Scary spider biscuits
Create these cute spider biscuits with kids as part of a Halloween party feast. Children will love adding the spooky chocolate spider legs and icing eyes.
Ingredients (makes 20 biscuits):
- 70g butter, softened
- 50g peanut butter
- 150g golden caster sugar
- 1 medium egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 180g plain flour
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 20 peanut butter cups, Rolos or Maltesers
- 100g milk chocolate, chopped
- icing eyes, or make your own.
Method:
- Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and line two baking sheets with parchment. Using an electric hand whisk, cream the butter, peanut butter and sugar together until very light and fluffy, then beat in the egg and vanilla. Once combined, stir in the flour, bicarb and ¼ tsp salt.
- Scoop 18-20 tbsps of the mixture onto the trays, leaving enough space between each to allow for spreading. Make a thumbprint in the centre of the cookies. Bake for 10-12 mins or until firm at the edges but still soft in the middle – they’ll harden a little as they cool. Leave to cool on the tray for a few mins before topping each biscuit with a peanut butter cup, Rolo or Malteser. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Heat the chocolate in the microwave in short bursts, or in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water, until just liquid. Scrape into a piping bag and leave to cool a little. Pipe the legs onto each spider, then stick two eyes on each. Leave to set. Will keep for three days in an airtight container.
Creepy cupcakes
Bake these Halloween cupcakes for your little monsters. With black velvet sponge and scary faces made using simple icing techniques, they're spookily good.
Ingredients (makes 22 cupcakes):
- 200g butter, softened
- 300g golden caster sugar
- 200g dark chocolate, melted
- 2 eggs
- 250g self-raising flour
- ¼ tsp baking powder mixed with 100ml boiling water
- 50g cocoa powder
- 200ml milk
- 1-2 tsp black food colouring (optional).
For the buttercream:
- 300g unsalted butter, softened
- 500g icing sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- black food colouring.
For the decorations:
- pack of Smarties
- black icing pen
- 1 pack mixed coloured fondant icing (you'll need pink, green, blue and white)
- liquorice and strawberry laces and other sweets such as jelly fangs and liquorice allsorts
- icing eyes (see tip, below).
Method:
- Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Line two 12-hole cupcake tins with cases. Beat the butter and sugar until the mixture is creamy. Beat in the chocolate and the eggs until combined, then stir in the flour and baking powder, cocoa powder, milk and food colouring, if using. Spoon the mixture evenly between the cupcake cases, levelling the tops.
- Bake for 20 mins or until the cakes are risen and springy to the touch. Cool for 5 mins in the tin, then lift out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- To make the buttercream, beat the butter until soft, then stir in the icing sugar a little at a time. Beat in the vanilla and some black food colouring, then transfer to a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle.
- For the cat face, pipe the black buttercream in an even swirl onto the cupcake and smooth with a palette knife. Pipe two ears by making a blob for each and pulling the icing bag upwards to a point. Add two eyes on each with Smarties and use the black icing pen to paint a pupil onto each. Add a triangle nose made of pink fondant icing and create whiskers with sweets.
- For the monster faces, cut circles of green and blue fondant to fit the tops of the cupcake and fix them in place with a little buttercream. Add eyes, noses and mouths made of sweets or use icing eyes (see tip, below). For skeletons, cut out shapes with white fondant and fix in place with the buttercream.
TIP: how to decorate with icing:
To make icing eyes, mix up a batch of fondant icing and pipe rounded blobs, for the eyeballs, onto baking parchment. Leave to dry. Then, either add pupils to the eyes with a small brush and black colouring, or make up a batch of black icing and pipe dots on top.
Boo brownies
Forget packets of sweets – if you want a real treat at Halloween, these decadent spooky brownies will do the trick. Both kids and adults will love them.
Ingredients (serves 12):
- 200g butter
- 200g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
- 4 large eggs
- 350g caster sugar
- 100g plain flour
- 50g cocoa powder
- 100g milk chocolate, chopped
- 100g white chocolate, chopped
- 12 créme-filled chocolate sandwich cookies
- 12 sugar-coated chocolates
- red and black icing pens.
Method:
- Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and line a 24 x 20cm brownie tin with baking parchment. Melt the butter and dark chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a small pan of just simmering water. Stir until completely smooth, then leave to cool for 10 mins.
- Beat the eggs and sugar with an electric whisk until thick and pale – the mixture should double in volume and leave a trail when the beaters are lifted. Pour the cooled dark chocolate mixture around the edge of the bowl. Sift over the flour and cocoa, add the milk chocolate, and gently fold everything together with a spatula or large metal spoon. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 35-40 mins.
- Meanwhile, make the ‘eyeballs’. Melt the white chocolate in a heatproof bowl over the pan of just simmering water. Stir until smooth. Dip each cookie into the chocolate to cover one side. Stick a sugar-coated chocolate in the centre of each, then leave to set. When the chocolate is fully dry, pipe a pupil and red veins onto each eyeball using the icing pens.
- Remove the traybake from the oven, and immediately push the eyeballs into the surface in even rows – do this gently, so they’re just pushed in slightly. Leave to cool completely. Cut into 12 squares.
Phantom Pumpkin hummus
Use your carved-out pumpkin to make this delicious, creamy hummus.
Ingredients (serves 8)
- 1 small pumpkin (about 500g)
- olive oil, for roasting
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled
- ½ lemon, juiced
- 2 tbsp tahini paste
- 400g can chickpeas, drained
- 1 red pepper, deseeded and sliced
- 1 yellow pepper, deseeded and sliced
- mini breadsticks and pitta chips, to serve.
Method:
- Cut the top off the pumpkin, about two-thirds of the way up. Remove the pumpkin seeds, then scoop the flesh out of the bottom and the lid.
- Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Cut the pumpkin flesh into pieces and put in a roasting tin with the garlic and a good glug of oil. Season, then bake for 45 mins until very tender. Leave to cool.
- Tip the pumpkin into a food processor with any juices from the roasting tin and the garlic. Add the lemon juice, tahini paste and chickpeas. Season with salt and blend to a paste – add a little more oil if it's too thick. Scoop the hummus back into the pumpkin and serve with the peppers, breadsticks and pitta chips.
Recipes courtesy of BBC Good Food. For more Halloween recipes visit their website.
