You might be surprised to find out you can buy severed limbs online–I was. Seriously! I found fingers, hands, feet, even hearts and intestines. There is every body part imaginable, and they’re priced so reasonably you can pick one up for next to nothing. They’re fake, of course, But they do provide a great opportunity for fun Halloween baking with the kids.

Glancing through the myriad of stores selling these polyurethane gems the other day I thought about how fun it would be to put one into play and see what happened. Remember the old zombie movies with the hand reaching up from the grave for an attempt at something that was supposed to resemble life? Well, why not make a cake like that for a Halloween party!

Gather kids, two 9×11 cake pans (one will work in a pinch), your favorite cake recipe, chocolate icing, a bag of gummy worms and, of course, ‘The Hand.’ You might also want a bit of rolled fondant, a dedicated liner brush and alcohol-based food coloring. Let the kiddies help you mix the cake, grease and flour the pans, pour the cake batter and bake. (Don’t forget to lick the bowl—it’s a must, of course!) Once the cake is done and cooled, the fun begins.

If you made two cakes, place them together to make a long sheet cake measuring 9×22. Measure the base of the hand (around the wrist) and, with a spoon, dig a hole in the lower quarter of one of the cakes. (If you’re only using one cake, put the hole close to the middle.) Put the cake crumbs from the hole in a bowl and set aside. Let the kids place a dollop of icing in the bottom of the hole and carefully put the hand inside. Secure it, if needed, with more icing and then it’s time to ice the cake(s). We recommend green frosting for a graveyard –like grassy look. When done, have the children crumble the extra cake on the top to make ‘dirt’ and lay the gummy worms around. They can push portions of the worms into the cake by making a small opening with the handle of a spoon and the shoving part of a worm into it. If the fingers of your zombie hand allow, put a worm up there, too.

For the ‘grave stone’, you can use some rolled fondant to make a rectangular grave marker. Add a humorous epitaph using, a liner paintbrush (dedicated to the kitchen, please!) and alcohol-based food coloring. Kids will enjoy making up something clever and writing it on the fondant or you can Google ‘funny epitaphs’. Here are a couple we found:

Here lies a man named Zeke –
Second fastest gun in Cripple Creek

Here lies Les Moore.
Shot down by a forty-four.
No Les
No Moore

Place the grave stone at the head of the cake and you’re ready to enjoy your spooky treat!

Happy Family Cooking Everyone!

Alex, Sophia and Mom

P.S. Happy Halloween everyone!!!

For our final Halloween episode of 2010, we’re makin’ Brains (aka, spaghetti squash) with Slime Sauce (Basil Pecan Pesto and Brown Sugar/Butter Sauce). Brains are a staple for many of the undead, and since we love us some zombies, we wanted to celebrate our re-alive friends with a vegetarian brain-like alternative.

Enjoy the show everyone, we hope your have a Wonderful Halloween season!

Happy Family Cooking,

Alex, Soph and Kelly

Putting together the perfect Halloween may be as simple as following a template. By coordinating all your decorating–from jack-o-lantern to cake, door decoration to cupcakes–a precisely orchestrated Halloween is as close as your computer…and your kitchen.

Begin by finding a jack-o-lantern carving template that you and the kids like. Check out eHow, or other sites Patterns for great pumpkin faces. There are dozens of places online with good Halloween templates and coloring pages to choose from if you don’t find one that you and the kids like there (FantasyJr.com, BHG.com, etc…). Print out your selection and decide how you want to use the face to bring things together. You can put your chosen face on a round or rectangular cake, cupcakes, front windows and doors and, of course, Jack himself. You’ll need measurements for each item/location you’ll be transferring your face onto. Let the kids help measure and record sizes needed. Some will be simple: an 8” round cake pan, or cupcake tins will be easy to determine. For the door or window treatments you’ll have to decide how big to make the image. Gather your print-out, information and kids and head to the copy shop. For smaller items, simply make copies to the appropriate size. Larger decorations may require you to copy parts of the pattern, or to enlarge it.

Cake and cupcakes –
Roll fondant onto waxed or parchment paper. Place a second sheet of waxed paper over the top of the fondant and put your jack-o-lantern template over it. Secure it with tape and have kids trace the face onto the fondant. Remove the pattern/waxed paper and move the fondant to the pastry. Let children paint your design with a set of dedicated brushes and alcohol-based food coloring.

Doors –
Purchase the correct color plastic party tablecloth from a party store. (If you’re doing a jack-o-lantern theme, orange is your color; green for goblin, etc.) Let older kids cut your image features from the correct color ContactPaper or construction paper. Younger children can assist in attaching each feature to the right spot on the door cover. Use duct tape to attach the decoration to the door.

