Halloween Party!

If there's one thing I love, it's Halloween!  This year we had our festive gathering with some ghoulishly themed treats.  We really enjoy having friends over, and it's a great chance to get some baking done.  Here are some highlights that I thought would be cool to share, and hopeful inspire you for your next Spook-tacular gathering:

Witch Fingers

• Inspiration by: Kitchme Witch Fingers 
• NOTE: don't forget the green food coloring (maybe I'm missing it, but I couldn't find that listed anywhere in the recipe).  Also, the almonds definitely fall right out of the fingers after baking, so I used some leftover icing from the Teeth Cookies (below) to cement the nails in place.

Teeth Cookies

• Inspiration from: Girl Who Ate Everything

As you can see from the inspiring blog post, these were supposed to be Dracula Dentures.  I kept trying to make my almond slivers look like fangs and just failed, so I opted for regular teeth.  Still Halloween-y, I think.

I used a great stand-by chocolate chip cookie recipe (one that would make thinner, flat cookies so you have enough to cut them in half).  I will admit that I cheated a bit on this one, though.  I bought white icing and used gel food coloring to make it a deep pinky/red color, perfect for gums.


Owl Cupcakes

For these little guys, I went for the MEGA STUFF Oreos on chocolate cupcakes with a chocolate glaze-style frosting.  Let's face it, the best part of the Oreo is the cream!  I had some mini M&Ms on hand and used those for the eyes and beak.  I loved the way the big eyes contrasted with the tiny little beaks.

Hot Dog Mummies
...These....did not work so well for me...

I LOVE pigs in a blanket, so I thought these were a no-brainer!  But I also thought that instead of using the look of the ones I found on Pintrest (Mummy Dogs), I would just do arms so that they were bite-sized.  Okay, so they're definitely bite-sized...but they definitely do not look like mummies, my bad!

They were still tasty though!


Halloween Jello Jiggler Shots

It was actually really hard for me to find a recipe online that didn't require an unreasonable amount of jello boxes, so I'll put my recipe below.  Really, I just wanted to use my super special molds, so I couldn't make my jigglers in bulk.  The recipe I used is:

• 2 boxes of jello (regular boxes, not the jumbo sized) (NOTE: you can mix flavors for an extra special jiggler shot!)
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1/2 cup booze of your choice (I used vodka)
• Refrigerate until solid
• To remove: I dip my molds in a little warm water for a few seconds (too long and you'll melt your jigglers) and then carefully peel the sides before trying to remove the jiggler

Decor

A little DIY to go along with the baking.  We had a bar scene complete with some flies and eyeballs and spooky straws, fizzy punch with a gelatin hand floating in it, and, of course, you can always ask a friend to lay down on the floor while you slowly put masking tape around her body for your very own crime scene!

I hope you all enjoyed a little peak into our Halloween party!