“Spook”tacular Halloween Treats

Do you want to make some quick and easy “spook”tacular Halloween treats? Create a wrapped mummy cake or creepy eyeball that will have your friends screaming for more. Simple but adorable bite-sized caramel apples are a great project to let kids help with and would be a hit at a party. Plate up a group of mini meringue ghosts for a bootiful presentation or take a vintage Halloween postcard cookie to a co-worker to goblin up!

Studio 5 Party, Holiday and Ideas Contributor Alisa Bangerter shares these fun, seasonal ideas.

Wrapped Mummy Cakes:

Oblong snack cakes (Twinkies work great)

White icing

Small round candies, chocolate chips or sugar eyes

Plastic or gummy spiders or worms for garnish

Food color (opt)

Lightly frost cakes with white icing. Place icing in a pastry bag with a flat ribbon tip. Pipe strips of icing to cover cake over the top and sides, crossing to look like wrapped pieces of linen. Place two candies for eyes on one end of cake and pipe icing over eyes slightly to make them look like they are peeking out. Garnish with plastic spiders or gummy worms. Note: Icing can be colored if desired.

Eerie Eyeballs:

Small powdered donuts

Lifesavers Gummies candies

Brown mini m&m candies

Red piping gel

Clear piping gel or corn syrup

Use the red piping gel to draw lines from the center of donut to look like a blood shot eyes. Place Lifesavers Gummies candies on the top center of each donut. Adhere m&m to center of each gummy candy using clear piping gel or corn syrup.

Meringue Ghosts:

3 egg whites

¾ cup granulated sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon coconut extract (opt. or use other flavor)

Mini chocolate chips or black icing

Wilton Candy Melts (green, orange, purple, black)

Mix together egg whites, sugar and salt and place in a double boiler. While constantly stirring, cook until sugar is melted. Add extract. Place in mixing bowl and mix on high speed until stiff peaks form. This will take about 6-10 minutes depending on your mixer speed. Place meringue into a pastry bag with a large round tip. Pipe ghosts onto parchment or Silpat lined baking sheets. Bake at 200 degrees for one hour and turn oven off. Leave in oven until cold.

Melt Candy Melts (thin with shortening if necessary) and dip the bottom (about ¼”) of each ghost in the melted candy. Place on wax paper to set up. Using a tiny bit of icing, place mini chocolate chips on ghosts for eyes or use icing to pipe on eyes.

Mini Caramel Apples:

This recipe is from Family Fun Magazine and complete instructions can be found at:
http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder/display?id=50565

Alisa’s tips for making the mini caramel apples:

• Use thin wood skewers (I cut mine into 3″ lengths) instead of lollipop sticks.

• Make sure to pat dry apple pieces before dipping. This is important to help the coating stick. Apples can be dipped in lemon juice before drying and dipping to prevent browning.

• Use peanut butter, butterscotch, vanilla, milk or semi-sweet chocolate chips. Thin with shortening if necessary. Caramel also works well.

• Attach a tiny bow and tag to stick to use as a favor or place card.

Halloween Vintage Postcard Cookies:

Sugar cookie dough

Icing (royal, buttercream or fondant)

Rectangle cookie cutter

Vintage Halloween Wafer Paper

Corn syrup

Colored sugars, edible glitter, dragees or sugar pearls for garnish

Supplies can be found at: www.fancyflours.com
Directions for cookies: http://www.fancyflours.com/site/edible-wafer-paper.html

Wafer paper is an edible starch based paper printed with food coloring. It is really neat. It comes in all sorts of elegant and fun patterns and motifs. Fancy Flours also carries vintage postcard designs for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Valentine’s Day. You can also find all sorts of really cool edible glitters, jewels, pearls, etc. to decorate cookies with at their site.

Packaging Tips:
Sometimes making treats, even simple ones can be time consuming. Many schools and other places require treats to be store purchased. Creative packaging can add a fun “homemade” feel to purchased treats or candies.

• Cellophane, glassine, kraft or parchment bags tied with a ribbon and a simple spider added can be quick and easy.

• Tiny plastic cauldrons or pumpkins can also be a quick container.

• Check out thrift stores or consignment stores for black or other unique plates that could be filled with treats for display or gift-giving. Sometimes a gaudy or ugly container is perfect for Halloween.

• Fill “test tube” containers for Halloween with candies and attach a fun tag. Check out SKS bottle company at http://www.sks-bottle.com/BathSalt-Containers2.html for their Salt Bath Tubes that come in 4″ or 6″ lengths and are perfect to fill with candy. Martha Stewart also has plastic tubes with cork stoppers available at Michaels crafts.

• Paper Trey Ink stamp company has several adorable Halloween themed stamp sets (Spooky Sweets and Spooky Sweets II) www.papertreyink.com that are made to coordinate with simple treats. Their stamp sets have lots of fun sayings that would be perfect to attach to treats for gift giving.

Happy Halloween!!