Haunted Halloween Gingerbread House

Gingerbread houses are really cute, aren’t they – and actually a bit tricky to make, as it turns out!

 

For a few years now I’ve wondered about asking for a set of gingerbread house cutters for Christmas but then thought there was no point, as it’s something that people really make in the run-up to Christmas, not after. A few weeks ago my fiancé mentioned something about gingerbread and I explained why I’d never asked for one as a gift for the reason I’ve just explained, and we left it at that. Two days later a parcel from Lakeland turned up containing a gingerbread house kit! That was very sweet of him – one of the many reasons I’m marrying him J

 

He also had a great suggestion – that rather than just using the kit before Christmas, I make a haunted gingerbread house for Halloween. Of course, that way he gets more gingerbread, but I’m not complaining!

 

The Lakeland kit comes with instructions for making the gingerbread itself which was very easy to do. I was worried the mixture was a bit sticky but once I rolled it out on a floured board it was fine.

 

 

I cut the front and back of the house out first and they were so large I couldn’t get anything else on the baking tray, so I realised I was going to have to bake the gingerbread in batches.

 

Each piece only spread slightly when it came out of the oven and I used the cutters again after baking but while the gingerbread was still a little soft to cut off the excess again. I was worried that if I didn’t do this, the pieces wouldn’t fit together exactly. As it happened, they still didn’t fit together exactly! I don’t know how I ended up with such big gaps and whether it was down to the baking or the assembly. It held together and looked pretty much OK but there must be a knack to doing it perfectly!

 

Once I had left the house sections to cool, I made up some royal icing using egg whites according to the instructions on the house kit. It said to use 3 egg whites and 500g icing sugar which seemed a lot, so I used two egg whites, and was going to use two thirds of the icing sugar but ended up having to put in nearly another 100g of icing sugar to get it stiff enough. And it meant I had far more icing than I needed, so I suggest – since royal icing goes hard quite quickly – that you use 1 egg and reduce the other ingredients by a third and then make more if you need it.

 

 

I used a piping bag to apply the icing along the edges of the building sections. The assembly instructions were quite minimal and not that easy to follow – I have no idea how to stick the chimney onto the roof and could have worked it out I’m sure, but decided not to bother with the chimney! 

 

 
 

First you stick the walls to the cake board – I happened to have a black cake board in the cupboard which was perfect for Halloween – and then put the front and back on the house. Each time you have to leave it to set for about 20 minutes and use a cup or glass to keep the sides propped up. Finally we stuck on the roof – my sister was helping and I do think it’s easier with two people!

 

 

Once the house was set I added the doors and windows and decided to decorate the roof first. I had a packet of candy corn M&Ms and another of pumpkin spice M&Ms which I’d bought in America. Each packet didn’t quite have enough to cover the whole roof so I did one side one way and the other side another. I think the white, orange and yellow looks more like Thanksgiving colours than Halloween but never mind.

I made some ghosts out of giant marshmallows and black food colouring and made a path out the front from more M&Ms.

 

I had some Haribo Halloween sweets which I used to decorate the front of the house – you can’t see too well but they are ghosts, spiders and witches heads. I wasn’t sure that I liked the overall effect but wasn’t sure how else to decorate it – I think this would be good for kids but if you want a more professional look I wouldn’t use the gummy sweets. I have an idea for how to decorate the gingerbread house at Christmas which I think will be smarter so you will have to wait and see!

For my first ever gingerbread house I don't think this was bad at all, and it certainly tasted good!

I'm sending this to the Food Year Linkup, hosted by Charlotte's Lively Kitchen, as it's Halloween!

 

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Halloween Toffee Apple Cupcakes

It was announced at work yesterday that we were going to have a bake sale - today. A bit short notice for my liking but I really wanted to make something! I didn't have time to buy any extra ingredients so had to make do with what I had at home (and one thing I picked up in M&S at the train station) - but this is me after all. I had plenty of stuff at home!

