This is Halloween (everybody scream!!!)

So its one of my favourite times of the year again! HALLOWEEN!!!!! Anybody who knows me will tell you that I love anything scary or Halloween related! So I thought that I should combine two of my favourite things in the world, Halloween and baking. So gather around and pull up a chair beside the fire and listen to the spine tingling tale of attempting to create a Halloween party.

A Little history:

The word "Halloween" has been around since 1745 and comes from the Scottish term for all hallows eve. There are many theories on how Halloween started but the most common theory I could find was that originally Halloween was called all hallows eve and was celebrated by all saints day, which was a catholic holiday which celebrated the Christian saints and martyrs and was celebrated on November the first. All hallows eve was celebrated in order to rid evil spirits before all saints day.  

What I made for the party:

• Blood Sucker Cocktail
• Halloween punch
• Chocolate Mice
• Blood
• Sausage mummy dippers
• Bone Cake
• Zombie Hands
• Cupcakes

Blood:

This is super duper easier that really I don't have to write many steps! Just make sure you leave plenty of time for your "Blood" to set! 

• 1 Packet of Strawberry Jelly
• 1 Packet of Raspberry Jelly
• 1 Packet of Blackcurrent Jelly

1. Make all the jelly to the packet instructions and leave to set over night in the fridge

2. Once set, mix all the jelly together with your hands so it resembles blood and then shove some little Halloween decorations in to give a creepy effect!

Chocolate Mice:

These are super cute and also super eye catching!

For the Mice:

• 100 grams of plain chocolate
• 5 table spoons of sour cream
• 125 grams of chocolate biscuit crumbs (I used sainsburys basics bourbons)

For decorating:

• 5 tablespoons of chocolate biscuits crumbs
• A pot of silver balls
• flaked almonds
• liquorice string

Method:

1. Melt the chocolate and mix with the sour cream, then add the biscuit crumbs. Cover and chill until firm (I suggest over night or on the morning of the party)

2. Once set, roll level tablespoons of mixture into little balls and then create a point for the nose, roll in the biscuit crumbs, add the eyes (this is fiddly so I used a tweezer) add two flaked almonds for the ears and then add a liquorice string at the end for a tail. Chill for another two hours until firm.

Zombie hands

Me and my mates love anything to do with zombies! So these seemed like a must to make, luckily you eat them instead of them eating you!

• 1 Pack of puff pastry 
• grated cheese 
• one egg, beaten

Method:

1. Roll the puff pastry out and using a pastry brush cut roughly around it with a knife. Then make indents for the fingers.

2. Then lie flat on a baking tray, prick with a fork and then sprinkle with cheese and brush with a little egg. Pop in the over for 10- 15 minutes or until the cheese is bubbling and golden and then pastry looks crisp. Leave to cool and arrange in glass.

Sausage mummy dippers:

These little fella's are so adorable and look really snug when they are all wrapped up!

Method:

• 1 tablespoon of honey
• 1 tablespoon of ketchup
• 2 tablespoons of french yellow mustard
• 12 chipolatas
• ready rolled pastry

1. Heat the oven to 200 degrees centigrade and brush two baking trays with a little bit of oil. Then mix the honey, ketchup and mustard together in a bowl and brush them on the sausage's.
2. Roll out the pastry and cut it into thick strips, then wrap them around the sausage's and leave a gap at the top, cook for 20 minutes and then leave to cool for a little bit. Then using mustard dot two little yellow eyes on the top!

I also made cup cakes and bone cakes using the bone tin from Wilkinson's, you can use the Victoria sponge recipe for this!

I got all my decorations from Wilkinson's, who have the most amazing Halloween things at really inexpensive prices from cupcake cases to banners!

I also made some decorations inspired by the game slender the eight pages, if you are accustomed to this game then I would direct you to go on youtube (after you finished reading this!) and watch people playing it, the reactions are priceless!

My dad also carved some pumpkins which he grew at the allotment.... he really doesn't enjoy carving pumpkins, plus I made him miss the footie!

I also made some drinks as well, the Halloween punch is non achaholic but if you want to make it with booze in then add a splash of vodka!

Halloween punch:

• 500 millilitres of cranberry juice
• 1.5 liters of lemonade
• 3 limes, juice only
• gummi worms
• decorations
• ice

1. Pour everything into a large bowl, then plop the worms and other decorations in.

Blood sucker cocktail:

• 40 millilitres of Bacardi
• 15 milliters of cointreau
• 60 millilitres of pineapple juice
• strawberry puree/ sauce

1.In a cocktail shaker add ice, the rum, cointreau and pineapple, then pour on ice. Blob strawberry sauce around the edge of the glass, and watch as the blobs run down, add your drink!

During the evening we played the mummy game, which involves wrapping people in toilet paper and then seeing who can get out the fastest, we also played spin the bottle and bobbing apples!

I really enjoyed my Halloween party and hopefully you can have a wicked Halloween too!

Äppelkaka (Swedish apple cake)

A little history:

Äppelkaka is a traditional Swedish cake. Although I could not find much history, this cake is usually eaten for breakfast and is also eaten with coffee. Even though this cake is found in the cake section of Sweden, in america they sometimes consider it as a pie and is extremely popular in the US.

Ingredients: 

• 110 grams of soft unsalted butter
• 150 grams of light brown soft sugar and a little bit to sprinkle on the top 
• 2 large eggs
• 210 grams of plain sifted flour
• 1 tablespoon of baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon 
• 300 grams of cooking apples or 600 grams of normal apple, peeled and cored and sliced 

Method: 

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade/ 360 fahrenheit. Peel and core the apples, then slice and add them to a bowl of water with some lemon juice. (The lemon juice will stop the apples loosing their colour, but don't add too much other wise your apple cake with become a lemon apple cake!)

 

2. Grease a 20 centimeter loose bottom tin. Beat the butter and sugar in a bowl until super creamy and fluffier than a unicorns mane, then add the eggs one at a time and beat until mixed together. 

 

3. Sift all the dry ingredients into a separate bowl and then fold them into the wet ingredients, until all combined. The mixture will be VERY thick and will resemble a mud pie but don't worry because a) that's how its meant to look and b) this mud pie will actually taste pretty good! 

4. Using a slotted spoon take out the apples and let some of the water drain before adding them to the cake mixture. Fold the apples into the cake mixture until all combined, then add to the tin making sure the mix is equally distributed and sprinkle some sugar on top. Cover with tin foil and then place into the oven for 40-45 minutes, after 30 minutes remove the foil (I was an idiot and forgot because I was to busy eating spaghetti bolognese so mine does look sightly ill)  

 

This cake is so moist and warming that it is perfect for an autumn day! Its great warm with ice cream or cold with a nice coffee and some friends so you can talk about the news, boys and quadratic equations! 

Next Time...

WILL BE A SPECIAL BLOG!!!! One of my favorite times of the year is coming round... HALLOWEEN!  So I thought I would do a special post, showing you the history, some awesome recipes and how to hold a shindig! 

Thanks for reading and sorry this has taken forever to upload as I have just started 6th form!