Ghoulish Treats for a Happy Halloween
Each year when Halloween rolls around, I am left again with that mild panic that rises in my chest. Have I got outfits for the kids? Shit, I need to buy candy for the trick or treaters! Need to get hubby to carve the pumpkin! However, this year it seems my kids expect me to ramp up my efforts even more. As if plastering my face with spot inducing paint and wandering the streets cackling was not enough! This year they want a Halloween party, which means sweet treats, spooky finger foods and god awful spider nets all over my house.
But, like all other celebration holidays, I slap on my super-mum cape and get out my Pinterest boards. After all, they aren’t gonna stay kids for long, so I have to make the memories count while they still enjoy doing crafts with their boring old mum.
Thanks to Lady Lolita and her Spooky Halloween Crafts, our house will be adorned with creepy spiders and spooky lanterns. But with Miss Pollyanna focusing on travel and her Top 10 spooky holiday destinations this year, it seems it was down to me to find the foodie treats for The Glass House Girls Halloween Party.
The first thing I reach for is my trusted chocolate moulds.
These are really super easy to use, and actually great fun to do with the kids. You can buy moulds like these in pretty much any supermarket or craft store. I, however, bought my moulds from Amazon. Each year it amazes me that something so cheap and easy to use can put such a massive grin on the kids’ faces. These were the first thing I pulled from my Mary Poppins bag of tricks when the girls insisted we plan a Halloween Party.
Funky Finger Foods
Meghan Wilker
This is where Pinterest came in so incredibly handy for me. It seems there are a million different ideas to make finger foods fun for Halloween. Wrapping a simple hot dog with pre-prepared pastry can make a mean looking spooky mummy! These are fab served with bloodied french fries. Pickled onions stuffed with olives make for ghoulish eyes and if you pop them in a jar of vinegar, all of a sudden your kitchen table is adorned with a jar full of human eyes. See, I knew I could pull off this Super Mummy malarky!
I was amazed at how simple it was starting to look. I chuckled to the hubby “I may actually pull off this party after all” – I wish I had taken more notice of his hilarious facial expressions as I confidently strode towards the kitchen looking for my next challenge!
That was when I decided to push myself a little bit further.
Cupcakes.
Now this is where I wish I had left the baking expertise to Miss Pollyanna. However, never one to be beaten by a task, I had taken on the challenge and was determined to prove to myself that I could do it.
Cupcakes are easy enough to do, but if you really are one of those mums that is better at the style than the substance, grab yourself a pack of ready made cupcakes, and spend the time you do have decorating them. Trust me, sometimes it’s just less stressful.
There are hundreds of ideas out there. I picked a few that I thought were easy enough to replicate and decided to make 40 of the best cupcakes I could. Let me tell you now, I was up until 3am making these things, but it was so worth it to see the look on the faces of the kids when they got to tuck into the sugary treats. Here is an example of some of the cupcakes I wanted to replicate:
And here is an example of the cupcakes I managed to whip up for my very own Ghoolish Glass House Extravaganza:
Not bad if I do say so myself!
What did I use to whip these bad boys up?
* Cupcakes (homemade or shop bought… we won’t judge!)
* Fondant Icing
* Icing colouring (either liquid or gel)
* Patience… and lots of it!
That’s it! A little bit of inspiration, a few cheap and cheerful ingredients and the help of our fabulous Pinterest Board – you too can throw the most fabulous home grown Halloween Party for your own special cherubs.
There you go, even The Duchess can have her Domestic Goddess moments – so I’m pretty sure if I can do it, so can you!
Happy Halloween Everyone!
