Good Treats that You Can Bake Yourself this October 31
Let’s be honest here. There are some really appetizing Halloween treats on the market every year. Artisanal ghost pops, mystery-flavored chocolate boxes, caramel apples with a spooky twist and haunted cupcakes, who wouldn’t like them?
But take one look at some of those prices and jaws will be dropping, eyes will be rolling and feet will be walking out of stores before you can say Nightmare on Elm Street.
So what if instead of wasting time going from shop to shop only to end up with some cheap candy and desserts, you mastered the art of spooky culinary treats yourself? Just this once.
Here are some simple ideas to start with and guarantee they’ll be a hit with all those little monsters, and witches, and party guests alike.
Muffins and cup cakes
You can easily turn muffins and cup cakes into impressive and eye-catching treats. All it takes is the standard recipe to bake the base and then some creativity for genuinely creepy looking and bloody tasting desserts.
Make blood claw muffins or eyeball cupcakes with edible blood that you can prepare yourself. Use marzipan to make the eyeballs and sweet cream cheese or butter frosting to top muffins. And here’s the recipe for safe-to-eat blood:
- Glucose syrup or you can use maple or corn syrup;
- Red food coloring or if you want an alternative to artificially-colored red, use red beet powder;
- Coffee granules or anything brown. Cocoa powder is also suitable. This is going to pronounce the red color of the blood.
How to: simply mix the syrup of your choice with the coloring of your choice and the brown granules and you get sticky, edible blood that looks just as frightening as the real stuff.
Pumpkin cookies
Since it doesn’t really feel like Halloween without pumpkins, how about some pumpkin cookies this year instead of carving a Jack o’lantern?
You can choose to carve the cookies before or after baking. But since carving after does take some precision so that the biscuits don’t break, you may want to carve before.
Use a basic recipe for the cookies to which you should add 1 cup canned pumpkin and some spices. Cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla should do. Use a knife to cut out faces on your cookies just as you’d carve an actual pumpkin.
Then melt some chocolate and spread a few chocolate buttons on parchment paper. Place each cookie on a chocolate button and you have your pumpkin cookie’s stem.
Oreo scary pops
Frankenstein-style or Jack Skellington-style, these pops will still the show anytime. They’re easy to make and you can serve them at the Halloween party this year or hand over to kids. Here’s what you need:
- Lollipop sticks;
- White chocolate candy coating;
- Oreo biscuits;
- White chocolate candy melts or green candy melts (depending on which style you choose);
- Candy eyeballs (if you’re going for Frankenstein-style pops);
- Black edible marker (if you’re going for Jack Skellington-style pops);
- Black or green ribbon.
Start with melting the candy melts and placing the melt in a glass. Take a lollipop stick and deep the end into a bit of chocolate, and then stick it into the cream filling of the biscuit.
Place each Oreo pop on a baking sheet lined with waxed paper and freeze for about 1 minute to allow the chocolate and biscuit to fix together on the lollipop stick.
Then dip each Oreo into white chocolate or green candy coating and refrigerate until set.
Now, depending on your style of choice, either use the black marker to draw Jack Skellington face or attach the candy eyeballs to the Oreos. You can use black marker for Frankenstein-style pops to make scars and mouth.
Finally, just tie the bow around the lollipop stick.