Happy half term for those like me who have the children at home this week after a short and unnerving first term back since lockdown.
Halloween this year is not the same as previous years, we
won’t be going to any fun fancy dress parties with friends, we won’t be hosting
a spooky dinner for family with the girls in their witches outfits and trick or
treating has been regarded as ‘off limits’ too.
Like many others, I’m sick and tired of focusing on the negatives of the situation so instead will be concentrating on the things we can do instead. We can still dress up at home, we can Facetime the family in our Halloween get-ups and take pictures to remember. We can watch some age appropriate scary films – we already have The Adams Family and Corpse Bride under our belt this weekend – any suggestions welcome? And we can do something which we always do, bake and make in the kitchen an array of spooky delights. If you fancy joining in why not try any of the below 9 suggestions.
Halloween Mummy and Spider Cookies
These Halloween
Mummy and Spider Cookies use my standard cookie mixture but are decorated
to look like monstrous mummies and spooky spiders – they’re fun to make, taste
great and look cool too.
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| Halloween Mummy and Spider Cookies |
Halloween Chocolate Bark
This Halloween
Chocolate Bark is so simple but super fun to make with the children and
once set and cut into shards, can be placed into cellophane bags and given out
as a Halloween gift to family and friends too. Also it’s delicious!
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| Halloween Chocolate Bark |
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| Halloween Chocolate Bark Shards |
Halloween Ghost Cupcakes
These Halloween
Ghost Cupcakes are just a simple fairy cake (homemade or shop bought)
topped with some orange frosting (mine was from B&M) a large marshmallow on
each and some Royal Icing cut into circles and some eyes and a mouth added with
icing pens.
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| Halloween Ghost Cupcakes |
Pumpkin Mac ‘n’ Cheese
A family favourite dish- this Pumpkin
Mac ‘n’ Cheese is greatly improved and made a little more balanced with the
addition of sweet, roasted pumpkin – a great lunch of dinner for during half
term and especially if you have an abundance of pumpkins from the pumpkin
patch!
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| Pumpkin Mac 'n' Cheese |
Monster Burgers
This makes for a really fun meal for the kids.
Either make your own burger patties (here’s my steak
ones) or buy some from the butchers or supermarket.
Then all you need is some burger buns, olives (for the
eyes), sliced Cheddar or Red Leicester which you need to cut into zig zigs for teeth
and melt over the cooked burger, some gherkin slices to poke out the front as a
big monster tongue and whatever else you love in a burger – lettuce, tomato,
sliced red onions and some BBQ sauce in our case! I served with my Healthy Slaw
and chips and it went down a treat.
Monster Burgers
Spooky Spider Cookies
Use Oreo cookies, some melted chocolate, mini marshmallows
and some lip sweets for make these cute Spooky
Spider Cookies.
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| Spooky Spider Cookies |
Mummified Sausage Plait Monster
I made this in the week and Bridget and Beatrice absolutely
loved it. It is simple a square of shop-bought puff pastry topped with a 375g
pack of sausage meat, flattened right out, and seasoned with a little black
pepper. Then take a sharp knife and cut ‘bandages’ out of the edges of the
pastry – long, thin slithers. Then simply wrap the ‘bandages’ across the sausage
meat, until it’s completely covered up and the pastry has all been used up.
Brush all over with beaten egg and place into a hot (200 degree) oven for 35
minutes or until the pastry is golden brown.
Make into the monster by adding a couple of olives on
cocktail sticks as eyes, a cornichon as a nose (could be a cut out piece of
pepper), some tortilla chips as hair and some zig-zag cut out hard cheese (I
used Red Leicester) as pointy teeth.
Here’s how I served it for the girls this week as a quick working-night
dinner.
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| Mummified Sausage Plait Monster |
Mummified Sausage Rolls
If you’d rather make smaller scale Sausage
Rolls these are absolutely perfect and super easy – an idea I’ve made lots
of times since having children and taken from BBC Good Food.
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| Mummified Sausage Rolls |
Halloween Chocolate Cupcakes
These Halloween
Chocolate Cupcakes are fun to make and the chocolate ganache makes for a
more grown-up appealing taste too whilst the spider and icing topped ones will
be fab for the kiddies.
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| Halloween Chocolate Cupcakes |
