Taken from my instagram: vxdollface
Every year I look forward to celebrating Halloween and even though it’s not a popular tradition in Australia, it has always been a big part of my life! It’s a fairly big deal in my neighbourhood and some people get really into it. Last year, one of the houses opened the door and stood there with fake blood smeared on their shirt and had the sound of a chainsaw going on in the background! Haha always a thrill to go trick-or-treating ^^ I absolutely adore Halloween even more so than Christmas :D Yesterday I rummaged through whatever was in my pantry to whip up for an early Halloween party - made some rotting bloodshot eyeballs resting on a pool of blood, grass and dirt, and I also made some simple spooky spider webs.
Spider web
1. On a sheet of baking paper, form pretzel sticks into a wheel.
Ice Magic
2. Drizzle Ice Magic in concentric rings making sure the center is filled so that it joins the pretzels.
*Cooking tip: Ice Magic was my lazy cheat method ^^” but it’s best to melt white chocolate and pipe it on as Ice Magic melted quite quickly since it’s very responsive to temperature change. But then again, it doesn’t last very long when you’ve got little vampires and zombies to feed :)
3. Place in the freezer for 5 minutes.
Edible spider optional:
1. Coat a mini marshmallow in melted chocolate for the body.
2. Coat a sultana in melted chocolate for the head.
3. With the remaining chocolate, pipe on spider legs.
*Cooking tip: Best to use dark chocolate for a more contrasting colour to make the spider pop.
Image source: http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/d29b/
I’ve had these brain molds lying in my freezer for the past year and I really wanted to make some brains for this Halloween.. but when I tried turning them out, it was a total mess :/ Though I think my mistake was because I used Ice Magic rather than chocolate so it’s not as durable. Luckily I only experimented with two so I didn’t waste too much cake in the process. Either way, will try again soon but it was so frustrating to see it fail as it worked out so perfectly in my mind!
Red velvet cake balls - red velvet cake, cream cheese frosting and sultanas
Blood smear w/ grass and dirt - raspberry jam, dessicated coconut and Oreo crumbs
1. Using any cake recipe (I made a red velvet cake) or even store bought sponge cake, break it up into crumbs and mix in some binding agent (I use cream cheese frosting but you could use melted chocolate, jam, buttercream etc - just add a little at a time so you can control the consistency because you don’t want it to be too wet, just enough so that you can shape it like dough) so you can form the cake into balls, see above image.
2. Use an ice cream scoop (this way your balls will be similar in shape) to scoop some cake crumb mixture and mold the cake mixture into a ball, use your thumb and make an indent in the center.
3. Add a dollop of jam to the indent in the cake ball.
4. Scoop up some more cake mixture and mold it to act as a covering for the jam. Shape into a ball. (Sorry is that too vague? Not sure how else to describe it. Imagine an egg and the jam is the yolk)
5. Place in the fridge for 10 minutes.
6. Melt white chocolate over a double-boiler.
7. Roll the balls in the white chocolate making sure all of it is covered and place on a sheet of baking paper.
8. Leave balls coated in white chocolate the fridge for 15 minutes or until chocolate has hardened.
Blood smear, grass and dirt:
1. Dollop a small amount of jam into the patty pans and smear using the flat end of the spoon.
2. Mix dessicated coconut with a small amount of green food colouring and sprinkle onto the jam.
3. Roughly crumb an Oreo using your index finger and thumb.
Bloodshot veins
Use a tooth pick and some red food colouring (really only need about 1-2 drops on a small dish/spoon for 18 balls), roughly squiggle on the veins. No need to be neat as it will look more natural this way.
Bloodshot eyeballs
Use a black icing gel pen to make the pupils and flatten with a spoon.
Doesn’t matter if it’s not perfectly round, the messier it is, the more gruesome it looks :) 
Inside the bloodshot eyeballs is an oozy blood-clotthat bursts in your mouth (raspberry jam) and some hardened blood-clots (sultanas) :D 
Taken from my instagram: vxdollface
Everyone was delighted by my gruesome creations and it went in a flash! But I came prepared with some popping candy in the spider web on the bottom of the platter :)
Happy Halloween!
If you have some spooky recipes you would like to share, feel free to leave it in the comments ^^
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