Windows –
Duplicate the process above, using tissue paper. This allows light in during the day and casts a jack-o-lantern glow at night.

Jack – Cut the lid from your pumpkin; set aside. Let kids scoop goo and seeds. Save seeds for use later (link to goo piece). Trash the goo. Pin template to pumpkin with sharp nails, and use a pen, pressing firmly, to trace the image onto the pumpkin. Using a sharp knife, carve your jack. Have kids push cloves into the inside of the pumpkin and rub the lid with pumpkin pie spices. Place a small candle inside and replace the top. Be careful with old Jack during carving and while candle is lit.

If you’ve desire, you and your children can make couch pillow covers, mailbox cover and anything else using the matching jack-o-lantern face.

With all the ghouls, goblins and decorative Halloween templates available, your Halloween is sure to be spook-tacular!

For our episode this week, we’re sharing our ‘Bleeding Hearts’….which are basically chocolate covered strawberries, stabbed with toothpicks or cocktail swords. Alex, Soph and I love whipping these up anytime of year for a chocolaty delicious snack, but during Halloween, they’re extra fun to make and eat.

Enjoy the show!

Alex, Sophia and Mom

Check Out our other Halloween Shows here:
- Spider Peanut Butter Cookies
- Brains on the Half-Skull with Alien Potion and Vampire Cocktails
- Zombie Fingers with Blood Sauce
- Marshmallow Bats & Forked-Eyeballs

Autumn brings on so many wonderful things. Leaves turn red and yellow, deep shades of maroon and gold. They drift to the ground like Fall fairies, decorating the ground in a patchwork quilt. Football begins, with rosy cheeked fans bundling into their team’s colors, chanting and cheering with no thoughts other than touchdowns and tailgate parties. School starts, sending the kids into a world of newness and learning. And, it’s pie time.

Little baked pies are perfect a perfect autumn treat. These hot pies are hand-sized (large or small) and more fun to make than a pile of colorful fall leaves for jumping in.

Mix your favorite pie crust recipe, whether out of a book or box. Let your little one measure ingredients and help with the stirring and rolling out the dough. It’s their job to cut it into rectangles about 5×8 inches (using a butter knife or a Curious Chef knife). The filling and decorating, also known as “the fun part”, are next.

Fillings can be as varied as your imagination. We use jelly of every variety, a bit of cocoa mixed with cinnamon and sugar (a lot of sugar!) set inside the crust with a blob of butter or regular pie filling. We prefer the ‘homemade’ route, filling our little rectangles to the halfway point with strange concoctions–like a canned half-peach, chopped fine and mixed with a little of its own juice or raisins and nuts in brown sugar.

We carefully moisten the edges of the crust with a bit of water and close the little pies shut, pushing the edges tight with tines of a fork. Then the fun begins – from the remaining pie crust we cut leaves, jack-o-lanterns, even acorns (or something that’s supposed to look like an acorn). For football, we cut eye-shaped balls and trace the lacings into them with the tip of our knives (go Vikings!) and create 3-D pompoms with strips of crust pressed together at one end. Attaching each precious decoration to a pie with a bit more water, we sprinkle with sugar and bake them until they’re golden, eating them as soon as our mouths can handle the heat.

I guarantee your children will love making them, too. The pies that come out of the oven are kid-sized and delicious. But the memories you’ll bake up with them will last forever–I guarantee that, too.

Happy Family Cooking Everyone!

Alex, Soph and Kelly

For our first Halloween episode of 2010, we sharing a quick and easy beverage. We call it a zombie cocktail because when you take a watermelon and put it in a blender, it has an ‘interesting’ look…and we like it.

Enjoy the show and happy family cooking!

Alex, Soph and Mom

P.S. Did you know you can subscribe to us on iTunes?

What kid doesn’t love decorating for Halloween? And whether your family is into the ghoulish or the less frightening, stirring up a little ghostly fun is a great way to bring in all the wonderful treats.

With this thought in mind, I started going through my mental flip-file of ideas for holiday smiles. I came up with a decorating idea, but a treat? Hmm … Nothing. There was something tugging at the back of my mind, but it was wrong somehow. This morning when I woke up, still thinking about a treat for October 31, it hit me. Snowmen!

Snowmen? For Halloween? That wasn’t right. But it was. Several years ago, Martha Stewart made awesome meringue snowmen for Christmas. Why not change the tiny darlings into little ghosts?

