Find an area of your kitchen you’d like to work in. I have a very large kitchen sink, so I bleached the sink and placed my bowl in there without fear of making a mess. If you’re working on a countertop, line the countertop, cabinets, and floor with newspaper to protect them from the hot sugar. Grease a large, heatproof bowl with oil and place on your workspace. Set up your paper cones near the workspace so they are easily reached, as well as a surface to place finished cobwebs. I used a large baking sheet.

In a small pot, gently stir together the sugar, water, maple syrup, and corn syrup. Move the pot onto a small burner and use a pastry brush dipped in cold water to knock down any stray sugar granules that may have stuck to the sides of the pot. (This will keep the mixture from crystallizing.) Fit the pot with a candy thermometer, or use an instant read or infrared thermometer to measure the sugar’s temperature while it cooks.

Cook the mixture over medium-low heat, without stirring (stirring can cause crystallization), until the temperature reaches 310F. This will take quite a while (I forgot to time it, but I believe it must’ve been at least 30 minutes), so be patient. Resist the urge to turn up the heat, as too high a temperature can cause burning and/or crystallization. Check the temperature often, and try not to leave the kitchen for too long. While the sugar cooks, prepare a bowl of cold water, wide enough for the base of the pot with the sugar to fit inside. At 310F, immediately remove the pot of sugar from the heat and dip in the cold water for about 3 seconds to stop the cooking. Rest the pot on the counter and stir in the vanilla extract and the salt.

Take two forks and hold them by the handles back to back. Take the forks and the pot of sugar over to your workspace. Hold the pot up over the greased bowl, then dip the back-to-back fork prongs in the hot sugar and wave the sugar rapidly back and forth over the greased bowl at your workspace. This will form delicate, thin strands of sugar. Continue dipping and waving thin strands of sugar until you have a decent amount accumulated. When you have enough, take the wide end of a cone and hold it to one end of the spun sugar on the bowl. Use your other hand to gently lift the sugar strands and curl them over the cone. Continue rolling the sugar around the cone in a cylindrical shape until all of the sugar is gathered. Place the finished spun sugar on the prepared baking sheet, and repeat until all of the sugar is used. If your sugar hardens before you can use it all, place back on the burner over low heat, stirring, until it liquifies again.

Adorn spun sugar cones with spiders and serve (preferably outside-- these are messy!) Spun sugar is best eaten right away. If you should need to store the spun sugar, seal in an airtight container with a few desiccant packets (yup, like the ones that come in shoe boxes!)