Tag Archives: Halloween

Fun Halloween Food

Posted on October 16, 2017 by TheGingerbreadMum

Inspiration-for-Halloween-food-TheGingerbreadMum

Halloween is quickly approaching. It’s taken me a bit to get into celebrating it, but having a monster-loving boy, who already decided last month what his Halloween costume would be, has helped.

There are so many amazingly creative food ideas out there to make the most of the spooky season, but if you have monster lovers at home there’s no reason why you can’t make some of these fun creations all year round.

Here are my favourites this year and check out my previous posts (here and here) for more inspiration.

My Fussy Eater: Spooky Spider Rice Cakes

A healthy snack to balance those ‘trick or treat’ sweeties, Ciara at My Fussy Eater has made her Spooky Spiders from bite-sized rice cakes, blackberries and grapes.

TexanErin Baking: Halloween Monster Mouths

Another healthy Halloween treat are these Monster Mouths from Texanerin Baking. I love the oozing dripping strawberry jam blood!

Cooking With Curls: Toxic Waste Mac and Cheese

Still keeping it healthy, Cooking With Curls‘ Toxic Waste Mac and Cheese should be a big hit with any Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle fans while giving them a good dose of spinach and cauliflower (but they don’t need to know that!).

The Bearfoot Baker: Pumpkin Cakes

How cute are these cupcake Jack-O-Lanterns from Lisa at The Bearfoot Baker?

Half Baked Harvest: Hocus Pocus Spellbook Brownies

Tieghan from Half Baked Harvest created these scrumptious and cute Hocus Pocus Spellbook Brownies.

Yummy Crumble: Monster Strawberry Cupcakes

Yummy Crumble’s Monster Strawberry Cupcakes remind me of Audrey II as a baby plant from A Little Shop of Horrors, cute but also rather scary.

Better Homes and Gardens: Simple Halloween Cupcakes

These cupcakes from Better Homes and Gardens are at the top of my list for my upcoming school bake sale because they scream “Halloween!” while taking very little effort to make.

Barman's Journal: Green Monster Shot

Halloween food doesn’t have to only be for kids. I love this sea monster (or is it a Kraken?!) coming out of the green depths that’s actually a tequila and green Bloody Mary shot created by Barman’s Journal.

Kitchen Table Scraps: Creepy Panna Cotta

Who knew a coconut panna cotta, a slice of kiwi, a raisin and some raspberry coulis could be so creepy! Renee at Kitchen Table Scraps has transformed an ordinary dessert into a spooky spectacle.

Which one is your favourite?

For more inspiration, take a look at my Halloween Food and Fun board on Pinterest.

Cute Lunches: Taco Monster

Posted on October 31, 2013 by TheGingerbreadMum

Happy Halloween everyone! While I made this snack for Halloween, monster-loving little ones would love it at any time of the year.

I carefully drew eyes and a nose on a taco shell (I definitely need to work on drawing scary features!) then filled it with ham, cheese and baby leaf spinach. I cut teeth from a slice of cheddar and tucked some of them under the filling and stuck the others, using dots of mayonnaise, to the top of the taco shell (serve before they have a chance to fall off!). As a treat, Nicholas also had some ghost crisps.

How are you and your family celebrating Halloween?

Halloween Inspiration

Posted on October 30, 2013 by TheGingerbreadMum

It’s almost Halloween and this year I’ve created hardly any spooky dishes for Nicholas. If you’re also in need of some inspiration, why not check out some of my favourite bloggers. I’m sure there’s something for everyone!

Michelle, of Creative Fun Food, made the most adorable Frankenstein lunch with just a few ingredients. Also check out her wonderfully simple but effective ghostly cheese and crackers, and her easy ghost pancakes.

I love Lunchbox Dad’s movie themes and his ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ bento, complete with Oogie Boogie, is no exception!

A super simple and super cute snack idea is Jill’s (from Meet the Dubiens) jack o’lantern fruit cups.

