Halloween Round 2 - No tricks, all treats!

1. Mini Edible Haunted Houses

What you need: 

Graham Crackers (way more than you think because we lost a ton trying to cut them into the right shapes lol)

A good serrated knife Decorative toppings like sprinkles, m and ms, candy corn, sanding sugar, candy eyes, bloody bones, etc.

Royal Icing (recipe below)

Food Coloring

Small Squeeze Bottles

How to:

1. Prep your graham crackers. For the walls and the roof you just need to half the crackers. For the front panel and back panel its a little tricky. You will need to take the long cracker and cut the edges on the top 25% of the cracker. This is the hardest part! It was so hard that we forgot to take a pic of this step but you can see it in the construction pic (oops).

2. Make your royal icing by mixing 2 cups powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and 2 tablespoons milk. You want it to be really thick because this is your glue here. We kept some white (for the construction) and made some green and orange for decorating. Put icing into squeeze bottles. 

3. Build your house. Start by "gluing" one of your taller panels to two cracker halves use icing to secure. Then "glue" the other tall panel to the back. You will use two more halves to make the roof. This was kind of a balancing act. It took a lot of icing to get these babies to stay but they hardened pretty quickly and were surprisingly stable! 

4. Decorate and eat (if you dare). 

2. Soft Pretzel Bones

How to:

1.  Dissolve yeast in warm water (not hot) in a large mixing bowl. Add sugar, salt, and 2 cups flour. Start mixing. You could use a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment but we just did it by hand. Slowly mix in remaining flour. You should have a stiff dough. If it is too sticky just add more flour. 

2. Knead dough on a floured surface for just under 10 minutes until its really elastic feeling. Place dough in a greased bowl and let sit somewhere warm for one hour to rise. The dough will double in size. 

3. Divide dough into 8-12 sections depending on how large you want your bones. We totally eyeballed it here... Roll each section out into a rope. You want it to be around 14-16 inches or so. Tie a knot in each end and set aside. 

4. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. In a pot (the kind you would use for pasta) add 8 cups of water and 1/2 cup of baking soda. Bring to a boil. 

5. Drop your pretzels in one at a time. Boil for 30 seconds each. Take out with a slotted spoon. You don't want it to be soaking wet when you put them on the cookie sheet for baking.

6. Arrange pretzels 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet. Gently brush with the beaten egg and sprinkle salt across the top (or whatever topping you like). Bake for 12-14 minutes or until golden brown. These are amazing plain or you can serve them with ketchup, mustard, or cheese dip. Enjoy! 

3. Eyeballs 2 ways

What you need:

Red Velvet Cake (we used a boxed mix)

Cream Cheese Frosting

Red Food Coloring

White Chocolate Chips (or candy melts)

Peach Ring Candy 

Semisweet Chocolate Chips

Zip Top Bags 

Wax Paper

How to (Cake Balls):

1. Make cake (lol). Seriously though we made on box of red velvet cake mix according to directions on the box. We made 12 cupcakes and used the rest of the mix to bake an 8 inch round. Set the cupcakes aside. We are going to use the round cake to make the cake balls. Once the cake has cooled down-crumble it up! We cut it up into chinks and then used our hands to break the cake into tiny pieces. 

2. Add one heaping tablespoon of cream cheese frosting to the cake crumbles. Use your hands to mush it up until it resembles playdough. It should still be a little bit crumbly- you don't want it to be super moist or else it won't retain its shape. Once your mixture looks like playdough make small balls. We used an ice cream scooper to get even amounts of dough.

3. Stick cake balls in the freezer for 30 minutes. Melt 1.5 cups of white chocolate chips in the microwave on half power for 1.5 minutes. 

4. Dip frozen cake balls into melted white chocolate. Pipe some frosting (mixed with red food dye) onto your white cake balls to make veins and top with a peach ring. For piping we just use a zip top bag. You can snip the corner to whatever size you like.

4. Stick a chocolate chip in the middle. Voila! 

How to (Cupcakes): 

1. Bake cupcakes. Let cool completely.

2. Take cooled cupcakes and frost with cream cheese frosting.

3. Pipe frosting (mixed with red food dye) onto cupcakes to create veins. For piping we just use a zip top bag. You can snip the corner to whatever size you like. Top with a peach ring.

4. Stick a chocolate chip in the middle. Voila! 

  

4. Creepy Candy Apples

What you need:

Apples 

Crafting Sticks (or lollipop sticks)

2 Cups Sugar

1 Cup Water

1/4 Teaspoon Cream of Tartar 

Food Coloring

Gummy Worms

Spiders or other creepy crawling things (for garnish)

How to:

1. Clean and dry your apples. Pull out the stem. This creates the perfect spot to stick your crafting stick in!

2. Mix sugar, water, and cream of tarter in a saucepan. Boil for about 10 minutes. You want the sugar to reach 300 degrees. If you don't have a candy thermometer this is the point when the candy hardens into thin strings when dropped into cold water. 

3. Take the sugar mixture off of the heat and add food coloring. We attempted to make it green. 

4. Coat the apples in the sugar mixture. We only dipped them once but if we make these again we will definitely double or triple dip to make the end result thicker and more vibrant. 

5. Place apples on greased parchment paper and top with gummy worms and garnish with spiders. 

5. Make Your Own Cupcake (or Cookie) Bar

All you need: