Halloween Recipes

With Halloween just a few days away here are some Halloween treats that you can prepare in the confines of your home.

Black Cat Cookies

Required Ingredients

• A cup of crunchy peanut butter
• 1/3 cup of water
• 2 eggs
• An 18.25-ounce package of chocolate cake mix
• Plain candies
• Red hot candies

Directions

• Preheat the oven to about 375° F.
• Then take a large bowl and beat the peanut butter, eggs and water together and then gradually add the cake mix. Mix this well.
• Using the dough, form 1 ½ inch balls and place them on an ungreased baking sheet.
• Flatten the balls with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar and punch out 2 ears at the top of the cookie.
• Add plain candies for eyes and red hot for the nose. Using a fork, make whiskers on the dough.
• Bake these for 8 to 10 minutes and let them cool on wire racks.

Icky Jello Worms

Required Ingredients

• 100 flexible plastic straws
• An empty, cleaned one quart orange or milk juice carton to hold the straws
• 6 oz. of raspberry or grape flavored gelatin
• 3 envelops of unflavored gelatin
• 3 cups of boiling water
• 3/4 cup of whipping cream
• 12 to 15 drops of green food coloring
• Some waxed paper

Directions

• Combine gelatins in a bowl and then add boiling water. Stir till the gelatins dissolve completely and chill for about 20 minutes.
• Then gently pull straws to extend to full length, place them in the carton.
• Blend the cream and food coloring with the lukewarm gelatin mix and carefully pour into the containers filling the straws.
• Chill this until the gelatin is firm (at least 8 hours or cover and chill them for up to 2 days).
• Tear the carton away and pull the straws apart run hot tap water for about 2 seconds over 3 to 4 straws at a time. Now start at the empty ends and push the worms from the straws using a rolling pin or your fingers.
• Lay the worms on a waxed paper. Cover and chill them until they are ready for use (at least 1 hour or up to 2 days). These worms will hold at room temperature for about 2 hours.

Bat Cupcakes

Required Ingredients

• An 18.25-ounce package of chocolate cake mix
• A 16-ounce container of prepared chocolate frosting
• An 11.5-ounce package of fudge stripe cookies
• A 6-ounce bag of milk chocolate candy kisses
• A tablespoon of red gel icing

Directions

• Prepare the cake mix as per the instructions on the package and then cool. Frost the cupcakes using chocolate frosting.
• Then break the cookies in half and press the two halves into the top if each cupcake for wings, stripes facing the frosting.
• After that place a chocolate kiss in front of the cookies facing towards the body. Use the red gel icing to make two beady eyes towards the point of the kiss.

Vampire Punch

Required Ingredients

• A chilled 25.4-ounce bottle of sparkling cider
• A chilled 1-quart bottle of cranberry cocktail juice
• A chilled 1-liter bottle of club soda or seltzer water
• A cup of dark rum (If desired)

For the spice syrup

• 2 sticks of cinnamon
• 5 whole cloves
• 3 tablespoons of finely chopped and peeled ginger
• 1/3 cup of water
• 1/3 cup of sugar

Directions:

How to make the spice syrup:

• Take a small saucepan and bring the syrup ingredients to a boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Cover the pan and leave it on simmer for 5 minutes. After this is done let the syrup cool.
• Now take a punch bowl and combine the remaining ingredients and strain the syrup through a fine sieve into the punch. Stir the punch and add lots of ice to it.

Tips

• If you want your punch to be the talk of town, you can use decorative shapes to dress the punch bowl. For this you can use food grade plastic gloves to freeze ice to make floating hands. These gloves can be purchased from any restaurant supply stores.
• Fill these gloves with colored water, juice and freeze. When it is frozen, remove the glove and float this in your punch bowl. You could also check out stores for roll ice cube trays. You could use it to make floating eyes.