Tag Archives: halloween

Halloween Recipe Roundup

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HALLOWEEN IS NEXT WEEK!  And even though I don’t go trick-or-treating, or go to any parties, or do anything at all really… I still (for some reason) get excited for Halloween.  I’m trying to figure out what to be this year.  I really need to make a new costume, especially since I wore the same costume the last 2 years in a row.

So, I have for you some Halloween-esque recipes.  Some are more Halloween-themed than others; but since last year’s roundup focused pretty much solely on sweets, so I thought I’d throw in a couple of savory items for this year’s too.  You can always dress them up to be more “Halloween-y” (use your imagination! <– CONFESSION: so right there I accidentally typed “imaginator” and I really think I like “imaginator” way better)

Since it’s Thursday, I’ll give you a couple of “Thursday Things” before I dive into the round-up.  Like this thing that I watched for WAY TOO LONG.  Like, I’m debating if I may have brain damage “too long.”  I’ve also been missing my usual Thursday shows so I’ve replaced 30 Rock by watching these over and over.  And over.

Oh, and then there’s this, for your daily dose of cuteness.

 And this for your daily dose of weirdness.  What is going on over there in Japan anyway?  How do they come up with all these things?

Last but not least, I can’t wait to do this to my future child.  Those of you who have children, please do this and send me the video. K? Thanks.

Onto the Halloween Round-Up…

Bites

Zesty Roasted Pumpkin Seeds from Elephant Eats

Butternut Squash & Sweet Potato Soup from A Periodic Table

Potato Ghosts from Kitchen Daily

“Bones & Blood” from Our Best Bites

Eats

Mummy Halloweenies from Steamy Kitchen

Chipotle Mac & Cheese from Scarletta Bakes

 

Chili (you can dress it up for Halloween, or just accept it for what it is – delicious fall goodness) from Wee Eats

Tentacle Pot Pies from Babble

Spider Web Pizzas from The Domestic Mama

Sweets

“Caramel Apple” Cookie Pops from A Periodic Table

Bloody Good Cupcakes from NatureBox

Spider Cupcakes from Wee Eats

Candy Corn Pretzel Hugs from Sally’s Baking Addiction 

Caramel Apple Popcorn from Eat the Love

Spiced Pumpkin Bread from Some Kitchen Stories

Twinkie Ghosts from Crazy Little Projects

Candy Corn Upside Down Cake from Wee Eats

Peanut Butter Popcorn Marshmallow Balls from Loves Food, Loves to Eat

Drinks

The aptly-named Dark & Stormy from Movita Beaucoup

Halloween Sangria from RecipeGirl

 Pumpkin Pie Cocktail from My Baking Addiction 

Crafts

Halloween Etched Glasses from My Baking Addiction 

Halloween Printables from TomKat Studio

Monster Wreath by Hoosier Homemade

DIY Ghosts from A Beautiful Mess

Felt Bat Garland from The Artful Parent

Or master your pumpkin-carving skills with Amy from Elephant Eats

 

What to do with your leftover Halloween Candy

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Sure there are a ton of things you can do with leftover candy, one of which includes just saving it for later, because IT’S CANDY. Not like it’s going bad anytime soon, right?

Or you could stash it in the freezer.  With any luck you’ll forget about it and it’ll be there waiting for you in your time of need.  I call these times “candy emergencies”,  I always have at least one piece of candy in my purse at any given point in time for this exact reason.

OR,  you could get creative, and turn your candy into a real bona-fide dessert with one of the recipes below!  (Click the picture to go to the recipe!)

Candy Corn Upside Down Cake from yours truly here at Wee Eats

Halloween Candy Dump Cake from Scarletta Bakes

Halloween Candy Bark from Brown Eyed Baker

Halloween Candy Blondies from Bake or Break

Cake Mix Cookies from My Baking Addiction

Monster Munch from Eat, Drink, Love

Melt them into Halloween Candy Hot Chocolate from The Naptime Chef

Or, just turn it into one giant candy bar with this Mega Fun-Size Bar recipe from Serious Eats

spider cupcakes

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I actually succeeded in my attempt to make something Halloween-y before Halloween… twice!  Exciting, right?

These spider cupcakes adorably creepy (if that’s a thing?) but one thing that’s NOT scary?  Their nutrition stats!  That’s right, cupcakes that aren’t terrible for you!  Believe me, I know that right about now we are all looking for a reduced-guilt way to enjoy our sweets (before we go overboard on Wednesday).

