Halloween Cakes, Cookies and Cupcakes

Eyeball Cookies

These are just iced sugar cookies, using my recipe from here.

I used a cookie cutter shaped as a rugby ball/American football. After the royal icing set, I popped a rice paper topper on top. If you have the time, you could also wait until the icing has set and is fully dry, then paint your eyeball on using a fine paint brush and food colouring.





Creepy Cupcakes

I made a dozen red velvet cupcakes to start with. Red velvet is essentially a moist chocolate sponge with a generous dose of red colouring. 

Ingredients:

• 60g butter
• 150g caster sugar
• 1 eggs
• 125ml buttermilk
• red food colouring
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
• 125g plain flour
• 1 dessertspoon cocoa powder
• 1 tsp salt

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 C / Gas mark 4. 
2. Line a muffin tins with 12 paper cases.
3. Beat the butter and sugar until light, pale and fluffy. 
4. Mix together the eggs, buttermilk, red food colouring and vanilla. 
5. Add to the sugar mixture a little at a time.
6. Sift together the bicarb, flour and cocoa powder. Stir in the salt, then add into the mixture. If using a machine, do this but until just until blended. Don't over beat or you will beat out all the air you incorporated.
7. Bake for 20-25 until the tops spring back when lightly pressed, or an inserted skewer comes out clean. Cool in the tin set over a wire rack. 
8. When fully cooled, scoop out a little of the top and put in a teaspoon of raspberry jam.
9. Top with buttercream and decorate with edible glitter

Halloween Cake 
For this cake, I used a rich Victoria sponge recipe, times by 1.5 so I can make 3 layers.

Ingredients:

• 6 large free range eggs
• 335g self-raising flour
• 335g caster sugar
• 335g butter
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• black food colouring
• purple food colouring
• green food colouring

Method:

1. Cream together the butter and sugar until light, fluffy and pale.
2. beat the eggs with the vanilla extract and add to the cake mixture a little at a time
3. Sift the flour and baking powder together then gently fold into the mixture
4. separate the mixture into 3 portions, and add the cocoa powder to one portion along with some black colouring.
5. to a second portion, add some green colouring
6. to the final portion, add some purple colouring
7. Bake the cakes at 180C/350F/Gas 4 for 20-25 mins
8. Once cooled, sandwich each layer with buttercream, and then coat a thin layer over the outside
9. Allow this outside layer to set and harden a little before covering the cake with orange coloured fondant. 
10. Using a small amount of black coloured icing, pipe a design around the side

Candy Corn Cookies

I am gearing up for Halloween, and my Halloween themed baking starts off with some Candy Corn Cookies.

For these, I have used my basic Sugar Cookie recipe. I also added a squirt of honey to try and replicate the flavour of candy corn.

Ensure that you use gel or paste food colouring, and not the liquid, otherwise your dough will be too wet. Be generous with the colouring as it will fade a little when cooked.

I meant to add sanding sugar before I baked them, but in my haste, I forgot.

Ingredients:

• 375g plain flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 250g unsalted butter, room temperature
• 225g sugar
• 1 large free-range egg
• 1 teaspoon good quality vanilla extract
• yellow food colouring gel
• orange food colouring gel

Method:

1. Cream together the butter and sugar until light, pale and fluffy
2. Mix the vanilla essence into the egg & add to the butter mixture a little at a time (throw in a handful of the flour to stop the egg and butter separating).
3. Sift together the flour and the baking powder then add into to the mixture
4. Separate the dough into 3 equal portions.
5. Colour one portion yellow, and a second portion orange (you can use red plus yellow if you don't have orange).
6. Line a 2lb loaf tin with cling film. 
7. Press the plain uncoloured portion of dough into a flat layer
8. Slightly dampen the surface with a little water on your fingers to make it tacky, then press the orange dough into a flat layer.
9. Repeat with the yellow layer.
10. Wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate in the tin for at least 4 hours
11. Preheat the oven to 350°F  / 176°C / Gas Mark 4
12. Unwrap the dough and cut a slice about 1cm thick along the length. Lay the slice flat on a lightly floured surface and make zig zag cuts to form triangle cookies. Some will have a white tip, some will have a yellow tip, but that's okay.
13. Place on a lined baking tray and bake for 8-10 minutes until the edges are just starting to colour.
14. Leave on the tray for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to fully cool.

