Bunny Cakes

Halloween Redux

Today I started to gather up all my Halloween decorations to pack away till next year.  It makes me a little sad, but I am comforted by the fact I can bust out my Christmas decorations soon.  Before I say good bye to Halloween officially I thought I would share some final Halloween pictures.  

This year for Halloween costumes one of the boys stated he wanted to be something 'simple--nothing fancy'. He decided on Indiana Jones, while my other son oscillated between a million choices.  The tricky part with kids is to get them to commit to a costume and stay committed.  I thought the Indy costume was perfect and wanted to lock it in before he changed his mind to something else.  Then we came up with the idea that the boys, who are identical twins, would be Harrison Ford: Indiana Jones and Han Solo.  The boys received much positive feedback on their selection from relatives and other adults (who doesn't love Indy & Solo?), so I knew it was a go.  Putting together the two costumes was fairly easy and required only minor fabrication on my part.  

For our Halloween table I almost didn't do anything at all.  Things were too chaotic with the kitchen cabinets getting painted and all their contents spilled throughout the house.  In the end I followed the boys' lead and went with something 'simple--nothing fancy'.  Just a few elements made it festive enough: a black cat centerpiece surrounded by a few pumpkins, Halloween straws and black & white plates.

-K

Halloween Brownie Kabobs

Traditionally we always send in a treat to the boys teachers for Halloween.  Despite our kitchen being 'down for the count' we still managed to bake some brownies.  Instead of doing our typical candy roll packaging for the brownies, we decided to try something new: brownie kabobs!  We layered candy corn and orange & white M&M's on the bottom of a festive glass.  Then we piled on the mini-bundt cake brownies and stuck them through with a wooden skewer (mainly to make sure they don't fall over).  Finally we topped it all with a Ghostly peep.  We found that peeps leave a gooey mess on the skewer if you have to push it through far, so we just added the peep to the top brownie with a toothpick.  Wrap the whole thing in cello and tie with Halloween tag (ours are from Martha Stewart's Craft line) and ribbon for the perfect treat!

-K

Halloween Baking To Do List

My kitchen is out of commission because we are having the cabinets painted.  The timing is such that I will not be able to get my bake on for Halloween.  However, I thought I would still share some of the *Halloween Baking Ideas*  (found on Pinterest) I was thinking of making...

*Halloween Graveyard Cake* - this idea comes from Country Living.  Essentially it is a box cake baked in a rectangular baking dish then topped with store-bought cookies (tombstones fashioned from Pepperidge Farm's Milano and Bordeaux cookies & fence made from Rademaker chocolate sticks).  More details can be found here.

*Ghosties with the Mosty* - White chocolate will transform almost anything into ghosts.  All you need to do is dunk your items (pretzel rods, Milano cookies, Nutter Butter cookies or anything else) into white chocolate.  You will need to do a few coats and then add eyes (use mini chocolate chips, pipe chocolate/icing or use a black food marker).  Here are some examples (also found on Pinterest)...

*Halloween Trifle/Parfaits* - Go crazy and stack up your favorite Halloween candy.  You can keep it 'dry' or add layers of pudding, whipped cream, cake bites to make it a gooey, delicious mess.  More details on the parfait can be found here.

*Halloween Cookies* - A true favorite of mine and the kiddies.  I found some really cute decorating ideas I worth giving a try: skeleton cookies and the cutest ghost cookies ever.

Happy Baking & Eating!

-K

Halloween Table & Mini Halloween Cookies

I just realized I never posted last year's *Halloween Table*, so here goes...as per usual, ignore the wrinkles on the tablecloth (Martha would be so disappointed).  

Last year was baby O's first Halloween, so I wanted the table to have a fun vibe.  I set the it with an orange, retro tablecloth from Target and added a centerpiece of Halloween treats (brownies, chocolates & candy corn).  I also added black cat buckets filled with plum-colored leaves and bluish berries.  The best part of the table, however, were the little buckets of *Mini Halloween Sugar Cookies* set at each placesetting.  To make the little cookies I used cookie cutters from a Halloween Linzer Cookie cutter kit (can be found at A.C. Moore).  I am hoping to make more mini cookies this year, other than that I haven't figured out what else I will do for this year's Halloween table.

-K

Pumpkin Bounty

When it comes to pumpkin picking my philosophy is Pick Early, Pick Often.  So last weekend when the rain finally broke, we put on our boots/high tops and headed out to our favorite local farm, Wegmeyer Farms.  We have never disappointed by the wide variety of pumpkins there and this year was no different.  The boys were instantly won over by a long pink variety called the Pink Banana, while I was intrigued by the Knuckle Head variety, a traditional pumpkin with lots of fun, warty knobs.  Besides picking out pumpkins my other mission while I am at the farm is to take pictures of the boys.  Sadly, each year their tolerance for posing for pictures diminishes, but I still managed to get a few good ones.

