Eye-Candy Cakes

I wanted to create a Halloween recipe that was so easy, that anyone could whip them up in less than an hour. Who has the time to fiddle around with multi step Halloween recipes, or shop for complicated ingredients. So these Eye CAndy Cakes are just that...Candy topped cake. Pick up a few bags of Eyeball Gummy Candy and a box of Red velvet Cake mix, pull out the chocolate syrup from the back of the fridge and you're good to go. It's ideal for a crowd of kids and gory enough for the most macabre adult dinner party. Happy Halloween!

                                   🎃🎃🎃 5 days until Halloween🎃🎃🎃

Eye-Candy Cakes

Makes 24

1 box red velvet cake mix
24 gummy eyeballs (I used only red iris eyeballs)

Blood Syrup
1/2 cup Chocolate syrup
1 tsp red food coloring

Bloody Icing
1 cup powdered sugar
1 T milk
2 tsp Blood Syrup(above)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Prepare cake according to box instructions. Spray mini bundt cake pan with cooking spray and portion cake batter and fill half way. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Allow to cool in pan for 15 minutes then invert and cool on a rack. While the cakes cool, prepare the Bloody Chocolate Syrup and Bloody Icing in separate bowls.

Top each cake with a red gummy eyeball candy. Drizzle around the eyeball with Bloody Icing and then drip Blood Syrup over the eyeball and allow it to drip down the cake. Add more icing or Syrup until you get the right look.

Other Halloween Ideas to try:

Jack-o-lantern Cupcakes

My Bloody Valentine

Candy Corn Sugar Cookies

Toil and Trouble Soup (Roasted Potato Cauliflower Soup)

Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble...Hello my little pretties...It's time to get ready for All Hallows Eve. We've waited all year and the time is finally upon us, so fire up your cauldrons and get ready to fill up the kiddies with this mysteriously delicious Toil and Trouble Soup. Don't let the name scare you. You won't be stuck stirring your cauldron all day, it comes together as easily as a wave of your wand. Gorgeous roasted violet cauliflower and two kinds of purple potatoes are blended with sauteed onions, white carrots, garlic and fennel to make a satisfying and beautifully festive Halloween Meal. It's sure to keep the kids warm as they venture out for a night of trick-or-treating. Serve it all by itself or with BLT sandwiches.  I topped my soup with crispy homemade potato chips, sour cream and chives, but feel free add cheddar cheese and bacon bits, just like a loaded Baked Potato Soup.  Enjoy!
                             🎃🎃🎃 6 days until Halloween  🎃🎃🎃

Toil and Trouble Soup (Roasted Potato Cauliflower Soup)

Adapted recipe from wifemamafoodie.com
Serves 4-6

2 purple sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1" pieces
5-6 purple potatoes, peeled and cut into 1" pieces
1 small head of purple cauliflower, cut up
olive oil
3 very small purple potatoes for frying, sliced thin
1/2 bulb fennel, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
4-5 cloves garlic, chopped
1 small *white carrot, diced (1/2 cup)
4 cups chicken stock(substitute with vegetable stock)
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp Penzeys® Parisien Herbs (substitute 1/2 tsp dried chives & 1/4 tsp thyme)
chives (garnish)
fried purple potatoes (garnish)
swirl of sour cream

NOTE*Do not use Orange or purple carrots for this soup. Remember the color wheel in Art class...Orange + Purple = Brown. Trust me on this...my first attempt I used purple carrots...BTW they are orange on the inside...and the soup turned a disturbing shade of brown.  No beautiful violet soup...only earthy ugly brown.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees
Prepare potatoes and cauliflower and toss with enough olive oil to evenly coat vegetables. Spread out on a parchment lined cookie sheet and roast for 30-35 minutes or until vegetables are cooked.

While vegetables are cooking quickly fry some sliced purple potatoes into crunchy chips for garnish. Drain on a paper towel and salt. (I sprinkled these with a gorgeous purple sea salt I picked up at Aldi® last year, but don't sweat it if you don't have purple salt, regular Kosher salt works too.)

In a large dutch oven, add 1 T olive oil, onions, white carrots and fennel and saute until vegetables are tender, ~10 minutes. Add chicken stock and simmer for a few minutes. Add roasted vegetables to the pot and heat for about 2-3 minutes to soften some of the roasted vegetables that might have browned in the oven. Add 1 tsp Parisien Herbes or substitute with 1/2 dried chives and 1/4 tsp thyme.

In batches, transfer soup to a blender and puree until smooth. Salt and pepper to taste.  Ladle into bowls and swirl in some sour cream, top with purple chips and chives and Enjoy!

More Halloween recipes to try:

Vampire Slayer Soup

Eye of Newt Stew

Spider Caviar

Abracadabra Platter (Purple Crudite and Cheese Tray)

It's been a few months since my last post. My best laid plans for my annual "Summer of Halloween" never quite got going this year. Not that I don't have pages full of ideas, it's that I've been in somewhat of a slump. My youngest son promoting to middle school has left me feeling sad. The fun days of elementary school age kids and fun easy school days have been replaced with middle school boys who don't like to do any of the fun kid things anymore and homework that's a lot more important and more stressful than before, and the bottom line is that they just don't need me as much. 
Logically, I know that's the goal of being a mother is to nurture and guide my boys so they become kind, happy, self-sufficient adults. But emotionally, I'm grieving the childhood I've witnessed and been so integrally involved in the last 8 years I've been home with my kids. My boys growing up and moving onto the next stage is normal and expected, so I was surprised that this life change triggered such intense sense of loss. Confusing and crippling enough that I reached out to my therapist for help. The last time I saw my therapist was two years ago when she helped me through a family crisis. This time she helped me identify why I was feeling so crippled by sadness. I realized my feelings of sadness were not only about marking a milestone for my boys, but were wrapped up in my childhood feelings of instability when we moved away from where I felt settled and comfortable. We moved a lot when I was a child, so naturally this comfortable safe home/school environment I built for my kids, was now changing and it triggered a flood of fear, sadness and loss for me. I've done some work to honor these feelings, but I don't have a magic wand to wave over my head and say, "Abracadabra" to make it all disappear. I still have work to do, but I am on the mend. Most days I can see past sadness and see opportunity, in fact, yesterday, I seized the opportunity and played around with a Halloween idea and created this gorgeous violaceous Halloween appetizer. A dish called...Abracadabra Platter!

                                🎃🎃🎃 28 days until Halloween🎃🎃🎃

Abracadabra Platter

Purple Cauliflower, cut into florets
Purple Carrots, cut into sticks
Blackberries
Blueberries
Purple Endive
Red Grapes
Black Grapes (Moon Drop Grapes)
Dried Figs
Pomegranate seeds
Kalamata olives
Trader Joe's® Blueberry Vanilla Goat Cheese
Trader Joe's® Creamy Toscano Cheese Soaked in Syrah
Trader Joe's ® 3 Seed Beet Crackers


Beet Hummus 
3 beets, cooked and peeled
1 can black beans
1-2 cloves garlic
juice of 1 lime
1/4 tsp tandoori spice mix (or substitute 1/4 tsp garam masala)
1/2 tsp ginger 
salt and cayenne pepper (to taste)
1 tsp olive oil
red cabbage leaf cup

Blend all ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve in red cabbage leaf cup or small bowl. Drizzle with additional olive oil if desired. Arrange fruit vegetables and cheese by color and serve with your favorite crackers, bread and wine. Enjoy!

Here are some more pics of this gorgeous platter. :)

Other Halloween Ideas:

Amputated Appetizer Cheese Platter

Eye of the Beholder Salad

Antipasto de los Muertos