Halloween Food
Scary Spider Porridge
Start the day as you mean to go on with a bowl of this Scary Spider Porridge.
30g porridge oats
230ml milk
1 to 2 tbsp honey or strawberry jam
8 liquorice Catherine wheels for decoration
Mix the porridge oats with the milk in a saucepan. Bring to the boil and then simmer, stirring occasionally for two minutes. Stir in the honey or strawberry jam to taste. Then decorate with liquorice Catherine wheels for the eyes and unwind the strands of the other wheels to form the eight legs.
Makes 2 bowls
Deadman's Finger Sandwiches
These ghoulish sandwiches look terrific!
Thin sliced white bread, crusts removed
Soft margarine
Cream cheese or peanut butter
Almonds
Strawberry jam or tomato ketchup
Gently flatten the slices of bread with a rolling pin to make them more pliable. Spread with a little margarine and either some cream cheese or peanut butter. Roll up the sandwiches and make three indentations with a blunt knife to form the finger joints. Stick an almond on to each tip with a little cream cheese or peanut butter to form the nails and add some tomato ketchup or strawberry jam for the blood!
Hot Potato Witches
This is a fun way to jolly up a baked potato. If you like, you can remove the flesh from the potato leaving the skin intact, then mash the potato together with some butter, milk and seasoning and stuff it back inside the potato.
2 medium, round baking potatoes
a little vegetable oil
2 sheets black paper
1 small bunch chives
2 stuffed black olives
2 baby carrots
1 strip of red pepper
cream cheese 'for glue'
Wash and dry the potatoes, prick all over with a fork and brush with oil. Bake in a hot oven for between 1 hour and 1 hour 15 minutes, until tender (alternatively, cook in a microwave/grill combination for about 15 minutes, turning halfway through).
Make little witches' hats by cutting circles from the black paper and rolling into a cone. Place the chives in the microwave for a few seconds - this will make them more pliable and you will be able to stick them on top of the potato to make the witches' green hair. Decorate the potatoes to look like witches' faces with slices of stuffed olives for the eyes, the tip of a baby carrot for the nose and a strip of red pepper for the mouth. These can be attached to the potato with a dab of cream cheese. Place the black hats on the witches' heads.
Makes 2 portions
Tombstone Sandwiches
You can use a variety of fillings like Marmite, Peanut Butter, Egg Mayonnaise, Cheese and Tomato to make these spine-chilling sandwiches.
Sliced bread
Grated carrot
Grated cheddar cheese
Mayonnaise
Salad cress
Cut the crusts off the bread and cut into rectangles. Using a plain round cutter or a saucer as a guide cut the top of the sandwich into a round tombstone shape. Mix together the grated carrot, cheese and mayonnaise (or use a filling of your choice) and sandwich the bread together with this mixture.
Arrange the tombstone sandwiches upright on a plate and sprinkle the cress around the sandwiches before serving.
Witches' Broomsticks
Thee look very authentic. To make it easier to tie the chives or strips of spring onion, you may need to heat them in a microwave oven for a few seconds to make them more pliable.
1 packet savoury wholewheat sticks
6 twisted cheese straws
12 chives or strips of spring onion
To assemble the broomsticks, place 2 chives next to each other on a board, lay the cheese straw and four savoury wholewheat sticks on top to create a broomstick. Tie them on by knotting the chives together.
Makes 6 broomsticks
Spider And Bat Cakes
These are fun to make with your children. You can make five of each design, divide the cake mixture in two and add one tablespoon of cocoa powder to half of it .