Here is a picture of our pumpkin loot piled on our kitchen counter...

 

and the boys at the farm...

-K

Halloween Oreo Brownies

For some reason I think the Halloween oreo cookies taste better than the regular oreo cookies.  I was thinking that very thought last weekend while I was dunking an oreo into my milk and decided I needed to add them to something.  I was formulating a cookie concoction in my head when the need arose for me to make brownies (yes, that is true, I needed to make brownies).  So...I decided to crush up some Halloween oreos and add them to the top of my brownie batter.  I only covered half the batch of brownies with the oreo crumble in case they turned out horribly wrong.  I was pleasantly surprised when they turned out AWESOME.  They really tasted as good as they looked.  The oreos had a slight burned taste (like golden roasted marshmallows) and added a nice crunch to the brownie.  So next time you need to make brownies, add some crushed up oreos to them!  Project notes: (1) To crush the oreos, placed them in ziploc bag and whack with a wooden spoon.  Try to leave some larger chunks; (2) You may have to bake the brownies with the oreo topping a little longer than usual; (3) Be very careful not to burn yourself on the oreo topping when you take the brownies out of the oven, the oreos will be extra hot and some pieces will be loose; (4) Eat them while they are still warm, they tasted so much better that way.

Here are the brownies before baking.  Another tip is to use Baking Pam to spray your mold, it works much better than regular Pam.

-K

Easy Halloween Treat Containers

If you're like me, then you're already thinking about Halloween.  I've already picked up a giant pumpkin (at the grocery store--couldn't resist) and gotten the boys to commit to this year's costume (let's just hope they don't change their minds).  Of course I have also been stalking my local craft stores to check out their Halloween goodies.  I am happy to report this is a great year for Halloween stickers.  There are some especially nice varieties of raised stickers.  I used some as a quick and easy way to embellish wooden boxes that I had painted orange.  

I got the idea to use the wooden boxes from Martha, the Queen of Halloween, but she has you cut out witches and bats and then apply them to the boxes with a glue stick (if you're interested, here is her template).  However, I think stickers are a much easier way to get a nice look.  The wooden boxes can be found at most craft stores and will cost $1 for a 3-inch box.  To paint them, mix equal parts acrylic orange paint & water (to create a wash), then apply with a foam brush (no need to paint the inside of the box).  Line boxes with wax or parchment paper if you plan on using the containers for food items.

-K

Halloween Goodie Bags

This year instead of passing out treats in the boys' classes, I decided to save our *Halloween Goodie Bags* for the trick-or-treaters who visit our house.  We stuffed the bags with our favorite candies, Japanese gum, Halloween pencils and erasers.  The boys and I set up our usual assembly line and went to work filling the bags.  The time passed by quickly and we all enjoyed the task. 

The bags were hand stamped with Halloween motifs and sayings.  A hole was punched at the top to make room for the pencil.  A Halloween sticker sealed the bags shut.

Happy Halloween!

-K

Halloween Baseball Treats

This Fall the boys tried out a new sport...baseball.  Hubby and I had been discouraging the boys from playing baseball because we had heard warnings of long, endless games.  Since the boys were relentless we gave in, it is the All-American pastime after all.  Happily we all found baseball to be quite enjoyable.  Their team, the Mudcats, started off with a 4 game losing streak, but then turned it around and started beating teams which had crushed them before.  Today is their last game of the season and the day before Halloween, so we thought it would be nice to give their teammates some *Halloween Baseball Treats*.  The treats are M&M tubes with custom labels.  We followed the same method used to make the Uglydoll Table Treats for the boys' 7th birthday party.

The custom labels are just printed out on plain white paper, cut out and then adhered with tape and double-sided tape.  The labels were inspired by the cutest Halloween invitation I spied on Tiny Prints.

-K

Halloween Cupcake Love

Forget the Halloween candy and give me cupcakes instead!  I'd much rather feast on some cakey morsels with creamy, velvety frosting than almost any candy.  I'm sure a lot of you would agree with me.  Here is some yummy *Halloween Cupcake Inspiration*.

There are so many great Halloween cupcakes to share--part of the reason why Halloween is one of my favorite holidays.

-K

Sources: Top Picture (starting at top left going clockwise)--Sprinkles;  Martha Stewart; Holidash; Williams-Sonoma; Martha Stewart; Pumpkin Patch Cupcakes from Martha Stewart.  Bottom Picture (starting at top left going clockwise)-- Nilo's Bake Shop; Vampire Bat Cupcake from Martha Stewart; Ghost Cupcakes from Martha Stewart; Pottery Barn Kids; Brain Cupcakesfrom Martha Stewart; Martha Stewart; Martha Stewart.  What can I say, Martha is the queen of Halloween & cupcakes!