So now you can make these adorably terrifying not terrible for you spiders for your Halloween party, whether it’s at home, work, or school!

I used a lightened-up recipe from skinnytaste that replaces all the oil and eggs with pumpkin, which means, according to me, these cupcakes are actually GOOD for you (since pumpkin is good for you).  According to skinntaste these cuddly little guys come in at about 140 calories a piece (I think that is excluding the extra candy).  You can use any cupcake recipe or boxed mix you like.

You could use a whole can of pumpkin (instead of a mix of pumpkin and water), which I hear makes the cupcakes super rich and ooey-gooey.  I’m no scientist but I was pretty sure a whole can of pumpkin had more calories than half of it, so I opted for this “healthy” recipe and plan to save the other version for a time when I have extra canned pumpkin to spare.

The verdict?  These were pretty darn good, but I could definitely tell they weren’t “regular” cupcakes.  The tops ended up a bit crackly, and I could slightly taste the pumpkin, but I think if I had used a richer, more chocolatey mix it would’ve masked the flavor better.  With all the binging I’m going to be doing on Halloween candy and potluck food (not to mention the holidays coming up), I’m in desperate need of something a little… lighter.

Side note: since everyone in the world hates black licorice, I was able to find this Wilton licorice made just for decorating.  It looks like black licorice but tastes like red! Win!

I like him.  And how he his shaking his tiny spider fist in a menacing fashion.  BF would definitely scream for me to come squash this little guy.

Print
Adorably Terrifying Spider Cupcakes

Ingredients

    For cupcakes:
  • 16.5 oz Duncan Hines Cake mix (I used Devil’s Food)
  • 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp canned pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie filling)
  • 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp water
    • For glaze
  • 3 oz chocolate, chopped
  • ¼ cup heavy cream
  • ½ tablespoon light corn syrup
    • For decorating
  • Eyeballs, chocolate sprinkles, and licorice legs

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Line 18 muffin tins with cupcake liners.
  2. In a medium bowl, blend pumpkin and water together with an electric mixer. Add cake mix and beat until well-mixed. The batter will be very thick.
  3. Cool completely before decorating.
  4. Make the glaze:
  5. Heat chocolate and cream in a microwave-safe bowl for 45 seconds to 1 minute. Remove from microwave and stir until all the chocolate has melted. Add corn syrup and stir until the mixture is smooth and shiny.
  6. To decorate:
  7. Dip the cupcakes in the glaze and use a spreader if necessary to smooth the top. Sprinkle chocolate sprinkles over the cupcakes before the glaze sets and add the eyeballs.
  8. Using a toothpick or skewer, poke four holes on each side of the cupcake for the legs. Insert the licorice and voila – spiders!
https://wee-eats.com/2012/10/29/spider-cupcakes/

[ Cupcake recipe adapted from skinnytaste ]

eek a ghost!

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I have a secret for you, not everything food-bloggers make turns out as intended.  99.9% of the time, you don’t see the result.  We just pretend that it never ever happened.  We find something else, or keep tweaking and re-making them until we get it JUST RIGHT.

Well, welcome to the .1% of the time that we will share our failure with you anyway.

Mostly because the only problem with these was aesthetic. And I was not willing to go through the cake ball effort all over again, no matter how much I love you guys.

I realize that these aren’t the prettiest cake balls, but sometimes things don’t come out 100% as planned.  Sometimes I have to improvise.  Since covering things in chocolate is easy enough, I naturally assumed that covering them in white chocolate would be just as easy.

I was wrong.

So,  here’s my tip:  When covering these spooky cake ball ghosts, DO NOT USE WHITE CHOCOLATE.  Because it will look like these.  Well, maybe not if you don’t give up as quickly as I do, but for me it just cooled too quickly and got all thick and goopy.  If you use “Candy Qwik” or just a white couverture they should turn out much better, but we do the best we can with what we have.  “WE” only had one bar of white chocolate, so that’s what “we” used.  Couverture will give you not only a smoother candy coating, but also less goopy runniness.

Let’s get back on track here.  Moral of the story:  if you know how to make cake balls, you can easily make GHOST cake balls.

Just shape your cake “ball” into a 1-1/2 to 2 inch cake “log”.  Try not to giggle when you realize what it looks like (it will be harder than you think)…

To make your cake “log”, connect your pointer finger to your thumb as shown in the beautiful artistic interpretation below:

Yes I have ugly man hands so I would prefer to draw what I was doing rather than show you. Get over it.

