On Saturday, some of my Sew Make Believe homies came over to carve pumpkins and bake goodies. Although Halloween in the UK is a relatively half-hearted affair (most people still don’t really think of it like a holiday, just an American tradition), I absolutely love it. I love the costumes, I love the sweets, I love trick-or-treaters (provided they only accept treats although I’ve never had a trick). I had intended on making some cool Halloween decorations. However, some bad planning and an OU essay due meant that I didn’t get round to it. Here are the spoils of our labour:
Alysa brought over some ready-made cookie dough to make some vampire cookies:
Alysa made these by rolling out the cookie dough (using a bottle of wine since I don’t have a rolling-pin!), cutting it into circles, popping a dollop of cherry jam onto each of one half of the circles and then topping by the other half of the circles. Before they were cooked, we used a skewer to make the bite marks and then we put them in the oven for 15 minutes (approx!). Once they were cooked, we dabbed some more jam on the bite marks for extra gruesomeness!
While Alysa baked (and I watched and took photo), Helen and Becky got busy with the pumpkins.
Becky is not too happy with scary things. She prefers happy and cute pumpkins – her pumpkin looks so content and a little doe-eyed. Helen proved to be an expert pumpkin gutter so she got stuck in de-seeding while Becky carved the faces. I was given some very cool Martha Stewart pumpkin transfers by my mum after her recent trip to the States so I was excited to see how they would look.
It came out great! As for my pumpkin carving, I am a bit of a purist so I went for a pumpkin cannibal.
Alysa also helped me make some mini cupcakes (I say helped, but really she did it all while I stood about and took pictures!). We made a standard sponge cake mixture, whacked them in the cute halloween cupcake holders also bought by Mum and stuck them in the oven for about 15 minutes. Once they had cooled, Helen and Alysa covered half in white chocolate and half in milk chocolate. Then Helen piped concentric circles and we all had a go at making a cool spider web effect by using a skewer to drag from the centre outwards.
Finally, Becky helped me arrange my pumpkins and other Halloween paraphenalia by my front door readty for the trick-or-treaters. I was chuffed with the final result:
I had such a great afternoon – yet another example of how Sew Make Believe has made my life better!
Soooo wish I could’ve made it – Halloween is hands down my favourite holiday, mainly for the costumes. Of course, back home, the ultimate treat lies in the ringing of the doorbell and being greeted by a group of miniature goblins and witches and ballerinas, shrieking the obligatory “trick or treat!” and pleased as punch by all the festivities. The best were the ones barely able to walk, usually dressed as pumpkins or Tigger, and completely befuddled by the whole affair but willing to go along with it cuz big bro/sis was.
One of the few things to make me homesick…..
I do so wish I could have come, but sometime when in a relationship you must miss things you want to do! Lol. I wish I had been there it sounds fabulous and brilliant and I am mindblowingly jealous!!