(Family Features) Be the ghostess with the mostess this Halloween, and throw a wickedly wonderful celebration. The entertaining experts from the Wilton Test Kitchen know all the tricks and offer plenty of treats for hosting a bone-chilling blast that will have friends and family shrieking with delight.
Start by scaring up some fun with an array of graveyard goodies. Tombstone and monster-shaped sandwich cookies paired with ghostly graveyard cookies set an eerie scene. Add fang-tastic monster-faced popcorn balls, and a parade of monster pretzels – a breeze to make using a Halloween Candy Kit. Pour melted candy into monster molds, insert pretzel rods and refrigerate until set. They are the perfect hand-held treats for kids and look great on display.
There’s no bones about it, a spooktacular skeleton cake will make for a boo-tiful Halloween centerpiece. Using a skeleton casket pan makes this impressive dessert – filled with fall flavors like cinnamon and apples – easy to achieve. Simply decorate with icing and watch as your skeleton comes back from the grave.
For added fright, surround the coffin with Spooky Pop Cupcakes – swirled with brightly-colored icing and things that go bump in the night. Just be sure to pair sweets with a be”witch”ing beverage and you’ll be caught in a web of friends all evening long.
All of these and other terrifyingly-terrific project ideas, supplies and more are available at www.wilton.com.
Back From the Grave Cake
Ingredients
- 2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
- 1-1/4 cups granulated sugar
- 3 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3/4 cups sweetened applesauce
- 1-1/4 cups diced Granny Smith apple (about 1 medium apple)
- 1 can (16 ounces) White Decorator Icing
Preparation
- Preheat oven to 325°F. Prepare 3D Skeleton Casket pan with vegetable pan spray.
- In medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt; set aside. In large bowl, beat butter and sugar with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, and vanilla; mix well. Alternately add flour mixture and applesauce to butter mixture. Spread about 1/2 of cake batter so that it reaches the first horizontal line inside the pan. Sprinkle diced apples evenly over batter. Top with remaining batter, smoothing out the top.
- Bake 58 to 62 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes; remove from pan and cool completely on cooling grid.
- Decorate cooled cake with tip 5 and decorator icing.
Serves
Makes about 12 servings
