Happy Halloween !

Happy Halloween everyone (and Happy Birthday Miss Katie) !! These are Cinderella pumpkins. Obviously not ideal for carving, but can't you just see the fairy godmother waving her wand around it as wheels and windows appear ?? I hope you have something fun in store. Weather looks beautiful here. And if all else fails, watch this, like I said last year, because it never gets old.

One More Unexpected Black.

How fun is this ?! Another unexpected + easy halloween party showstopper -- Black toilet paper ! I am loving little tasteful touches that quietly shout (quietly shout?!) BOO !

One More Spooky Spirit ::

Maybe you're not into skulls ? Black vodka is pretty cool too. Great as a gift, or for your own guests, Martha has some drink ideas ...

[top image courtesy of Martha]

Skull Vodka

Is anyone going to a fun Halloween party this weekend ? I think this is the best hostess gift I've ever seen for October 31st. Vodka in a skull ? Genius. Why ? I don't know. Oddly it is Dan Aykroyd's company (why is that odd ? Again, I don't know). Here is where you can by it -- be the talk of the party on account of more than just your awesome costume.

O. M. G.

I'm in love. With these guys I made yesterday. And not because mine are perfect (far from it). But because it was so much fun. What a satisfying baking exercise. You remember my post with the wedding cake pops right? Well I've been dreaming about Bakerella's cake pops since I first saw them. And Halloween seemed like the perfect excuse. And my first year in my 27 years of life with trick-or-treaters seemed like an appropriate excuse. (yes, I know parents don't like anything not locked sealed by a company, but they live in my building. They'll trust me right?). Anyway -- Bakerella does a great job with instructions but Ill take you through my process. I started out here with a simple Duncan Hines cake (something that I usually have a moral opposition to). Baked in a 13X9 pan.

I picked myself up these specialty baking supplies that youre not going to find at every corner market. To your left you see orange candy melts. In my case, pumpkin shell. These come in any number of colors. They melt in the microwave easy peasy (stir every 30 seconds). And to your right are food markers. Does it get better?! If you can't find these you can get them from nycake.com (conveniently two blocks from my apt).

and the the fun part: I crumbled the cooled cake with one container of icing.

Then the slow part. Rolling this mess into neat little quarter size balls.

Next I melted the melts (imagine that), and stuck my lollypop sticks (woops, bought those at nycake too!) in the melt and inserted them into my cake balls, about half way through

As seen here :) and then freeze these pups until the firm up a bit (this took a LOT of re-arranging in an NYC freezer).

And when you take them out nice and cold you turn them in the melt. You can remelt too. And dont choose a bowl thats too shallow, I did. And then place them in styrofoam blocks to harden. I realized when it was too late I hadnt given half of them green stalks. So do that while theyre wet (they dry quick!). Because of this my stalkless pumpkins became my jack-0-lanterns, and my stalked pumkins (would we even call it a stalk?!) stayed as my plain jane pumpkin patch (which I might like better). Up next... Thanksgiving Turkeys!! Thanks Bakerella!

Happy Halloween Everyone! Eat lots of Candy!
(and watch this if you havent)
(and don't forget to set your clocks back)