All things Halloween 2013

Halloween is two days away. My kids' Halloween costumes were completed... way earlier than I expected. Well, I only needed to make Camden's knight armor. Relatively easy.

So I decided to test recipes this week. The first thing I did today was helping Brek with his "Kids' cook off" project. I helped him modified William Sonoma's brownies and made them healthier. He called it The Better Brownies. They were packed with banana, flax seeds, cranberries and spinach. I'll have to post his recipe soon.

Then I asked my kids if they wanted some marshmallows. YES!!! I could hear them say, "What kind of question is that, mommy?" I always ask because I don't want to make anything they don't want to eat.

I made a batch of marshmallow and pipping adventures began.

I saw some meringue ghosts on Pinterest, but I wanted to make them using marshmallow. No luck! The marshmallow was too soft and didn't take shapes. I played with the pipping and made Boo! ghosts instead. Just piped the marshmallow into the ghost shapes on nonstick mat and added the chocolate chips for their eyes and mouths.

I also saw another Pinterest that I wanted to try this year. A pumpkin surprised cake that's when cut, it reveals a pumpkin shaped cake. I wanted to make a cake with a surprised bat shaped cake.

Here's my problem. I don't like to read instructions before I test recipes. So I found out after I baked a devil cake that I should under baked the filling cake. So now I have too much chocolate devil cakes.

I went ahead and tested out my cookie cutter techniques. Ended up with spider web and bats. Wish I have a black cat cookie cutter. I think that would be cute too.

I used melted chocolate chips as the cake's frosting. Melted white chocolate chips to decorate bats' eyes and spider webs.

A few weeks ago, Brek's school was holding a bake sale. Since he is currently on a dairy free diet, he knew there would be no dairy free baked goods. For this lunch that day, I made him a whoppie pie with marshmallow filling.

After I added natural orange sprinkles, I realized how these whoppie pies could sit next to other Halloween treats. With that thought, it is appropriate to add them on this page.

One afternoon, Brek wanted to have chocolate cake for snack. I saw the creepy eyes cupcakes on Pinterest and decided to test out the idea.

They  turned out really cute. I baked my chocolate cupcakes using my chocolate cake recipe. After the cupcakes were cool, I dipped them in melted chocolate. Then decorated the creepy eyes using Sun Drop candy. Fun idea with yumminess written all over.

Caramel... luv you, luv you not! I've made caramel many times. But I never attempted to make the caramel apples before.

Last week, I tested it out, using my dairy free caramel recipe. Total bomb!!! Caramel slid off the apple slices. Then I saw inside out caramel apple slices on Pinterest and really thought this idea would work.


I gave the inside out caramel apple a try, using my dairy free caramel recipe. After the caramel was set, I sliced it and that was it. Trouble! Caramel didn't stick on the apples... again. The sweet caramel was a perfect contrast to the sour Granny Smith apple slices.

Just wish I know why the caramel didn't stay on the apples. Maybe it was my homemade caramel. I will have to try again until I get it right. It will be my caramel apple challenge.

I saved a little bit of caramel and cooked it longer to make them into caramel lollipops. The melted chocolate drizzled on the pops was inspired by my friend's photograph of her caramel apple slices.

Halloween is incomplete without a Halloween school lunch. A few months ago, I found a smoke salmon sushi rice balls on Pinterest. Since I can't pack anything creamy without being in a container, I knew right away that I couldn't do spider web sushi rice balls.

This time, I read the instruction on how to make the Jack-O-Lantern sushi rice balls. Super easy! My kids also made their own smoke salmon Jack-O-Lantern sushi rice balls for dinner. If you and your kids luv sushi, this would be a fun activity to do.

Well, it's been fun cooking and baking for Halloween this year. A lot of ideas from Pinterest. Check back next year for more of something Halloween sweeter from my kitchen.