Halloween Inspired Treats

Hi everybody!

When an opportunity presents itself, why not take it?
In other words, as Halloween is just around the corner, I decided to take to the kitchen and bring out my inner household, or shall I say kitchen goddess. As my boyfriend and brother, who were present on "experimenting recipes day", enjoyed snacking on little Halloween treats, I slaved over orange food colouring and cookie crumbs. But all was well and pretty fun as the recipes were simple to follow and fun to do. I was quite chuffed with the way everything turned out as well. I have chosen 5 of the easiest but most amazing Halloween treats to share with all of you today for a lovely Halloween party or just something to do on Halloween night or on the weekend. I did have to switch up and substitute a few things in the following recipes to my preference, so feel free to do the same and work with what is best and most convenient for you.

Ghostly Lemon Cake Pops

Ingredients:-

• 1 twelve ounce plain puns cake
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butte, softened
• 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
• 18 popsicle sticks
• 8 oz white chocolate, chopped
• dark miniature chocolate chips

Method:-

1. Crumble the cake into a food processor. Add the butter, lemon zest, lemon juice and sugar and pulse to combine. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and shape into 18 balls. 
2. Gently press them into ghost shapes and ease each one into a popsicle stick. Stand the pops upright in a large piece of styrofoam.
3. In a large microwave safe bowl, heat the white chocolate at high power until three-quarters melted. Stir until completely melted and cooled slightly. Working quickly, dip the cake pops into the white chocolate, letting any excess drip back into the bowl. Stand the pops upright in the styrofoam and let the chocolate set.
4. Use the chocolate chips for eyes on each cake pop.

Owl Cookies

Ingredients:-

• 1 1/3 cups butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 3 tablespoons milk
• candy corn
• miniature chocolate chips

Method:-

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a bowl, with a mixer on medium speed, beat butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until blended then beat on high speed until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until well blended. Add flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and beat on low speed.
3. Divide dough into three portions. Place each portion between two sheets of floured plastic wrap. Roll dough evenly into flat rounds and stack them on a baking sheet and chill until firm.
4. With one portion of dough, peel off the top sheet of plastic wrap. Cut into shapes with an owl cookie cutter and transfer to baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Repeat with leftover dough.
5. Bake cookies until firm to touch and slightly darker brown around the edges for about 8 minutes. Cool the cookies on a rack.
6. To make the icing, combine powdered sugar and milk, mix until combined and smooth. Spread icing over cooled cookies and decorate with candy corn for a beak and chocolate chips for eyes.

Scroll to the bottom to get an owl cookie cutter.

Halloween Marshmallow Dippers

Ingredients:-

• white chocolate
• large marshmallows
• Orange food colouring
• Halloween themed straws
• wax paper

Method:-

1. Lay out some wax paper. Stick straws into marshmallows.
2. Melt white chocolate in a microwave safe bowl on medium heat. Stir in a few drops of orange food colouring into the chocolate.
3. Pour different coloured sprinkles onto separate plates. Dip marshmallows into chocolate and then immediately into the sprinkles. Place on wax paper to cool.

Source from bombshellbling.com

Candy Corn Halloween Popcorn

Ingredients:-

• 1/2 cup popcorn kernels
• 1/2 cup orange candy melts
• 1/2 cup black candy melts
• 1/2 cup candy corn M&Ms
• 1/2 cup candy corn 

Method:-

1. Cover a baking sheet with waxed paper. Make popcorn and lay a single layer on covered baking sheet.
2. Melt candy melts in separate bowls over a double boiler or in the microwave. Stir frequently until completely melted
3. Pour candy melts into disposable piping bags. Snip of the tip of the bag and drizzle on top of the popcorn. Add remaining candy. Allow to cool. Store in airtight containers.

Candy Corn Rice Krispy Pretzel Stick

Ingredients:-

• Rice Krispy Squares
• white chocolate, melted
• orange, white and yellow sprinkles
• pretzels rods

Method:-

1. Cut/shape the Rice Krispy into candy corn shapes by making a triangle to start, and rounding out the vertices.
2. Gently press a pretzel rod into the middle of the Rice Krispy so that the top end of the pretzel rod almost reaches the top section of the triangle.
3. Remove the pretzel rod and pour melted white chocolate into the hollow that the pretzel rod has left behind and then put back the pretzel rod, press firmly.
4. Cover the 1/3 of the bottom of the triangle with white chocolate and dip into yellow sprinkles.
5. Cover the middle 1/3 with white chocolate and put orange sprinkles and the top 1/3 with white sprinkles.
6. Place each of them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and allow to set.

Source from lovefromtheoven.com

I hope you have enjoyed this blog post and it has hopefully given you some ideas for your Halloween treats. I did make a couple more recipes but these are the few that I found were best. Like I mentioned before, do feel free to go ahead and change the ingredients or methods according to your preference. My favourite one out of the 5 is definitely the marshmallow dippers because I just absolutely love the look of them. They are so simple and straight forward to do, which is the reason why, I believe, they turned out extremely successfully. The bright orange along with the sprinkles are eye catching and looks very promising therefore it will make a good treat to have if you will be having a get together/party. You can definitely make them in huge batches because they are so easy to do. The owl cookies will definitely be more on the baking aspect whereas everything else is a somewhat assembly job but they are extremely cute especially when they are laid out on a huge platter to serve to guests. I also love the Halloween popcorn as they are a great munch during a scary film or a Halloween film this 31st.

I got my owl cookie cutter for the owl cookies from eBay. However, I will leave links below on where you might be able to find them. One of the links is to another eBay site so it is not definite that you will be able to get it there but do check out the other alternatives online or, stop by your local party shop/ kitchen appliance shop. Owls are a slightly more uncommon shape for cookie cutters but in the spirit of the spooky season, you might just get lucky and if not during Halloween then when do people actually buy owl shaped cookie cutters, so have a look and if you are in no luck. improvise.

Comment below sharing your favourite Halloween inspired treats or you can share them on Instagram using the hashtag #jessthedream. Also, don't forget to check out my other social media sites.

Have a great day ! Xx

Use the hashtag #jessthedream on Instagram to share your favourite treats or if you have tried out these recipes.

Twitter: @jessieashleyyy
Instagram: @fashion_jessie
Email: jessicashleyyy@gmail.com

To get an owl cookie cutter:-
eBay: http://www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/owl-cutter
Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kitchen-Craft-Cookie-Cutter-Medium/dp/B000YJES5A
notonthehighstreet.com: http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/redberryapple/product/cute-owl-cookie-cutter
Squires Kitchen: http://www.squires-shop.com/uk/product/small-funky-owl-sugarcraft-cutter