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Anthony Casale's Black Cat Cake
Publication date: 10/07/2008
Yield: Makes 12 servings.
Ingredients:
1 (18.25-ounce) box Betty Crocker Super Moist Devil's Food Cake Mix
1 1/3 cups water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 (16-ounce) can chocolate frosting
Assorted candies such as Lifesavers, Twizzlers, Circus Peanuts, Lemon Drops or gel frostings for decoration as desired
Bake chocolate cake according to package directions using the water, oil and eggs. Bake in 2 (9-inch) round pans. When cakes are cooled, remove from pans and place 1 cake on work surface to form body of cat.
Cut a 6-inch round out of the center of the second cake. From the circle that is left, cut two rectangular paws, two triangular ears and use the rest for the tail as shown in the drawing at right. Place tail and paws or feet at bottom of the whole cake that forms the body. Put head at top and ears on head.
Frost with chocolate frosting. Use candies such a Lifesavers or Lemon Drops for eyes. Cut Twizzlers in half lengthwise and then in lengths crosswise for whiskers or use white gel frosting. Use a Circus Peanut cut in half for a nose, if desired.
Per serving: 430 calories, 43 percent calories from fat, 21 grams total fat, 46 milligrams cholesterol, 4 grams saturated fat, 3 grams protein, 56 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram total fiber, 450 milligrams sodium, 36 grams total sugars.
Sun Sentinel
Debbie Moriconi's Jack-O'-Lantern Cake
Publication date: 10/07/2008
Yield: Makes 16 servings.
Ingredients:
Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Cake:
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water
Better Homes White and Decorative Icing:
1/3 cup butter, softened
4 1/2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup milk plus more as needed
Red food coloring, as needed
Yellow food coloring, as needed
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 green ice cream cone
3 pistachio tea cookies*
1 tube black or brown decorating gel
1 tube green decorating frosting
To make cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a Bundt cake pan. Combine dry ingredients in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of electric mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour into prepared pan. Bake 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool 20 minutes and remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely.
To make frosting: In a bowl, beat butter until fluffy. Gradually add 2 cups sugar, beating well. Slowly beat in 1/4 cup milk and vanilla. Slowly beat in remaining sugar. Beat in additional milk as needed to make of spreading consistency. Tint with red and yellow food coloring to make vibrant orange.
To decorate: Place cake on serving platter. Frost the cake with orange icing being sure to accentuate the lines on the Bundt cake. If you can't do that, run the icing spatula from the top to bottom of the cake at about 2 inch intervals to make lines. Place a green ice cream cone, upside down, covering the central hole of the cake like a stem. Place cookies around the "stem" as "leaves."
Use green frosting to make decorative edge around bottom of cake. Use gel to make Jack -o'-lantern face on side of cake.
*Found in the supermarket bakery, these are chocolate-filled green butter cookies shaped like leaves.
Per serving: 406 calories, 27 percent calories from fat, 12 grams total fat, 34 milligrams cholesterol, 3 grams saturated fat, 3 grams protein, 73 grams carbohydrates, 2 grams total fiber, 308 milligrams sodium, 60 grams total sugars.
Sun Sentinel
Halloween Punch
Publication date: 10/29/2003
Yield: Makes 24 servings
Ingredients:
12 ounces orange-juice concentrate, frozen
12 ounces white-grape juice
2 liters 7-Up or other lemon-lime soda
green food coloring
1 pint sherbet, lemon or lime
peeled white grapes, optional
chewy fruit worms, optional
Several hours before serving, mix together orange juice, white-grape juice, 7-Up and several drops of green food coloring. Fill a clean, clear plastic glove with some of the liquid and freeze. When ready to serve the punch, warm the glove enough to remove it from the ice. Place the frozen hand in the punch bowl, fill with punch and mix in sherbet. Add peeled grapes, if desired, and decorate edges of bowl with gummy worms.
(Note: If you prefer, use a contrasting color for the frozen hand.)
Adapted from www.holidays.net
Leftover Halloween Candy Cake
Publication date: 10/30/2002
Yield: Serves 18 to 20
Ingredients:
CAKE:
12 fun-sized candy bars (8 to 8.5 ounces total)
2 tablespoons milk
1 box white cake with pudding in the mix
1 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
2 tablespoons flour
FROSTING:
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla
6 tablespoons butter, softened
3 tablespoons,plus 2 teaspoons milk
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. To make the cake, lightly butter and flour a 13-inch by 9-inch cake pan. In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, melt the candy bars with the milk. Stir until the candy has melted. Cool for 5 minutes.
