‘Tis the season to be spooky. Halloween offers a plethora of festive desserts, finger foods and drinks that are easy and inexpensive to make and definitely worth trying.
During the Halloween season, there is rarely such a thing as too many sweets. For many, calories simply do not exist during the last few weeks of October. Personally, I’m never opposed to a freshly baked cake or cookies, and Halloween themed desserts are a fun way to spend time in the kitchen.
Candy Corn Cake, a favorite of mine, is a simple dessert that does not lack in flavor or festiveness. All that’s needed is basic cake batter, a round cake pan and an oven. You can use any cake flavor you prefer, but I love chocolate. Follow the directions on the box of the cake to bake, and afterward, place it in the freezer for a few minutes to harden, then cut it into 8-12 wedges. Finally, decorate each wedge to resemble a piece of candy corn with orange icing at the bottom, yellow icing in the middle and white icing at the top. You can dye the icing with yellow and orange food coloring and add orange and yellow sprinkles for extra garnish.
Simple and classic, ghosts decorations are a great theme to use on any Halloween treat. You can decorate brownies, cupcakes, or any other individually baked goods. To create an edible ghost design, I use a can of whipped cream and pipe in a circular motion to create a rounded cone on top of my cupcake. Top it off with chocolate chips for eyes.
Pizza is a weekly indulgence for almost every college student. This October, throw some ghosts on your pizza by cutting Parmesan cheese slices into ghost shapes using a Halloween cookie cutter. You can also use your Halloween cookie cutter to make ghost-shaped chips by cutting shapes into 6-inch corn tortillas, seasoning them and then baking them.
Another creative Halloween themed snack is bite-sized bats. Mash together softened cream cheese, goat cheese and pesto into small 2-inch balls and chill them in the fridge for around 40 minutes. Cover the balls in black pepper and poppy seeds. Use two olive slices on each ball for the bats’ eyes and insert Dorito chips (any flavor you want) on either side for the wings, allowing for a salty snack or party food.
There are many delicious drinks you can sip on as you carve your jack-o-lantern this Halloween. Two of my favorites are Bloody Bug Juice and Pumpkin Juice. If you want to get extra gory this Halloween, try sipping on Bloody Bug Juice. All that’s needed are strawberries, lemonade, ginger ale, raisins and blueberries. You can also freeze this to make it a refreshing frozen drink. Pumpkin Juice is very simple to make and can be served hot or cold. It requires iced tea mix powder, a cup of orange Tang breakfast drink mix, white sugar and three teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice.
Take advantage of Halloween as a time to embrace the season and all the foods and drinks catered to the holiday.