Fairy Cakes
100g (4 oz) soft margarine
100g (4 oz) caster sugar
2 eggs
100g (4 oz) self-raising flour
(substitute 2tbsp cocoa powder for 2 tbsp of the flour for chocolate fairy cakes)
1 tsp pure vanilla essence
Spider Cake Decoration
100g / 4 oz milk chocolate
liquorice laces
10 chocolate marshmallow tea cakes
Assorted liquorice sweets
Sugar-coated coloured chocolate buttons
Bat Cake Decoration
100g / 4 oz softened butter
175g (6 oz) icing sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp milk
1 tube black writing icing
black liquorice sweets
edible silver balls
To make the fairy cakes: pre-heat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Cream the margarine and sugar together until light and fluffy and then beat in the eggs one at a time together with 1 tablespoon of the flour. Add the vanilla and fold in the remaining flour. Line a bun tin with paper cases and half fill each case with the mixture. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes. Remove and put on a wire rack to cool before decorating.
Spider Cakes
Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Using a palette knife, cover each cake with some of the melted chocolate. Arrange six liquorice strips for the spider's legs and stick a teacake in the centres. Finish with assorted liquorice sweets and sugar-coated coloured chocolate buttons as eyes.
Bat Cakes
To make the chocolate frosting, beat the butter until creamy. Sieve together the icing sugar and cocoa and gradually beat into the butter together with the milk using a wooden spoon. When the cakes have cooled, cut off the tops of the cakes and cut into three sections and use the two curved ends to make wings (reserve the middle section).
Draw a 'V' with black writing icing on the wings. Spread a thick layer of chocolate frosting over the surface of the cake, position the wings to that they stand up: you will need to cut small squares of cake from the middle section to position under the wings to prop them up. Stick edible silver balls on top of black liquorice sweets for the bat's eyes.
Makes 10 to 12 spider cakes
Ghoulish Ghost Cakes
Dariole moulds are the ideal shape or these spooky little cakes but you could cheat and use a mini chocolates rolls under the white icing!
175g butter
175g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
3 eggs
175g self-raising flour
800g ready-to-roll white icing
1 tube black writing icing
Beat together the caster sugar, butter and vanilla essence until light and fluffy. Add one egg at a time with a tablespoon of flour for each egg. Beat well and fold in the remaining flour.
Spoon into 8 greased and floured dariole moulds, place on a baking tray and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180C for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool. Cut the top of the cakes off to form a flat surface and then turn out onto a board or plate. Leave until completely cold.
Roll out the white icing on a surface dusted with cornflour and cut out 8 x 16cm circles (can use a saucer as a guide). Drape these over the sponge cakes to form ghost figures. Draw the ghost's features using a tube of black writing icing
Makes 8 mini ghost cakes
Pumpkin Oranges
If you have a very large pumpkin you can hollow it out and carve out a face and then place a glass or plastic bowl in the centre and fill it with fruit punch or mulled wine for adults. You can surround the pumpkin with these mini orange pumpkins filled with chopped jelly.
Large oranges
Assorted packets of jelly
Prepare the jelly according to the packet instructions and set aside in the fridge to set. Cut a slice from the stalk end of each orange. Cut out eyes, nose and mouth shape using a sharp pointed knife. Hollow out the oranges using a small sharp knife and spoon so that you are left with just a shell. Fill with chopped jelly.
Halloween Drinks
Vampire Broth
Ingredients: Cola, Vanilla ice cream
Fill glasses about two thirds full with the cola, add a scoop of ice cream and watch it go all frothy.
Green Lemonade Slime
Ingredients: Green food colouring, Lemonade, Lime cut into thin slices, Cocktail sticks, Spooky jelly sweets
Fill an ice-cube tray with water mixed with a little food colouring to make green ice cubes. Pour lemonade into glasses, add the green ice-cubes. Cut a slit in slices of lime and twirl around a cocktail stick, prop this on the side of the glass and decorate with a spooky jelly sweet like a spider.
Eyeball Ice Cubes
Half-fill an ice cube tray with water.
Add a halved grape to each section and press a raisin into the centre to make an eyeball, then freeze.
Iced Bugs
Fill an ice cube tray with coloured water (colour the water using a few drops of edible food colouring) and add edible jelly bugs to each section, then freeze until solid.
Recipies from Annabel Karmel's Complete Party Planner, published by Ebury Press.
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