Happy Hungry Halloween

 

 

 

 

Chocolate Spiderweb Cupcakes, see my recipe here 

 

 

 

 

 Skull & Blood Raspberry Jam Cake With White Chocolate, see my recipe here

 

 

 

 

 "Broken Bones" Toffee Hazel Loaf, see my recipe here

 

 

 

 

Gluten Free Chilli Brownies & Ghost Brownies, see my recipe here

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Halloween to you all!

 Come dance with the witches at my vintage style blog here.

 

Images 1, 2, & 6 via 1

 

Halloween Parties kindly hosted by Vanessa Valencia of A Fanciful Twist, click on the website link to see her own party in full swing!

 

 

The Witching Hour, Halloween 2012

Her Kind

 

 

by Anne Sexton

 

 

I have gone out, a possessed witch,

 

 

haunting the black air, braver at night;

 

 

dreaming evil, I have done my hitch

 

 

over the plain houses, light by light:

 

 

lonely thing, twelve-fingered, out of mind.

 

 

A woman like that is not a woman, quite.

 

 

I have been her kind.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have found the warm caves in the woods,  

 

 

filled them with skillets, carvings, shelves,  

 

 

closets, silks, innumerable goods;

 

 

fixed the suppers for the worms and the elves:

 

 

whining, rearranging the disaligned.

 

 

A woman like that is misunderstood.

 

 

I have been her kind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have ridden in your cart, driver,

 

waved my nude arms at villages going by,

 

learning the last bright routes, survivor

 

where your flames still bite my thigh

 

and my ribs crack where your wheels wind.

 

A woman like that is not ashamed to die.

 

I have been her kind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

 

 

Her Kind by Anne Sexton, via http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171268

 

 

 Halloween Parties kindly hosted by Vanessa Valencia of www.afancifultwist.com, click on the website link to see her own party in full swing

 

My outfit (Leopard Witch): Nicole Farhi black dress; Hobbs shoes; lace veil from my granny Kiki.

 

I'm also proud to be a part of Visible Monday, hosted by the glamorous Patti from www.notdeadyetstyle.blogspot.co.uk, click on the website link to see her outfit and those of many others.

 

 

 

This post was idly hatched while listening to Into The Labyrinth by Dead Can Dance

 

 

 

Gluten Free Chilli Brownies for Halloween

 

 

Story has it that red chilli peppers are associated with the devil, thanks to the hellish heat they leave in one's mouth and the shape of the little peppers curving like devil's horns. These brownies can be as fiery or as subtle as you like, it just depends on the heat of the chilli pepper you use. Even with the hot peppers the crumb of the brownie still tastes sweet, soft and so chocolatey. Devilishly good. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recipe

Adapted from the one by Cook Vegetarian, for their recipe click here

Serves 7-8

 

 

150g plain chocolate

100g chilli dark chocolate

150g unsalted butter, room temperature

175g caster sugar

3 large eggs, room temperature

75g gluten free plain flour

1 small bag dark chocolate chips

half a red chilli pepper, finely chopped and deseeded

 

for decoration:

gluten free coloured icing pens, (I used Dr Oetker)

a little cherry or raspberry jam, optional

gluten free ready rolled white icing, (I used offcuts of Silver Spoon icing), optional

 

 

1. Turn the oven to 170C (150 fan ovens) and grease and line a suitable square or rectangular baking tray.

 

 

2. Break the chocolate bars into small pieces, placing the chilli chocolate chunks in a separate bowl to the plain so that you can tell the two apart.

 

 

3. Heat 100g of the plain chocolate chunks, and all the chilli chocolate, in a heatproof bowl over a pan of just simmering water. Stir carefully until the chocolate has melted, then remove the bowl from the heat and put to one side to cool.

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Using an electric hand mixer, beat the sugar into the chocolate, then add the eggs one at a time until well combined.

 

 

5. Next sift over the flour, and stir until the mixture is smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips, the leftover plain chocolate and the finely chopped red chilli. Gently fold these ingredients into the batter.

 

 

6. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for approximately half an hour. A skewer should come out pretty clean. Leave brownies to cool in the baking tray, before cutting with a knife into even slices.

 

 

7. Give the brownies spooky style by using coloured icing pens to decorate them with images of witches, bats and spiders' webs. 

