Preheat oven to 350°F.

Grease the bundt cake pan with some additional canola oil or Pam cooking spray.

In a bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and salt). Set aside.

In a mixer, beat oil, eggs, sugars, applesauce, rum, and vanilla. Add in the carrots, making sure to incorporate into the other ingredients. Add in the grated rind of 1 orange.

Slowly spoon the dry ingredients into the batter until fully combined. Pour batter evenly into the prepared bundt cake tin.

Bake at 350°F for 45-50 minutes or until a long stick or butter knife comes out clean from the center of the cake. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes inverted upside down on a wire rack.

Once cake has cooled for 10 more minutes on wire rack, you can gently lift the bundt pan tin off of the cake. Allow to cool completely before decorating.

In either a stand mixer or hand held mixer, beat the cream cheese and cubed softened butter until smooth. Add in a tablespoon of the heavy cream, vanilla, and beat until incorporated.

Slowly add in the confectioners sugar and keep beating until the frosting thickens to the desired consistency. You can add in more of the cream or additional sugar to adjust the thickness.

To Decorate

To create spider legs around the grooves of the bundt cake, spoon the cream cheese frosting into a disposable piping bag and snip the tip to a ½ inch diameter or however big you wish the legs to be.

Pipe down each 4th groove or evenly around the entire bundt cake. You can pipe a little extra frosting at the base of each leg. I added candy corn “claws.”

Have fun with any variety of Halloween candy you can. This cake has some candy corn pumpkins on top, with some additional piping, and a variety of candy in the central hole of the bundt, which offers a nice candy surprise when the cake is cut. You can add two pieces of candy for eyes if you want your spider to have a personality!