Find the original recipe and directions that inspired this one, check out MarthaStewart.com. Keep that in mind for December. But for October, get ready to adapt.

Things you WON’T need in Martha’s recipe: almond paste or red food coloring (because ghosts don’t wear scarves, silly!) Basically, all you’ll need is 3 egg whites, 3/4 cup sugar (super fine works best) and 1/4 tsp cream of tartar. Plus, for the ghosts eyes you’ll need a tube of black frosting (you can make your own, but the pre-made and in a tube kind from the grocery store are super handy).

- Have the kids separate three egg whites into a bowl, beat them with a whisk attachment until their foamy and then add ¼ tsp cream of tartar.

- Continue beating the eggs–have the kids take turns—and beat them until soft peaks form and then slowly add the sugar. Continue the beating until stiff peaks form.

- Scoop the meringue into a pastry bag…we don’t even bother putting tip on…and have the kids form their very own ghosts onto parchment lined baking sheet (although we’ve been known to substitute aluminum foil when we’re out of parchment, as you can see in the photo )

- Bake your creations at about 200 degrees for about 1 ½ hours, until they’re fairly crips, but still light colored. Take them out of the oven to cool down for about an hour.

- Finally, get out that frosting and let the kids pipe on some eyes and scary mouths.

Once these fun and tasty Halloween cuties are done, you might want to jazz thing up with some more permanent ‘table ghosts’…making them is just as fun. For each table ghost you’ll need:
- Soda bottles (any sizes)
- White squares of cotton fabric: measure the height of the bottle, multiply by 2 and add 2-3 inches. Cut fabric to this size square
- Fabric stiffener
- bowl
Pour fabric stiffener into bowl. Help the kids saturate each piece in stiffener and drape it over a soda bottle. If excess fabric remains at the bottom, straighten it to form a support. Place the bottle/ghost on waxed paper until dry. Kids can remove the dry fabric from the bottle.

Pastry Bag Set (12-pc.)

advertisement

If you want your ghosts to have arms, poke a hole in both sides of the bottle before you begin. Let the kids gather small branches and push them into the hole. Adjust to make the ghosts arms slightly raised. The kids can secure the branches with masking tape. Drape the fabric as before, manipulating it into the branch to make ‘fingers’ and give the arms some shape while the bottom of the arms dangle. When dry, carefully remove without smashing the arms.

Have a fun and safe Halloween. Enjoy each little princess, pirate, ghost and ghoul that comes to your home, your door and your party. Most of all enjoy your own!

Happy Halloween Cooking,

Alex, Soph and Mom

P.S. Make sure to ‘like’ us on Facebook right now!

If you’re a fan of our show and have seen some of last year’s episodes, you’ll see that we are pretty big fans of Halloween. For me, Halloween is better than Christmas and for Alex and Soph, it’s a close second. It’s not just because of our love of dressing up like various fictitious characters and publicly flaunting how great we look; Nor is it for the pillowcases filled with sugary sweet candy, given to the kids willingly as we wander from house-to-house, sharing our beautifully detailed costumery with our neighbors. Although we can’t deny that those reasons are PART of our love for the holiday, the main reason is because it’s an awesome holiday for whipping up some scarily, creative food and having a party!

I realize it is only the first week of October, but for us, that means more weekends to celebrate with food. We love thinking up scary-themed menus and serving them up by candle light with all of our Halloween decorations glowing. Although we love inventing our own recipes, there are also tons of magazines and websites with endless ideas for us to try as well…we could honestly do an entire year’s worth of shows just on Halloween. But, we can’t, so we’ll just share some of the coolest stuff we’ve seen from around the web so far this year:

- Spooktacular Halloween Recipes – Trick Or Treat Chili – From the Mom Blog Network
- Fall / Halloween Recipes – From Paris Pastry
- Friday Finds: Halloween Recipes – From a Well-Crafted Party
- Fun Halloween Dessert Recipes – From MomFuse
- Eerie Halloween Eats – From Oregon Family
- Healthy Halloween Recipes – From Pickles ‘n Pumpkins
- Pumpkin Butter – From Gina’s Skinny Recipes

We know we get a little carried away with our bi-weekly Halloween parties here at the 2 Kids House; but we hope that your family takes a couple of these Halloweeny recipe ideas and throws at least one Family Halloween Party of your own.

Spook-tastic Family Cooking Everyone!
Alex, Soph and Mom

P.S. This year, we taped three quick new Halloween episodes that will be out in the comping weeks. In the meantime, check out our Halloween episodes and stuff from last year….Boo!