In a large bowl using an electric mixer, blend the cake mix, water, oil and eggs on low, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Beat for 2 minutes on high. Stir 2/3 cup of the cake batter and the flour into the cooled chocolate mixture and mix until thoroughly incorporated.
Pour the remaining white cake batter into the prepared pan. Spoon the chocolate mixture on top of the cake batter. Swirl the chocolate mixture into the cake batter with a knife. Bake for 28 to 32 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
Completely cool the cake in the pan before frosting. To make the frosting, cream together the cocoa, powdered sugar, vanilla and butter in a large bowl using an electric mixer on high. Gradually add the milk and beat until the frosting is spreadable. Frost the top of the cake.
Sherry Knackstedt, iVillage.com
Myra Miller's Peanut Butter Witch's Fingers
Publication date: 10/07/2008
Yield: Makes 30 cookies.
Ingredients:
About 30 almond slices
Red food coloring, as needed
1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
Pick over sliced almonds to find those that most resemble human fingernails. Place in red food coloring. They will absorb the color immediately. Drain and place on paper towels.
Combine peanut butter, sugar and egg. Roll 1 teaspoon dough between your palms to form a slim fingerlike shape about 2-3 inches long. Place on a baking sheet. Place a red almond slice into the end of the dough "finger" like a fingernail. Repeat until all dough is used. Make "knuckle" marks on other dough fingers with the tip of a spoon. Make about three lines crosswise.
Bake 12 minutes at 325 degrees until set and golden.
Per cookie: 70 calories, 61 percent calories from fat, 5 grams total fat, 6 milligrams cholesterol, .87 gram saturated fat, 2 grams protein, 5 grams carbohydrates, .62 gram total fiber, 44 milligrams sodium, 4 grams total sugars.
Sun Sentinel
Pumpkin-and-White-Cheddar Souffles
Publication date: 11/26/2008
Yield: (Serves 4 as an entree, 8 as an appetizer)
Ingredients:
8 mini pumpkins
4 large eggs
4 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
3 ounces sharp white cheddar cheese, such as Cabot, diced
salt and ground black pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place uncut pumpkins in a large shallow dish and add 1/4 inch of water; cover tightly with foil and bake for 40 minutes, or until tender. Let cool. Reheat oven to 375 degrees.
With a paring knife, remove tops from pumpkins. Remove and discard seeds, then scoop out flesh, leaving 61/47-inch-thick shell. Place 4 cups of pumpkin flesh in mixing bowl. Separate eggs, stirring yolks into pumpkin flesh and placing whites in a separate bowl. Stir flour and baking powder into pumpkin mixture, then stir in cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Whip egg whites into stiff peaks. Fold into pumpkin mixture. Spoon souffle mixture into pumpkin shells.
Place on baking sheet and bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until puffed and set. Serve immediately.
Note: This recipe originally used Cabot habanero cheese; substitute that if you'd like your souffles to be a little spicier.
Per serving (based on 4 servings): 227 calories, 14 grams protein, 12 grams fat, 6 grams saturated fat, 18 grams carbohydrate, 1 gram fiber, 234 milligrams cholesterol, 238 milligrams sodium
Adapted from a recipe developed for Cabot Cheese by chef Jeffrey Weiss
Radish eyeballs
Publication date: 10/07/2008
Yield:
Ingredients:
Trim both ends of a radish. Scoop a hole in one end and insert a small, stuffed green olive. It'll look like a "bloodshoot eyeball." Freeze these in ice cubes. "They are great for scary cocktails," says Colleen Brangan of Pompano Beach.
We tried it: The tool you use to core zucchini or eggplants, which is available at Middle Eastern grocery stores, works great for coring the radish. Use tiny manzanilla olives that fit perfectly into the hole. The longer the radish freezes in the ice cube, the more red and "bloodshot" it looks. You can leave some of the radish sticking out of the ice cube. It looks particularly bloodshot and scary.
Sun Sentinel
Tracy Petik's Lumberjack's Fingers
Publication date: 10/07/2008
Yield: Makes 9 fingers.
Ingredients:
9 hot dogs
6 refrigerated crescent roll dough triangles
Ketchup, for garnish
3 radishes
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut hot dogs in half crosswise so you have 18 pieces. Cut each crescent roll along the long edge into three pieces or strips. Place the hot dogs on a baking sheet and wrap cut end with a strip of dough. Bake 8 to 10 minutes until lightly browned.
