Spooky Halloween Treats

So, I've been a little quiet on the old recipe front lately but you'll be pleased to hear that's not from lack of cooking! Halloween last week had me very busy. I'm a big fan of themed food, especially for parties, mostly because it challenges you not to just make things that taste nice but to find a way of being creative with the ingredients to fit with the theme too.

I made some of my pumpkin cupcakes but as mini ones - to do this, just follow the recipe but cook them at 150C/ 320F for just 15 minutes, then to decorate them I put some black food colouring into the cream cheese icing then used white icing in tubes you can get from the baking aisle, drew a circle round a dot on top (like a bullseye) and then dragged a cocktail stick outwards to make the spiders webs.

The great thing about Halloween of course is that if stuff looks a bit messy and gruesome rather than perfect, it all adds to the effect and frankly I don't have patience for perfect decoration!

And speaking of gruesome, the next creation I made looks fantastically gross but actually is a pretty tasty little treat - devilled egg eyeballs! To make these, boil the eggs for about 12 minutes and then run them under cold water until they're cold again. Peel them, slice them in half longways and scoop the yolks out into a bowl. Blend the yolks with 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise for about every 6 yolks then use the mixture to refill the holes left by the yolks. Next, blend about a tablespoon of cream cheese with some warm water until thinned down and smooth then gently smooth a thin covering over the egg yolks so you have a nice white surface. Push a slice of pimento-stuffed green olive into each one and then if you want to make them really disgusting-looking, mix a tablespoon of tomato juice with a few drops of tabasco and then dip a cocktail stick in the mixture and drag it through the cream cheese to make your eyeballs 'bloodshot'.

And then to make up for the bits of the food that were a pain in the arse to make, I went for some really easy childish options too -  the good old cookie-cutter through the ham sandwiches, and those are capers for eyes.

And yes, at Christmas they'll be snowmen.

Happy Halloween!