Sweet treats to make this Halloween

Photo Credit: Sarah Gualtieri via Unsplash

This Saturday is Halloween and while our usual ways of celebrating might be off the table, that doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate at all. Even if you can’t get together with your friends, you can still enjoy some tasty treats and keep the spirit of Halloween alive this year. 

Now, I won’t fault you if your idea of Halloween baking is going to the grocery store, buying a box of Pillsbury pumpkin cookies and sticking them in the oven. Those cookies are good! But if you want to step up your game this year, try one of these The Brock Press-endorsed recipes. 

Eyeball Surprise Cupcakes

You will need: boxed cake mix (vanilla is best), cherries, white icing, red food colouring, black food colouring, a mixing bowl, an oven, a spoon, cupcake liners, Ziploc baggies and a pan. 

There’s not really anything special about the cupcakes in this recipe on their own. You can use whatever kind of cake mix you like, but vanilla or white cake mixes work best to make the “surprise” part of eyeball surprise cupcakes really pop. 

You’re going to start by baking your cupcakes; follow the instructions on your boxed cake mix. When taking them out of the oven leave them to cool for an hour or so. While they’re cooling, you can start making your icing. Leave about ⅔ of the icing in the container, that will be the base for your decoration. Split the remaining icing in half and colour half of it red and the other half black. Set the icing aside. Then you’re going to smush up some cherries. Make sure you remove the pits (you can do this by poking the pit out with a chopstick or a toothpick). Once your cherries have been successfully de-pitted, you can start smushing. Use a fork or a spoon or your hands if you’re really feeling it and crush the cherries; then, add a pinch of sugar and stir. Your cherry mixture will be a little bit chunky, which is exactly what we’re going for. 

Now it’s time to add the surprise; take a knife and cut a hole that’s about a centimeter wide in the top of the cupcakes. Spoon some of the cherry mixture inside and cover it up with the piece of cake that you cut off. Repeat the process for the rest of the cupcakes. 

Ice the cupcakes with the white icing, this will cover the hole in the top of your cupcakes. Once that’s done, you can start on the coloured icing. If you have piping bags, this part will definitely be easier, but I’m guessing you don’t, so Ziploc bags will work in a pinch. Scoop the icing into two separate bags and cut a hole in the corner. Draw a black dot in the middle of the cupcakes and then draw little red squiggles on the edges to look like blood vessels. 

And there you have it, not only do your cupcakes look like eyeballs, but now anyone who bites into them is going to find a goopy red surprise in the middle.

Halloween Candy Mug Cake

You will need: ¼ cup of flour, ¼ cup of white sugar, four tbsp of cocoa powder, one tsp of baking soda, a pinch of salt, three tbsp of milk, one tbsp of water, a mug (or a bowl), a microwave and a spoon.

The spookiest thing of all is living in a residence building without access to an oven, the horror! Don’t worry, I wouldn’t leave you out of the Halloween fun. Mug cakes are a simple way to scratch your baking itch without actually having to do a whole lot of baking. 

I think we can all agree that the best part of Halloween is the candy (and I know you have leftovers). Whether you raided your younger siblings candy stash or you bought a box of mini chocolate bars to have just for yourself, this recipe is for you. 

To begin, combine all your dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, sugar, cocoa powder, salt) and mix. Once everything’s combined, you can start adding the wet ingredients. Mix until everything is fully combined. Then you will want to take a couple of those mini chocolate bars from your halloween candy stash and break them up into little pieces. Then, sprinkle the pieces into the batter and stir. 

Microwave your mug cake for exactly one minute. You can add more time if it’s still raw in the middle, but one minute is a good starting point. You can check if the cake is cooked by sticking a toothpick in the middle; if the toothpick comes out clean, it’s good to go. 

Does it look great? Not really, but it’s cake and it’s going to taste good, so dig in and enjoy!

Rice Krispies Pumpkins

You will need: ¼ cup of butter, one cup mini marshmallows, four cups of Rice Krispies cereal, orange food colouring, mini tootsie rolls, a spoon and a plate.

Everybody loves Rice Krispies treats! So let’s add a fun Halloween twist by making Rice Krispies pumpkins. This recipe gets a little messy, so make sure you wash your hands before and after you start and keep the paper towels handy. 

Put your butter and marshmallows in a large microwave safe bowl and microwave on high for one minute. Take the bowl out, stir and microwave for another 30 seconds, stir until melted together and then add a whole bunch of orange food colouring. You don’t want to mix in the orange food colouring yet though, you first want to quickly add the Rice Krispies and then mix. 

Once your marshmallow mixture and Rice Krispies are combined, you can start making your pumpkins. This is the part where things get messy. You’re going to use your hands to roll the mixture into a whole bunch of little spheres. You can make them as big or as small as you like, but make sure you work quickly so that the Rice Krispies mix doesn’t get too hard for you to work with. 

Once you have your spheres, press one mini tootsie roll into the top of each sphere so that it looks like a stem. 

Enjoy your Halloween and make sure you stay safe and respect COVID-19 restrictions! I hope these tasty treats help things feel just a little bit more festive. As always, if you make any of the recipes in this article, make sure you post photos of your creations and tag us on Instagram @thebrockpress.