Remove from oven and cut a notch about 3/4 inch from the rounded end of each hot dog. Cut each radish into slices. Cut edges of each slice off straight to resemble a fingernail. Slip nail into notch so the rounded edge is parallel to the rounded edge of the hot dog and it looks like a fingernail on a finger. Drizzle some ketchup between end of the baked crescent dough knuckle and the radish nail. Serve with ketchup for dipping.
Per finger: 229 calories, 71 percent calories from fat, 18 grams total fat, 30 milligrams cholesterol, 7 grams saturated fat, 7 grams protein, 10 grams carbohydrates, .07 gram total fiber, 574 milligrams sodium, 2 grams total sugars.
Sun Sentinel
Turkey Meatloaf and Sweet Potato Spiders
Publication date: 10/29/2008
Yield: (Makes 6 servings)
Ingredients:
3 large sweet potatoes, scrubbed
1/3 cup quick oats
1 soft piece 12-grain bread
1 1/2 pounds ground turkey
2 envelopes dried onion-mushroom soup mix
2 eggs
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, or to taste
1 large unpeeled zucchini, ends trimmed
1 jar hoisin sauce, about 7.5 ounces (divided use)
2 tablespoons butter, or 1 tablespoon olive oil
sea salt and pepper to taste
Decorating
legs: carrot and celery sticks, cut in small, thin pieces (about 4 inches), enough for 8 per spider (or use whole-grain pretzel sticks)
eyes: black-eyed peas, sliced olives, scallions cut into small rounds or peanuts
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prick potatoes with fork and put in microwave. Bake potatoes in microwave for 12 minutes or until soft.
Make bread crumbs by pulsing oats and bread in food processor.
Place turkey, soup mix, eggs, Worcestershire sauce and bread crumbs in large bowl. Grate the zucchini, skin and all, directly over the mixture in the bowl. Using your hands, mix very gently, until just combined. Do not over-mix or it will be tough.
Spoon a generously mounded mixture into 6 greased muffin cups (3 inches across). Measure out 1/3 cup of hoisin sauce and pour the rest into a squeeze bottle for webs. Use the 1/3 cup sauce to brush the top of each meatloaf.
Place muffin pan on a cookie sheet in the oven. Bake for 35 minutes or until a meat thermometer inserted in thickest part of a meatloaf reads 160 degrees. Let sit for 5 minutes.
While meatloaves are cooking, scoop flesh of potatoes into a food processor and pulse with the butter or oil until just smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
To assemble: Have kids help make a web on each plate by squeezing hoisin sauce into concentric circles, then pulling a toothpick or plastic knife from the center outward. Lay one meatloaf body on each plate and, using an ice cream scoop sprayed with cooking spray, top each with one scoop of potatoes. Allow kids to decorate spiders by pressing "legs" into the potatoes (or the loaves), and adding eyes of their choice.
Note: Kids also can help by rinsing the black-eyed peas, cutting vegetables if possible, and setting decorations out in small bowls.
Per serving (without decorations): 443 calories, 28 grams protein, 18 grams fat, 6 grams saturated fat, 41 grams carbohydrate, 5 grams fiber, 164 milligrams cholesterol, 862 milligrams sodium
Courtesy of Stacia Linz of Westminster
Vicki Bir's Witch's Brew with Eerie Ice
Publication date: 10/07/2008
Yield: Makes 16 servings.
Ingredients:
Eerie Ice:
Water
Small plastic items such as spiders, bats, eyeballs and fingers
Witch's Brew:
2 quarts apple juice
1 tablespoon whole cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup brown sugar
To make ice: Select a ring mold smaller than the bowl in which you plan to serve the brew. Fill it halfway with water. Place in freezer until frozen hard. Place a layer of plastic items decoratively atop the ice. Add just enough water to hold decorations in place and return to freezer. If decorations extend above the top of the ice, it will look better.
To make brew: Place apple juice in nonreactive, deep saucepan. Place cloves and cinnamon in a piece of cheesecloth and tie into a small bag. Add to pan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes. Remove cheesecloth bag. Add orange juice, lemon juice and brown sugar. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently, and when sugar dissolves, remove from heat. Let cool.
Serve in punch bowl. At serving time, unmold the ice ring by dipping the mold in hot water for a moment or placing a hot towel around it until it comes loose from the mold. Serve brew with Eerie Ice, decorated side up. Dip punch from center of ice ring.
Per serving: 87 calories, no fat, no cholesterol, .04 gram protein, 22 grams carbohydrates, .21 gram total fiber, 6 milligrams sodium, 20 grams total sugars.
Sun Sentinel
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