much fun coming up with different placements.

But if the set you buy only includes one size, not a problem—one of my spiders only had two identical eyes, and it was just as cute as the others!

5. Let Dry

Once you’re done adding the eyes, you’ll have to wait for the food colouring to dry before you can add the legs. This can actually take quite a while depending on the type of food colouring you use.

I waited about five hours, but it’s possible that they were ready sooner—I started this project while my younger children were napping and was only able to get back to it after all the kids were in bed!

6. Cut Liquorice

While the food colouring is drying, prep your spider’s legs by cutting the liquorice down to size. I used two Twizzlers per spider and cut each one into four equal-sized pieces.

If you’re using thicker liquorice like we did, use your knife to cut one side of each leg into a point. This will help them go into the marzipan more easily when comes the time to assemble the spiders.

Black liquorice cut into pieces.

7. Add Spider Legs

Once the food colouring is done drying, you should be able to handle the spiders without staining your fingers too much. When that happens, it’s time to assemble the spiders by adding the legs!

For each spider, start by positioning eight liquorice legs right next to where you plan on inserting them. This will help you avoid overcrowding, which is a good thing since it’s pretty difficult to reposition legs that have already been inserted!

Black spider body with 8 liquorice legs arranged all around.

Once you’re happy with how the legs are positioned, insert them into the spider’s body by gently pushing them into the marzipan. Push each one in until you’re sure it won’t fall out, then stop and move on to the next.

8. Enjoy!

Once all the legs have been inserted, your spiders are ready! Aren’t they just adorable?

Finished edible spider with liquorice legs and candy eyes.

Enjoy them right away or keep them in a container in the fridge until you’re ready to eat them—these sweet treats would be a great addition to any Halloween party!

And in case you were thinking that these spiders can’t actually be fully edible and that I must have made some sort of swap while no one was looking… here’s a photo to prove it!

Edible spider with bite taken out.

I’ll be honest—that picture was hard to take. These little guys are so cute that I had trouble bringing myself to take a bite!

And it certainly didn’t help that my husband was standing next to me saying, “Noooo, don’t eat me!” every time I tried.

Related Halloween Crafts

Do marzipan spiders really qualify as a craft? They make great party food, but putting them together felt like making a craft, so I’m going to say yes. And if you’re looking for more fun crafts that you can do with your kids this Halloween, check out these articles:

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