Unicorn Poo

Yes, that's right - Unicorn Poo.

I have a couple of nephews that are visiting for the weekend, and so to amuse them, and myself, I have decided to make some brightly coloured biscuits, in the shape of poo.  The Unicorn Poo starts life as a basic Sugar Cookie Recipe, and with a liberal dose of food colouring, edible glitter, they magically form themselves into this rare treat.

If this doesn't win me some kind of Best Auntie award, I will want to know why.


Ingredients:

• 1 batch of Sugar Cookie Dough
• Food colouring of at least 4 colours
• Lustre dust, edible glitter

 Method:

1. Prepare sugar cookie dough as normal, then place on a lightly floured surface.
2. Divide into four, or however many colours you are using.
3. Take one portion of dough and add colouring, and knead in thoroughly
4. Repeat for the other portions until you have one of each colour
5. Take half of one colour, and roll it out into long thinnish rope
6. Take half of the next colour, and repeat to a rope of equal length
7. Once you have done this for all four colours, lay them next to each other.
8. Cut the ribbon of dough into 8 pieces

9. Take each piece, and holding one end press them together and gently roll the strands so that they twist together. 
10. Roll the twist a little until the different strands are stuck together, but not enough that they blend
11. Twist this into a wheel, mounding some on top so it looks like a poo. Don't be afraid to pile it high as it will spread when it cooks.
12. Place on a baking tray that has been buttered or lined.
13. Repeat for remaining pieces, then place in fridge to chill for an hour
14. Bake for 15-18 minutes at 350°F  / 176°C / Gas Mark 4
15. Allow to cool for a moment before transferring to a cooling rack.
16. Once fully cooled, brush with lustre dust and sprinkle with edible glitter - if you can get rainbow coloured glitter, even better - unfortunately, I didnt have any.

TIP:

•  I use gel colourant as this doesn't alter the consistency of the dough.It is also quite strong, and best to apply to your dough with a cocktail stick or wooden skewer dipped into the gel, then into the dough. However, you are after a strong colour.
• ENSURE that your glitter says it is food edible. Just using glitter that says it is non-toxic is not necessarily edible.

Chocolate Chip Salted Caramel Cookie Bars

These decadent little treats involve a bit of effort, but believe me, it is totally worth it.

Not only is it a delicious chocolate chip cookie bar, but the addition of sweet sticky caramel with a hint of saltiness, makes this everything you could crave from a sweet treat.

They are rich, and gooey, and that hint of salt gets me every time. The cookie dough is made extra delicious with the use of brown butter. If you have read any of my previous posts, you will have heard me banging on about the delights of brown butter.

Ingredients:

• 300g Plain flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 200g cooled brown butter 
• 180g light brown sugar
• 110g caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 250g choc chips
• 280g caramels (if you can get Tootsie rolls, these are perfect for this)
• 3 tablespoons double cream
• sea salt

 Method:

1.  Melt the butter in a thick pan over low heat. Once melted, turn up heat slightly and stir constantly until butter turns rich chestnut brown. Take off heat immediately, add to mixing bowl and allow to cool.
2. Preheat over to 325 F / 163 C / Gas Mark 4
3. Mix flour, salt, and baking soda together in a separate bowl and set to one side.
4. Whisk the egg, yolk and vanilla extract together.
5. Once butter has cooled, add in both sugars and mix thoroughly.
6. Beat in the egg mixture a little at a time, fully combining between each addition.
7. Slowly add in the flour mixture, then the chocolate chips.
8. Press half the cookie dough into the bottom of a small deep tray
9. Over a very low heat, melt the caramels in a pan, stirring to prevent burning. Once fully melted and soft, take off the heat and carefully mix in the double cream. 
10. Pour the hot caramel over the cookie dough in the pan.
11. Sprinkle with a little sea salt.
12. Using the palms of your hands, press small balls of the remaining dough and layer over the caramel. Use the last of the dough plug any gaps.
13. Bake for about 30 minutes or until the edges are starting to colour
14. Allow to cool in tray before turning out and cutting into squares

