Happy Halloween!!!

Having just recovered from last night's Halloween bash, I thought I'd post a few shots of the party.

Trick or Treating

What's a party without my Death by Chocolate cupcakes? A sad one! I used my fave chocolate cake recipe - Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" chocolate cake, added a cup of chocolate chips, filled them with chocolate pudding (or would have if I hadn't forgotten it), and topped them off with chocolate buttercream and a white chocolate skull.

The Orange Ogre cupcakes recipe:
Ingredients

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons orange flavoring
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup milk
• 3/4 cup applesauce

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin pan with paper liners.
2. Cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla and orange flavoring. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Stir in the milk and applesauce.
3. Bake 20 to 25 minutes.
4. Fill with lemon flavored pudding tinted green.
5. Top with orange buttercream frosting and eyeball sprinkles.  
6. Nom. Nom. Nom.

The original recipe is from All Recipes, but I made some changes because I found the original cake to be too dry. 

Orange Ogre cupcakes (with gooey green filling) & Death By Chocolate Cupcakes

 There, of course, had to be a very sincere pumpkin patch. The idea came from I Design's 3 Ingredient Truffles. These are made by combining Oreos and cream cheese, forming them into a ball, chilling them, putting a stick in them, and coating them in orange candy melts. Top with a green sprinkle. They didn't turn out as cute as Bakerella's cake pops, but I still think they're adorable. They were super-rich and delish!

Pumpkin Patch

 The mummy pretzel rods were...interesting. I did them in butterscotch and in white chocolate. They're yummy mummies. The butterscotch didn't melt as well as I had hoped, so I ended up kind of pressing it into the molds. Hence the lumpiness.

Pretzel Rod Mummies

 My cousins Peyton and Madden made this fabulous graveyard for the party. Don't you just love the angry little ghosts? The whole thing is made out of cookies and candies and is just too cute to eat.

Peyton & Madden's Ghoulish Graveyard...of cookies

 The kids played Pin the Smile on the Jack O'Lantern. Madden and Victor tied!

Pin the Smile on the Jack O'Lantern

 I got my I Know an Old Lady print framed and hung on the wall. My printer was running out of ink, but we decided the pin stripe look was cool. Seán has decided that he likes it so much that it is now part of the permanent collection. I really was planning on hanging it up just for the party.

I know an old lady who swallowed a fly...after gnawing on my plant.

The winner of the Best Costume 2010 was Peyton. We had ornament decorating where the kids could make their own Jack O'Lantern ornaments. We had Swamp Sludge punch, which was orange juice, pineapple juice, and cranberry grape juice. I couldn't stop drinking that. We had pizza with bat shaped cheese and capers for eyes. Seán made his sausage rolls. And we had my favorite nachos. The kids left happy, stuffed, and hopped up on sugar. Best Halloween ever!