Bento Monsters’ cute ghost is almost too adorable to eat. Ming uses crepes and egg sheets to create her ghosts, and there are so many possibilities for what to put underneath them.

From possible the cutest to the scariest…

Halloween Mr Meatloaf Head, created by Jo of Jojoebi Designs, would be perfect for a Halloween party. Just look at those googly eyeballs and all the severed fingers!

For more inspiration, read last year’s round-up of my favourite Halloween creations, as well as check out my Halloween Tasting Plate and Spider Web Soup.

Spider web carrot and lentil soup

Spooky tasting plate

Cute Lunches: Halloween Lunchbox

Posted on October 25, 2013 by TheGingerbreadMum

Nicholas had a Halloween party at preschool so I thought I should make him a spooky lunch to take. I still struggle making his packed lunches cute in the mornings (we’re a family who get up at the last possible minute!), but this one was quick.

I made a ham and cheese sandwich, cutting out a ghost shape with a cookie cutter and adding some simple features with an edible ink pen. The jack o’lantern is cut from a slice of cheese and the bat is a savoury squash muffin baked in a Halloween themed silicon mould. To finish, there are some cherry tomatoes with bat picks.

I’m linking up with the lovely Eats Amazing’s Fun Food Friday! a weekly celebration of creative food. Check out the other linked up posts for fun inspiration.

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Posted in cute lunches, lunch, snack, toddler and tagged bento, cute lunches, Eats Amazing, Fun Food Friday, Halloween. Bookmark the permalink.

Happy Halloween

Posted on October 31, 2012 by TheGingerbreadMum

In case you needed some more inspiration to create some fun food for Halloween, here are some more ideas.

My dear friend Kath sent me another picture of some more of her scary finger biscuits. These are less hideous and playing a tune!

These howling (or are they screaming?) strawberry ghosts from Taste of Home would be a quick and semi-healthy treat.

Meaghan over at the Decorated Cookie has loads of the cutest Halloween goodies. Kids would have lots of fun making their own zombie marshmallows.

And her monster cookie sticks are super easy and another great baking activity for kids (you could use the same biscuit dough as Kath’s scary fingers and make both!).

Gingerbread skeletons are all over Pinterest. These are from Family Fun. You could use any animal or person shape and add an icing skeleton.

Who said gingerbread houses were just for Christmas? You certainly wouldn’t if you saw the amazing constructions created on this year’s Great British Bake Off, and why not a Halloween house? Emma at Mummy Mummy Mum made this spooky house with her munchkins (and look to see what she used for scaffolding during construction).

Finally, what can you do with the leftover pumpkin after you’ve carved your jack-o-lanterns? Pumpkin muffins of course! And the Breakfast Lady has a lovely yummy recipe.

Happy Halloween!

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Posted in dessert, family, recipe, snack, toddler and tagged Breakfast Lady, gingerbread, gingerbread house, Halloween, monster cookie sticks, Mummy Mummy Mum, pumpkin muffins, scary finger bsicuits, The Decorated Cookie, zombie marshmallows. Bookmark the permalink.

Halloween tasting plate

Posted on October 30, 2012 by TheGingerbreadMum

Although Halloween has never been important to me, and apart from one Halloween top I bought for Nicholas last year which amazingly still fits him (having gone from a chubby baby to a slimmer toddler), I’ve had no urge to dress Nicholas up or celebrate in any way. I figure the day he asks for a costume will come very quickly so I plan on taking it easy till then!

But, as you’ve noticed, Halloween has been a great creative inspiration to me, at a time when I was feeling quite bored with cooking for the family. I’m sure you have those ups and downs too, times when you’re inspired to make new dishes and then those other times when you’d quite happily stay out of the kitchen for the unforseen future.

One of the blogs I love reading for food inspiration is Meet the Dubiens. Jill makes the cutest bento boxes for her kids and can turn what could be a boring sandwich into something I can imagine must bring enormous smiles to their faces. No matter what age, who wouldn’t smile opening a lunch box to see this?