Makes about 24-30 bars depending how big you cut them.

Pretzel, Butterscotch and Chocolate Chip Cookie

Sometime ago, I ordered some Nestle's Butterscotch morsels from American Sweets Online, just because they sounded gorgeous. But to be honest, I was not sure what to do with them so they have been sat in my cupboard for a bit.

I had some pretzels left over from Christmas and so I thought why not combine the two along with the "Greatest Chocolate Chip Cookie in the World" recipe?

What makes it the "Greatest Chocolate Chip Cookie in the World"? It is the use of brown butter. Butter makes everything taste great,but when you melt it and cook it for a while, it becomes brown, nutty and caramelly and then things go from great to AWESOME.

Ingredients:

• 250g Butter
• 360g Bread flour
• 1 tsp Kosher (cooking) salt
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 60g Caster sugar
• 300g Brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tbsp milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 40g pretzels, broken into small pieces
• 100g Butterscotch morsels
• 100g Chocolate chips
• Course sea salt (optional)

Method:

1. Place the butter into a large pan and melt over a low heat. 
2. Once melted, turn the heat up to medium and gently stir occasionally
3. Once the foam dissipates, it turns a deep golden brown but will burn quite quickly if not taken off the heat at this point.
4. Leave to one side to cool for 15 minutes
5. Put the cooled butter in a mixing bowl, and add both sugars and beat for 2 or 3 minutes
6. Mix the egg and yolk together along with the milk and the vanilla. 
7. Add this into the the butter sugar mixture a little at a time, beating well to fully combine.
8. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, kosher salt and bicarbonate of soda
9. Add this a little at a time to the butter egg sugar mixture. 
10. You should have a soft, but slightly greasy dough formed
11. Carefully fold in the pretzels, butterscotch and choc chips.
12. Cover with clingfilm and chill for about 4 hrs.
13. Preheat the oven to 350F / 180 C / Gas 4
14. Once fully chilled, scoop rounded tablespoon size pieces of dough and roll into a ball and flatten slightly.
15. Place on a lined baking sheet, at least 1" apart. They should spread too much if they have been chilled properly, but will form a nice thick bake.
16. Sprinkle with a little sea salt if using
17. Bake for 10-12 minutes
18. Allow the cookies to rest for 2 or 3 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to fully cool.

Servings	32
Calories per serving	184

Snowflake Sugar Cookies

Sugar cookies are probably one of the most versatile of all cookies. You can get cookie cutters in so many shapes these days that you can make them to suit every holiday or occasion.

I decided to include some small bite size snowflake sugar cookies in this year's edible christmas gift hamper. I was concerned that they may not hold their shape, but ensuring that they are thoroughly chilled before baking eliminated any problems. Plus, careful icing helps bring out the detail. These cookies are only 2" wide so too small to ice fully but I have added a snowflake detail.


Ingredients:

• 375g plain flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 250g unsalted butter, room temperature
• 225g sugar
• 1 large free-range egg
• 1 teaspoon good quality vanilla extract

Method:

1. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy
2. Mix the vanilla essence into the egg & add to the butter mixture a little at a time (throw in a handful of the flour to stop the egg and butter separating).
3. Gradually add the rest of the flour and the baking powder
4. Wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate for about 2 hours
5. Preheat the oven to 350°F  / 176°C / Gas Mark 4
6. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to about 1cm/⅓ inch thick.
7. Cut out cookies using a cutter – do not wiggle the cutter, just press down firmly. Try to make the best use of the dough in one go, as each roll incorporates more flour which can create flour pockets that cause bumps to form while cooking. If this happens, you can usually press the lumps down before the cookie is lifted off the baking sheet.