Holding the cake mixture so that most of it is cupped inside your hand, pat the exposed bottom of the log until it flattens.  Your fingers should have given the log a slight indentation while helping give it a level bottom.  Chill in refrigerator until ready to cover.

Tip #2: Make them in cake POP form v cake ball.  I didn’t have my lollipop sticks ready, so that wasn’t an option, but if you do… Dip the bottom of your ghost in your candy coating and then insert the stick.  Using a stick makes dipping easier, you just roll the ghost in the coating, then keep twisting it allowing excess coating to drip back into the bowl.  Stick into a foam block while it dries and hardens.

I totally intended to affix little eyeballs to these guys, but then I was so tired after wrestling with the white chocolate that I decided that I would try to write their expressions on with food-safe marker, and it wasn’t cooperating either.

Tip #3: Put adorable googly eyes on them. It will only take a few extra seconds (affix with either a dab of frosting or melted chocolate behind each eye).  Maybe a mini chocolate chip or just a dot of regular chocolate for the spooky ghost mouth.

I was so defeated that I gave up and didn’t even give them all sad marker faces.

Nonetheless, everyone at work loved them and even recognized them as ghosts, even the ones that were faceless… 🙂

candy corn upside down cake

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The internet is a beautiful thing.

It introduces us to wonderful things like adorable animals, outrageous comics, useless knick-knacks, and amazing recipes that, without the internet, I would never know existed.

I wouldn’t know they were missing from my life, but they would be. I’m sure there would be an emptiness somewhere inside me.

One of these things was on Serious Eats last week. It got planted in my brain and I couldn’t get it to go away. I wouldn’t even know that I was thinking of it but I was… all the time… There would be moments that it would just randomly pop into my head all, “Hey there, remember me?” “Don’t you want to make me?”

What was this magical thing? Candy corn upside down cake.

Mind = Blown.  I know.

Of course we all know about pineapple upside down cake, but CANDY CORN upside down cake? That’s just madness. MADNESS!

Since I’m one of two people in the world who actually happens to love candy corn, I was immediately excited over this concept. A lot of you don’t love candy corn. I know this. BF is one of you.  So when I came home from the store, dumped my groceries out onto the counter, and starting rambling on about this magical “candy corn upside down cake” he got a disgusted look on his face, “Candy Corn?? Gross.”

Joke was on him in the end though, because guess what!

HE. LOVED. IT.

Like, eating-crumbs-from-the-bottom-of-the-cake-plate loved it.

What happens is this: the candy corn, already made of sugar, melts and mixes with the brown sugar and butter, and forms a super-caramelized candy coating on top of the cake…It’s not the prettiest thing in the world, but I’ve definitely seen worse.  And sure I felt a little silly melting butter and then sprinkling it with brown sugar… and then sprinkling that with candy corn.  Over the top?  Maybe a little.

So those of you who love candy corn, prepare yourself for pure sugary bliss.

Those of you who hate candy corn, PREPARE YOURSELF FOR PURE SUGARY BLISS.  Please give it a try.  At the very least, I definitely found my new cake base for upside down cake.  It’s so light and delicate and … well, just make it.  You’ll see.

Candy Corn Upside Down Cake

[ Printable Recipe ]

For the Glaze:

  • ⅓ cup (about 5 tablespoons) butter
  • ⅔ cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 ½ cups candy corn

For the Cake:

  • ½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened
  • 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ¾ cup milk

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line the bottom of a 9-inch square baking pan with parchment (I used a 9-by-2” round cake pan)

Melt ⅓ cup butter and pour into the pan.  Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over the butter.  Sprinkle candy corn evenly on top.

In a medium bowl, sift or stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and granulated sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each until just incorporated.  Add vanilla extract and stir just to combine.

Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk, in 2 to 3 additions (flour-milk-flour-milk-flour), scraping the sides as necessary. Beat on low speed until fully incorporated.  Carefully pour the batter into the pan (If you try to pour it all in at once, it will push all of your candy corn to the side).

Set a cookie tray under the cake in the oven, in case the candy bubbles or drips. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean, 45 to 50 minutes.

Let cool 5 to 10 minutes in the pan, then VERY CAREFULLY invert the cake onto a plate.  Leave the pan in place for several minutes so the gooey mixture can drip down over the cake. After the dripping is done, lift off the pan (I had to pry mine with a fork). Serve while warm.

[ Adapted from Serious Eats ]