Want to impress your friends this Halloween? Here are some fun ideas to get you on your way to hosting the best Halloween Party ever!
Welcome your guests with some spooky cocktails and Pumpkin treats!
Witchcraft Cocktails
Ingredients
25ml/1fl oz black vodka
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp vaniella extract
25ml/1fl oz blackberry liqueur
25ml/1fl oz fresh apple juice
Preparation method
- Place the vodka, lemon juice, vanilla syrup, blackberry liqueur and apple juice into a cocktail shaker filled with ice and shake well. Pour into a cocktail glass.
- Enjoy your spooky cocktail!
Pumpkin Traybake
Don’t be put off if the recipe looks a bit complicated! Her Campus made these last year and they were so easy to do!
Ingredients
For the cake:
250g plain flour
250g caster sugar
2 large eggs
170g butter
300g pumpkin purée (to make your own, simply bake fresh pumpkin until soft and then blended it)
1 teaspoon of baking powder1 teaspoon of baking soda
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of ground cloves
1teaspoon of ground ginger
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
5 tablespoons of milk
For the icing
125g icing sugar
1-2 tablespoons of warm water
Orange food colouring
Black and white icing pens
Preheat an oven to 180 degrees (160 for fan ovens). Butter a medium sized baking tin and line it with grease proof paper, leave some over the edges to lift the cake out after its cooked.
Begin by creaming together the butter and the sugar in a large bowl. Once the butter and sugar are well mixed, add the eggs one at a time and beat thoroughly after each one is added.
Begin to sift the flour into the bowl, two tablespoons at a time. Put a tablespoon of pumpkin in with every two of flour. Also add the baking powder and baking soda at this point.
After about half the flour has been added, put in the cinnamon, ginger, cloves, vanilla essence and milk and stir in well. Continue adding the flour.
Once all the ingredients are combined, give the mixture a few folds to add some extra air and then spread it in your baking tray, smoothing the top over with the back of your spoon.
Put it on the middle shelf of your oven and bake for about 30-40 minutes. A skewer inserted should come out clean when it’s ready. Don’t over cook it though, as this cake tastes better the moister it is.
Once the cake is done, leave it to cool completely until icing.
Make your icing by sieving the icing sugar into a bowl and adding a generous amount of orange food colouring and about one and a half tablespoons of water, then stir well.
Now you have a decision to make.
If you want to make pumpkin shaped cakes, use a sharp knife to cut pumpkin shapes out of the cake. Then slice the bottom of the cake shapes off at an angle parallel to the top surface of the cake (during a bake the surface rises and becomes uneven, which will make the icing run over the edge if not straightened out). Spread the icing over the pumpkin, and leave to fully dry.
If you want to make the square shaped cakes, use a bread knife to slice the entire top of the cake off, so you have a rectangular slab of cake with a flat surface. Turn the slab upside down and ice the bottom of the cake (the side that you’ve cut will have lots of air holes that the icing won’t agree with). Leave to fully dry.
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You can pick up LOADS of fun (and cheap) decorations in the shops, but to make your party extra creepy you can design your own!
Carve your pumpkin!
After you’ve made the traybake, get creative with your pumpkin! There are loads of different designs you can try, don’t just stick to the classic scary face!
You can find some ideas and templates at marthastewart.com
Decorate old milk cartons, jars etc and pop a candle inside for a cheap way to decorate either the doorstep or inside the house.
There are loads of fun Halloween games you can play! Here are some of our favourites:
Trick or Treat
Make six labels to cover six non-see through cups. In three of the cups put a ‘trick’ shot, in the remaining three put ‘treat’ shots. Lay them out in a line, each player must roll a dice and must drink which ever number shot they land on. Periodically, mix up the cups when ‘trick’ and ‘treat’ shots are re-filled. Half the fun is not knowing what you are going to get to drink!
Wrap a Mummy
For the more adventurous and devoted Halloween revellers, divide into pairs or teams and using a roll of toilet paper wrap one of the members of the pair or team as speedily as possible. The fastest to wrap their mummy wins; and we will let you think about a horrible forfeit for them to do!
Apple Bobbing
This is particularly funny if mixed with mixed with a bit of alcohol!
Picture Credits: homeandfood.co.uk, spoonful.com