Cinnamon Sugar Skulls

Coffee! My husband makes the best coffee! What makes his so delicious is that he adds a sprinkle of cinnamon to the grounds before brewing. It's rich, coffee flavor with a hint of cinnamon tastes so good! I like my coffee a little sweet so I add just a smidgen of sugar as well. So you can imagine my excitement when I saw this idea on Pinterest to make skull-shaped sugar cubes. First, I love Halloween and two, I love my slightly sweet cinnamon coffee in the mornings so I adapted this recipe by adding a little cinnamon to them for the perfect cup of fall coffee! Drop one of these skulls into a super-sized coffee, grab a blanket and a good book and enjoy! 

Surprisingly, sugar cubes are super easy to make and are a great way to add a festive touch to any holiday, not just Halloween. Imagine making little stars for Christmas, chicks or bunnies for Easter, or hearts for Valentine's Day. Imagine adding different flavors and food coloring to them. Replace a little water with vanilla extract to make the perfect vanilla sugar cubes. Or make a strong Chai tea and use it in place of the water for a tea infused sugar cube. Add some red food coloring to the water to make pink hearts for Valentine's day. The possibilities are endless.
Depending on the size of your silicone molds, these sugar cubes are bigger than your traditional 'one lump or two' sugar cubes in the store, so make sure you use these with a super-sized cup of coffee unless you like it really sweet! Enjoy!

Cinnamon Sugar Skulls

Makes 2 dozen

1 cup granulated sugar
1 t ground cinnamon
2 t water
2 silicone Skull molds

Mix the cinnamon and sugar until evenly incorporated. Add water and mix with a fork until the sugar is the consistency of wet sand. Spoon into silicone skull molds. (I got these from the 99centsOnly Store ,2 for $0.99.) 
Pack sugar into molds with the back of a spoon. Cover the mold with a cookie sheet or cutting board and holding on to both, flip the whole thing over to un-mold the skulls. Let dry for 5 hours or overnight. 
If you prefer you can let the sugar dry in the molds however it'll take a little longer to dry.

More Halloween inspired recipes

Bloody Eyeball Bruschetta

A few weeks ago, maybe it was even back in February, I was in the grocery store check out line and struck up some small talk with the cashier, as I usually do. We agreed about being glad the holidays are finally over, when out of nowhere he begins to tell me that he was already planning his Halloween costume. 
"Halloween's my favorite holiday!" He said. 
I said, grinning ear-to-ear, "Me too! I LOVE HALLOWEEN!" 

If I wasn't already married, it might have been a pretty cool story to tell later on how I met my future Halloween-loving husband...but thankfully I already have. My husband also loves Halloween. :)
We talked and talked. Our conversation held up a line of angry customers as we shared our past costumes and fun Halloween parties and fun food. The conversation wasn't too long, it just seemed like it because we were having such fun sharing our fondness for Halloween. But like all good things, they must come to an end. If not for anything but the angry mob of melting ice cream in need of chilling. I rolled my cart away with a happy wave goodbye, when he said with a wink, "Happy Halloween!"

Fast forward to now...I may not have my costume planned out like my cashier friend, but I do have some totally cool Halloween food coming up. I've seen these eyeballs everywhere on Pinterest with so many variations, its mind numbing. They are such a cute idea but I wanted to make them with a few more layers if flavor than just marinated mozzarella and olives, so I decided to make them into a deliciously spicy, sweet and salty Bloody Eyeball Bruschetta. 

The marinara sauce gives it some sweetness along with the fresh cherry tomato. The olives add a nice salty flavor and then the sriracha olive oil gives it the spice that enhances all the layers of flavor. These were flat out incredible and plus they just look super cool and Halloween-ish! Note: I like my food spicy so I added sriracha to the marinara as well but you can adjust it to your taste or omit if you'd prefer. If you don't want the bloody topper sauce to be spicy, omit the sriracha and red chili flakes and add a small teaspoon of marinara sauce to the olive oil. Enjoy!

 

Bloody Eyeball Bruschetta

Makes 12

12 small balls of fresh mozzarella cheese
12 large green olives
6 large black olives
4-6 cherry tomatoes, slice into rounds
12 slices of mini toasts
3-4 T jarred spaghetti sauce (I used Classico Tomato Basil)
2 T extra virgin olive oil
1 t red pepper flakes
1-2 T sriracha sauce

Irises: Cut small ends off of green olives. Using a straw as a cookie cutter, cut out a small hole out of the slice of green olive. Using the same straw, cut out a small piece of a black olive. Place black olive in the green olive slice to make a pupil. Repeat for remaining olives.

Bloody base: Cut cherry tomatoes into thin rounds. Set aside.

Bloody topper sauce: In a small bowl, mix olive oil, red pepper flakes and sriracha. Set aside.

Assemble Bruschetta
Using a sharp knife, cut a small slice of one side of the mozzarella cheese so that it can sit flatly on the tomato slice. Make a second slice off the cheese on the opposite side so that the olive iris can sit flat on top of the fresh mozzarella.
Place a small dollop of marinara sauce on each mini toast. Place tomato on top of marinara sauce. It is okay if some sauce drips out, that adds to the bloody look. Next place the mozzarella cheese ball with olive irises topping the cheese. With a fork, quickly whisk the bloody topper sauce (olive oil, red pepper and sriracha mixture) to combine and allow the mixture to drip off the fork tines over each eyeball. This creates a drippy look of blood over the eyeball. Add more sriracha if you need more color and continue to drip until they look right. Enjoy every delicious bite of Bloody Eyeball Bruschetta!

Watch for more festive Halloween foods in the coming weeks...or check out some oldies but goodies here.