Only 365 days until Halloween!
What's a party without some fun food? As usual, I went overboard but it was totally worth it.
This year we have to thank Betty Crocker for most of the food. I knew I wasn't going to have time to make everything from scratch, plus was being lazy in trying to avoid too much hand mixing. I already had a lot planned for the week and wasn't sure if I'd be subbing at all (I did on Tuesday!) so I played it safe and used the handy dandy boxed mixes.
First, I made cupcakes. There was a fun holiday mix that had orange sprinkles in it, and I bought the Halloween version of the Rainbow Chip frosting (my favorite). I also made chocolates to decorate with.
The chocolates were both white and black (white chocolate flavored). I had a mold already for spiderweb lollipops that had little spiders molds too. I made white webs (without the lollipop stick) and painted the spider on and made little black spiders. I used the spiders to top the cupcakes.
The new mold I bought this year was a skeleton in pieces. The display was to make brownies and "dirt" and make it look like the skeleton was coming out of the grave. No time for that so I just made a box of brownies and messily cut/broke them up and put the chocolate bones into my cauldron bowl together. I also used some limbs to decorate the cupcakes.
My last bit of food was sugar cookies. These I was disappointed in, but it wasn't Betty's fault. I decided to forego using cookie cutters* this year and found 2 new cookie pans to use. I bought the Wilson Creepy Finger Cookie Pan. I had high hopes for this pan but was disappointed. Not the pan's fault, I just have to finagle cooking times on this and I only had 2 trays to try it on. They all came out overcooked. They were also a pain to ice with confectioner's sugar+water icing. The pan was SO easy to clean though.
I also made some cookies (and a couple cupcakes) in a Wilson Silicone Mini Pumpkin Mold. I figured I'd try it out for the cookies and it wasn't too bad- I, again, just have to figure out the amount of dough to put in and how long to cook for. They got good reviews though. I tried to use this with my other silicone mold tray, but apparently Kitchen Aid and Wilson don't work together to make their trays compatible. All well. I put it on an old cookie tray to get it in and out of the oven.
And time for another tutorial! I found this one and had to make it. Instead of using cake circles, I bought some cheap festive plates (orange, brown and green) at Michael's and used mini paint cans instead of a vase. I "glued" my candy corn on with plain frosting and filled my paint cans with Reese's Pieces and Halloween Dots. I "glued" it all together with the frosting too. You bet this will make a reappearance around Thanksgiving!
*Good thing because apparently they've all be ruined in the screen house. I had bout that big box of Halloween/Autumn cookie cutters at Michael's a couple years ago. Either they got rained on (possibly during Irene) or just the summer humidity got to them. They're all rusty. I don't think they're useable anymore :o(. Must get a job and find a place to live that my stuff isn't constantly getting rained on. Or find a Sugar Daddy but I don't think Kyle would appreciate that one...
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