We all need a reason to celebrate and Halloween is more than a reason. This Celtic festival actually began as a day of remembrance for deceased relatives and friends –where people lit candles on the road, left treats at the doorstep and set places on the dinner table to specially remember their loved ones.
This mysterious, magical day marks the end of balmy summers and the onset of long cold winters. Thus, it is celebrated by lighting bonfires and wearing ghoulish masks to ward off ghosts. (All in all a day rife with superstitions, night long celebrations, and devilish treats!)
Come Saturday and most of us will be heading to a Halloween party or a get together. For the uninitiated? It’s time you got your spook on.
Have a look at our list of creepy treats and bewitching brews that will have you covered this Halloween!
Deviled Eggs
Put an eerie twist to your traditional recipe with these deviled eggs that are sure to spook out your guests. Slice boiled eggs in half, scoop out the egg yolks and run them in a mixture with mustard, pepper and mayonnaise until it becomes a fine paste. Transfer this paste into a pastry bag fitted with a large round tip. Fill each of the boiled egg cavity with this paste to resemble a pumpkin. Then, set a piece of julienned capsicum to resemble the pumpkin stem. The deviled eggs are simple to make and will make your Halloween celebration ‘wicked’.
Cauldron Full of Devilish Dip
This is another interesting way of adding an element of fun to your Halloween party. Scrape out the inside of a musk melon and stuff if with dips. (If you don’t have melons you could even use a bowl). Choose from a range of dips like thousand island, salsa or cheese fondue. Arrange chopped portions of red and orange bell peppers below the musk melon to make it look like flames on the platter. This creepy cauldron of devilish dip will totally have your guests hooked!
Spider Web Cupcakes
These delicious chocolate cupcakes are easy to whip up and make for a spooky Halloween treat. Here’s how you can make this simple dessert your Halloween party go-to.
Once they’re baked, top the cupcakes with generous amounts of dark chocolate and then with strips of white chocolate in a pattern that creates a cobweb-like effect. The bite-sized goodies will contribute in a large way to the ghoulish aura you’re obviously hoping to create.
Whilst you’re icing them though, do beware lest the itsy bitsy spider has a go at your cupcakes!
Ghostly Pizza
You’ll be hard pressed to find a guest who doesn’t like pizza! However, add some spooky flair to the average dough by cutting them into interesting shapes rather than the usual triangle. (Cauldrons, bats and witches’ hats come to mind!) in fact, make sure the cheese slices you top them with are cut up in weird shapes too.
We guarantee this will be one deliciously irresistible Halloween feast!
Bloodbath Punch
Could anything be more Halloween? Punch, already blood-coloured and deliciously tangy, is the one Halloween treat that you can’t go wrong with. Infuse generous amounts of cranberry juice and orange to the punch to resemble blood.
Place this punch alongside other treats – or, better still, make it the star of your Halloween table.
Skewered Eyeballs
These can be made using donut holes that are skewered and dusted with sugar. Add an element of gross to these by pasting edible eyeballs on the donut holes using a sticky corn syrup. This will taste particularly delicious if you serve them with a specially concocted strawberry sauce, designed (obviously) to look like blood. The sauce in fact elevates the dish to a whole new level of edible goriness.
(A freelance food blogger, Pranjali Bhonde Pethe aims at getting people and their favourite food closer through her blog moipalate. Email her at pranjali.bhonde@gmail.com or follow her on @moipalate.)
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