I freaking love Halloween.
It is by far my favourite holiday of the year.
Blame an early obsession with Count Duckula and The Trap Door
if you like but some of my favourite childhood memories
involve me and my cousins, dressed as little
vampires, ghosts and witches, going guising,
that’s what ‘trick or treating’ is called in Scotland,
with our Nana or one of my Aunts.
(Oh yes and it’s sort of my birthday too.
Regulars here might remember we renamed it
last year to be Birthoween!)
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Anyway, in an airport, I recently picked the Halloween magazine
by Martha Stewart. Not my normal plane reading material
but the baking and DIY suggestions were too good to leave behind.
As there’s less than two weeks to Halloween,
I thought I’d share my favourites from the mag
for those of you who fancy trying them too.
I definitely want to make the chocolate
cheesecake with the snake on it.
I bet it’s terrifyingly good!
Loving this… marshmallow skulls using chocolate
sprinkles for eyes. They’re perched on double chocolate
mini madeleines but I’m sure a dot of melted chocolate
and an Oreo cookie would work just as well!
The how-to here is for Boston ‘Scream’ Pie
but I mainly adore that bat mobile. So simple and cute.
Spooky, I mean spooky, not cute of course!
I sort of gasped when I saw these…
not sure my carving skills are up to this
but apparently you use a template for the image,
draw it on to your pumpkin, get carving
then paint the image black.
Um, easy.
Ok, this one is easy… love how simple this is.
Oh yeah and the smell of marker pens isn’t so bad!
Ok, these owls are just darn brilliant.
I love how fecked off they look.
If you know how to make a fan circle,
they’re easy to make too.
And some scared kitty cake toppers too.
I have no idea why there are witches hanging off these toffee apples
but it did remind me how that I’ve never tried making them.
Must do better!
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How about you all?
Are there are any more Halloween
obsessives out there?
P.S. I even have a spooky board over at Pinterest.
I so want to make the ghost meringues too I’ve pinned.
Might need to learn to make meringues first of course!
Conversation Pieces 
Those scared kitty cake toppers are great and I really like the marshmallow skulls too! Halloween is not that big in Sweden, we started celebrating it a few years ago, and I usually still don’t. But it would be fun… 🙂
Gotta love Martha, she does come up with some amazing ideas (well at least her team of Martha-elves)
Do you have a recipe for the chocolate cake with the bats? It looks like a big oreo! 🙂
Birthoween is much better than the new name a conservative group of Christians here in the US have given Halloween – jesusween! oh dear. Those meringue ghosts are fantastic, as are the marshmallow skulls, suddenly I am craving sugar. 🙂
Joani, I’ve never heard of Jesusween before! That’s made me laugh 😉
Freaking LOVE Halloween too – much happiness that my daughter and I are off to Haworth soon, home of the best creepy cemetary ever. Ooh, might have to make my own Boston Scream Pie!
lol, birthoween is clever, its my sisters birthday on Halloween too so I’ll tell her that. I like halloween but its always been my sisters day so I’m never as excited as other people about it.
Have you seen these cupcakes though? I love them and so simple too!
http://www.thecakeblog.com/2011/09/cupcake-liner-witch-hat.html
p.s. thouse owls do look fecked, that made me laugh 🙂
Those are brilliant Rhianne! I’m definitely saving those cupcakes for making next year 🙂
Ha ha, bat mobile! Must make one for our Halloween soiree (them = Pet Cemetery, I’m dressing as a mad cow). I’m now thinking of marshmallow skulls, too!
I am seriously STRESSED out about Halloween this year. I have two events on one being a 1920s Faust horror night which I cannot think of what to wear. I don’t want to do the flapper thing as I think everyone else will do it. But what else is there
Hi Jenny
It’s the first time I’ve been on this blog; and I was intrigued by your dilemma! Might I suggest dressing as Marguerita from Faust? (from the 1920s Faust opera) Lots of long, flowing robes (red velvet has been cited somewhere) – definitely an alternative to the flapper thing.
Hope this helps
Fiona
It’s my birthday around Halloween too (28th) so I have been having fancy dress parties since my 1st birthday when my mum dressed me as Boy George (rather convincingly). However this year no dressing up as we’re going to the Secret Garden at The Witchery for my birthday next Saturday, courtesy of a generous friend’s wedding gift. So it will still feel Halloweeny, just without the fancy dress (boo).
Your Mum dressed you as Boy George? Love it! 😉 I don’t think I actually had a fancy dress party until much older than that… and I think I was either a ghost (wearing a sheet) or a witch. Boring by comparison! 😉
I love halloween! I am trying to work out what gingerbread halloween thing to make this year, but last year I baked a bat cake, ghost meringues and cookies and scorched a pan trying to make toffee apples!
I LOVE halloween, I can’t wait to get my halloween baking on. And of course, you gave me so many great ideas! Thank you!
http://www.jennniferscreams.com
Oh the bat mobile is so cool. Of course, by writing write bat mobile, I’m now thinking of the car in Batman. There’s an unexpected double meaning.
I LOVE halloween too even though now (sadly) i barely celebrate it. We used to go guising in my wee village and it was a proper event! there was this amazing old lady who would put on the most brilliant spread and we all got our turn to perform on a little stage in her house…enough of the reminiscing! Love those angry looking witches and maybe our street could do with a pumpkin cemetery! xx
That does sound pretty amazing Becca… almost like something out of a Disney movie or something 🙂
count duckula!!!!!!
how may times i have to explain to people that in Scotland we go guising not ‘trick or treating’
Rebekah, I just remembered that when I was little I used to get confused between guising and Guy Fawkes… I guess it is a weird word really! 😉