I wanted to make Nicholas a fun and healthy lunch. There are some amazing food ideas for Halloween on the Internet, but a lot of them involve decorating sweet things with even more sugary things (not food I want Nicholas to be eating as part of his regular diet). It took me a while to decide what to create, but the effort was definitely worth it. As soon as Nicholas saw the plate, he started oohing and aahing. He looked at everything in detail, growling at the pancake ghost, laughing at the cheese bat and kissing the banana ghosts (obviously not as scary as pancake ghosts!) before deciding what to taste first (the sultanas).

HALLOWEEN TASTING PLATE

Ghost pancakes (sugar-free)

I used my sugar-free apple pikelet recipe, using half wholemeal and half plain self-raising flour. I poured the batter into a lightly oiled stainless steel cookie cutter, and added sultanas for eyes and a mouth just before flipping to cook the other side.

Ghost bananas

These came straight from Jill at Meet the Dubiens. Cut a banana in half and press in chocolate drops for eyes and a mouth.

Black grape spiders

An adaptation of the olive spiders I used to decorate my spider web soup, just cut two black grapes in half. Use a half for each body and slice the other halves into legs.

Bat sandwich

I used a bat-shaped cookie cutter for the bread and cheese, and an edible black ink pen to draw the bat faces (I need more practice!). I also used some small star cutters on the leftover cheese.

Bat droppings

Fun food doesn’t have to be complicated. Sultanas in a bat cupcake case are much more fun if you call them bat droppings!

Why not try creating a fun tasting plate for your little ones? I’d love to see your efforts. And your little ones’ smiles!

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Scary finger biscuits

Posted on October 28, 2012 by TheGingerbreadMum

The countdown is on for Halloween, and one of my oldest and dearest friends, Kath, made these fabulously spooky fingers with her son. Are you brave enough to try them?

There are quite a few pins of severed finger biscuits floating around on Pinterest, but I loved that Kath’s version look like zombie fingers that have clawed their way out of the ground! The spooky effect is easily achieved by dying flaked almonds for the fingernails and dusting the cooked biscuits with some cocoa powder ‘dirt’. Kath also added some spots of green food colouring for a mouldy effect!

Kath used a simple plain biscuit recipe from Martha Stewart. The recipe makes a lot, but you can freeze the leftover dough for up to three months and make some different biscuits another time.

SCARY FINGERS

Prep time: 20 mins, plus 20 mins for dough to chill
Cook time: 15 mins
Makes about 30 fingers

2 cups plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
Flaked almonds
Black food colouring (or red and blue food colouring mixed together)
Cocoa powder for dusting

Colour almonds by putting them in a bowl and covering with food colouring, leaving them to soak until they become black. Dry on paper towel.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.

In a food processor, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla, and then on a low setting, gradually add the flour mixture and beat until combined.

Take the dough out of the food processor and press it together. Divide it in two, wrap each piece in cling film (or place in a ziploc bag) and freeze until firm (about 20 mins).

Preheat oven to 160C and line oven trays with baking paper.

Take one piece of dough from the freezer and shape it into fingers by rolling pieces to about 8-10cm in length (if the dough is too hard, let it stand for 5-10 mins to soften a little).

Squeeze one end of each biscuit to form the finger tip and again near the centre to form the knuckle. Use the back of a knife to lightly score around the knuckles. Press a coloured almond flake into each finger tip to create the nail. Repeat with the other piece of dough or leave it frozen for another day.

Place the fingers on the oven trays and bake for 10-15 mins.

Let cool and lightly dust with cocoa powder.

Variations:

Use whole unblanched almonds for fingernails without colouring them, or whole blanched almonds painted with food colouring.
Dab red jam on the end of each biscuit for freshly severed fingers.
Colour the biscuit dough with food colouring to make monster fingers.

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Posted in family, recipe, snack, toddler and tagged biscuits, finger biscuits, Halloween, Martha Stewart, recipe, snack. Bookmark the permalink.