In this week’s Torah portion, Jacob left his hometown, Beer Sheva, and headed to Charan. He stopped to rest on the way, dreaming of the ladder with the angels rising and descending. These were the angels escorting Jacob out of his homeland, and other angels escorting Jacob into Charan.

This week we will be baking cupcakes topped with Jacob’s ladder. You can either complete the full ladder-topped cupcake dessert, or just the ladder.

Get your baker teenager into the kitchen and follow our step-by-step guide and video to create your very own cupcake ladders.

What You Will Need:

  • Favorite cupcakes (cake mix is great too)
  • Chocolate frosting (bought or homemade)
  • Rock chocolate
  • Pretzel Sticks
  • Baking Chocolate (not chocolate chips)
  • Sprinkles or colored sugar (optional)
  • Skewers
  • Parchment paper

Creating Pretzel Ladders:

Watch the video above, or follow the steps written below.

Align two pretzels of the same height. Take another two pretzels and, using a good knife, cut the pretzels into three smaller pieces for the rungs of the ladder. Cut them down to be equal in length. Repeat this to have enough pieces for all of the ladders you wish to create. (It is perfectly normal for some of the pretzels to break at the wrong place, just sneak a bite and enjoy the imperfect ones).

2. Melt the baking chocolate and allow the chocolate to cool slightly. Working with chocolate that is not super-hot will allow the chocolate to harden faster, and will glue everything into place more easily.

3. Dip the two ends of the "ladder rungs" into the chocolate and then set it into place on a piece of parchment paper. Allow the ladders to cool. You can choose to leave the ladders as is, or challenge yourself with the next step.

4. Place the hardened ladders on two skewers over a bowl or pan (see picture below), to allow the chocolate to drip down.

5. Pour the slightly warm chocolate over the ladders to cover the ladders (make sure it is not hot, or the ladder joints will melt). When partially set, (chocolate not running), remove the ladders from the skewers and allow them to harden completely on the parchment paper.

Before they are fully set, add colored sugar or sprinkles (optional).

Now for the fun cupcake part!

Now that we have created our ladders, let's bring this all together. You will need to gather the ladders, cupcakes, chocolate frosting, and chocolate rocks.

For best results, assemble them in the following order:

Spread a nice amount of chocolate frosting on the cupcakes.

Carefully pick up your ladder and gently press it into the cupcake deep enough to stand on its own.

Finish it off by adding the rocks all around the ladder.

Don't have chocolate rocks? Just get creative and find something else to place there (chocolate chips, chocolate lentils etc.)

And here we have it! This adorable Parsha-themed dessert will keep the kids busy and awe the guests at your Shabbat table.