8. Place your cookies on a buttered or lined baking tray. Chilling the cookies again at this stage for 3-5 minutes will ensure they keep their shape while cooking (unnecessary if cooking from frozen).
9. Bake for 8-10 minutes (maybe less if your cookies are small) until the edges start to turn slightly golden.
10. Leave to cool for one minute on the baking tray for it to firm up before transferring carefully to a cooking rack
11. Ensure your cookie is fully cooled before icing.

TIPS

• When decorating Sugar Cookies, lay your cookies on baking parchment. Pipe thick royal icing around the edge of the design, then fill with a slightly runnier royal icing and decorate. Leave for about 12 hours to set before storing.
• Once baked, store for a week in an airtight container. They may last up to 2 weeks if you substitute half the butter with Trex (vegetable shortening).
• To save yourself even more time, prepare your dough in advance, cut out cookies and place on lined baking sheets and freeze. Once frozen, layer the frozen cut outs with baking parchment and bake when needed. Allow 5 minutes at room temperature before baking.
• You can freeze most cookie dough mixtures for about 12 months, or even the baked cookies for about 4 weeks. Ensure they are fully defrosted before icing.

Snickerdoodles

Snickerdoodles is such a great word. I love the way it sounds. I have to say, before I first investigated the ingredients, my mind had conjured up something involving peanuts that had been crafted in Willy Wonka's lab. They are in fact lovely little vanilla cookies, rolled in a sugar and cinnamon mixture prior to cooking.

It seems that the name has nothing what so ever to do with Snickers, as you would thing. According to Wikipedia, the name is German in origin, derived from Schneckennudeln, which means 'snail noodles'. Another hypothesis suggests that the name has no particular meaning or purpose, and is simply a whimsically named cookie that originated from a New England tradition of fanciful cookie names. I think I like that version better, as none of the images I have ever seen resemble a snail... thankfully.

Cookie Dough:

•    360 g Plain flour
•    1/2 teaspoon salt
•    2 teaspoons baking powder
•    227 g  unsalted butter, room temperature
•    300 g caster sugar
•    2 large eggs
•    1 teaspoon pure vanilla

TIP: I added a teaspoon of ground mixed spice to make the cookies even more festive.

Coating:

•    60 g granulated sugar
•    2 tsp ground cinnamon

Method:

1.    Cream together the butter and sugar until smooth
2.    Beat the eggs with the vanilla extract, and add to the butter and sugar a little at a time, beating well after each addition. Add a small handful of flour if you like as this can help prevent splitting
3.    In a separate bowl, sieve together the flour, salt, and baking powder.
4.    Add the flour mixture and beat until you have a smooth dough. If the dough is soft, cover and refrigerate until firm (about one to two hours).
5.    Preheat oven to Gas Mark 5 / 375 F / 190
6.    Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or greaseproof paper. 
7.    Shape the dough into 1 inch (2.5 cm) round balls.

Adding the coating:

1.    In a large shallow bowl mix together the sugar and cinnamon.
2.    Roll the balls of dough in the cinnamon sugar and place on the prepared tray, spacing about 2 inches (5 cm) apart.
3.    Using the bottom of a glass, gently flatten each cookie a little to about 1/2 inch (1.5 cm) thick.
4.    Bake the cookies for about 8 - 10 minutes, or until they are light golden brown and firm around the edges. The centers of the cookies will still be a little soft.
5.    Remove from oven allow to cool for 1 or 2 mins before transferring to a wire rack to cool.


Can store in an airtight container, at room temperature, for about 7 - 10 days.

Difficulty	Easy
Servings	50
Calories per serving	90 kcal