 

 

8. If you want to create ghost brownies as above, simply brush a little cherry or raspberry jam over the sides of the brownie and wrap them in cut pieces of ready rolled white icing. Then decorate with coloured icing pens, drawing ghostly eyes and mouths.

 

Serve on Halloween!

 

 

 

 

 

 

These brownies were idly baked while listening to Abbatoir Blues by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

 

 

 

A Halloween Invitation

Hold on to your bedpans, the Halloween blog party is drawing near!

 

I have been invited by the delightful Vanessa Valencia to a spooky Halloween celebration to be held by bloggers across the world. Vanessa is an artist and sculptor based in Arizona, well known for the parties which she photographs for her blog. This year I've decided to join her in inviting you all to a Halloween party of my own.

Please come join us for a frighteningly fun Halloween party on Saturday 27th October, held at my place, Vanessa's, and the homes of many others including YOU if you so wish to participate!

Visit Vanessa's previous Halloween parties, which are on the left side bar of her blog www.afancifultwist.com, to see just how much fun they are, and I do so hope they'll inspire you to create your own or simply to check out our blog party posts on the day.

 

 

I look forward to spooking you then.....

 

Spiderweb Cupcakes

I was planning on baking and blogging these delicious halloween cuties earlier in the week, but then a certain little lady came into our lives and took all my attention.

Nico the kitten likes feather teasers, purring loudly, cat milk and having her stomach stroked. Now that she's sleeping I can press on with blogging my halloween cupcakes. but allow me one more photo please before I do. Aaaah the blissful life of a kitten.

Recipe
Cupcake base recipe my own.
Chocolate icing adapted from the recipe Death By Chocolate Cupcake by Lisa Harris at Good Food Channel, see the recipe online here.
Spiderweb topper idea and design by Jessica Dodell-Fedder at countryliving.com, see it here.
Makes 12 large cupcakes.

for the batter:
150g unsalted butter, room temperature
2 large eggs, room temperature
200g self raising flour
half a teaspoon baking powder
200g caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
100ml milk
80g dark chocolate (70% solids)
2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1. Turn oven to 180C (160C fan ovens). Fill a 12 hole muffin pan with medium sized cupcake cases.

2. In a large bowl, throw in all the batter ingredients except the milk, chocolate, and cocoa powder, and beat well until combined.

3. Next add the milk, and stir again.

4. Melt the chocolate over a low heat in a saucepan before leaving to cool for a moment. Add the cocoa powder and stir carefully. Then pour in the melted chocolate and continuing stirring gently until the batter is smooth and combined. 

5. Spoon the chocolate batter into the cases. Fill until they are two thirds full.

6. Put the muffin tray in the oven and bake for 18-20 minutes. You'll know they're done when a skewer comes out clean.

7. When done, leave the cupcakes for a couple of minutes before placing them on a wire rack to cool, and you can get on with the icing.

for the chocolate icing: 

50g cocoa powder

325g icing sugar, sifted

1 tbsp whole milk

225g unsalted butter, room temperature

8. Mix the icing sugar and cocoa powder in a large bowl. When combined, beat in the butter.

9. Add the milk, and whisk briskly for at least 2 minutes until smooth and the colour has lightened.

10. Use a palette knife or the back of a spoon to spread the icing over the cupcakes, before adding the spiderweb toppers.

for the spiderweb toppers:

150g white chocolate, broken into small pieces

11. Melt the white chocolate gently over a bain mairie (a bowl placed over a pan of almost simmering water). Once melted, take off the heat and pour into a piping bag with the smallest circle nozzle. If you don't have this you can make a piping bag by snipping a hole in the corner of a freezer bag.

12. Print out the spiderweb toppers template that you'll find here. Next line a baking sheet or tray with parchment or baking paper, and slip the spiderweb template underneath the paper. Pipe white chocolate onto the paper over each template, making sure that all the lines join up. It's worth practising this, if like me you've never made chocolate toppers before, as the first few may be a disaster. Continue until you're created 12 toppers, then place the sheet into the fridge to chill for 10 minutes.

13. Using a spatula, gently lift the toppers from the paper, and place one atop each iced cupcake.

These cupcakes were idly baked while listening to the Kings of Leon album Only By The Night.