 

I decided cupcakes would be quickest and easiest and I could decorate them with different Halloween toppers. I was originally going to make chocolate cakes but decided to use a flavour combination that you get a lot at this time of year: toffee apple.

I decided to go with a basic recipe and then add my flavourings and see how it turned out; the result was a light, bouncy cake with both flavours definitely coming through.

Toffee Apple Cupcakes - an original recipe by Caroline Makes

175g butter
175g caster sugar
3 eggs
175g apple sauce
175g Carnation caramel
175g self-raising flour

to decorate:
400g icing sugar
2 egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
assorted coloured fondant and mini cookie cutters
I also used Marks & Spencer meringue ghosts to decorate - you can easily make your own but I didn't have time

Preheat oven to 175C.

Cream the butter and sugar and add the eggs, the mix in the apple sauce and the caramel.

Finally fold in the flour.

Spoon into cake cases - I had some Halloween ones left over from last year. Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes until cooked but still springy to the touch.

Allow to cool. When the cakes are cool, decorate them however you wish.

I made up some royal icing for another recipe, by  whisking egg whites and cream of tartar with the icing sugar, and spread this on top of several of the cupcakes.

I sat the M&S meringue ghosts on top of some of the cupcakes, and for others used black fondant and a mini cookie cutter to cut out bat shapes. I also moulded a skull and some pumpkins from white fondant that I coloured orange and green. I made a monster's head with the rest of the green fondant.

I am sending these to the blog challenge Food 'n' Flix, hosted this month by Elizabeth at the Lawyer's Cookbook, as the film she has chosen is perfect for Halloween - Hocus Pocus.

I'm also sending this to the Food Year Linkup, hosted by Charlotte's Lively Kitchen, as she welcomes recipes that fit to the time of year or topical events that are happening.

 

Finally I am sharing these with Treat Petite, hosted by Stuart at Cakeyboi and Kat aka the Baking Explorer. Their theme is black and orange, or anything Halloween related.

 

 

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F1 Foods: USA Roundup and the next challenge: Mexico

 

 

Lewis Hamilton’s victory in Austin, Texas, means he has won the 2015 Formula One World Championships – his second in a row, which he is the first Briton to ever do. But more importantly (to me anyway) the fact that the Grand Prix took place in the US was an excuse to share some great American-inspired recipes.

 

I had hoped that more people would take part in the challenge but I suspect the name puts people off – it’s not about racing really!

 

Suelle at Mainly Baking has been great at taking part in this challenge and this time she made peanut butter and jelly brownies (jelly meaning jam to us Brits). It looks great with the peanuts scattered over the top and I bet the flavours are lovely.

 

 

 

I went to the US in September and brought back some goodies including mini Reese’s Pieces cups and Reese’s Pieces chocolate spread, which I used to make this chocolate peanut butter bundt. It was very rich and delicious!

  

  

 

I also made a layered butterscotch Oreo pudding, using butterscotch morsels I got in the US on a previous trip. I actually made this dessert in the summer but only blogged about it recently. It’s really easy to make and doesn’t involve baking though it needs a bit of time to set.

 

  

Similarly this fridge cake is a no-bake recipe and just needs to set and is a great one to make with the kids during half term. I used caramel apple flavour Oreos and candy apple popcorn that I got in the US, mixed it with melted chocolate and a little butter and that was it! It made for a good dessert after lunch when I had friends over as it’s so rich people only want a little bit.

 

 

 

The next F1 Grand Prix takes place in Mexico this weekend which is a good opportunity for you to send in your ‘Day of the Dead’ (or Halloween) inspired recipes if you like! I’ve got a Mexican dinner planned though was supposed to make it last weekend and we ordered a pizza instead! Hopefully I will have time to make it this weekend.

 

I’m opening the linky today and it will run until Sunday 8^th November so you’ve got plenty of time to send in your recipes.

');

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Mother of the Bride and Groom Decorated Notebooks

These notebooks are a lovely gift for a mother of the bride or mother of the groom – they can use them for wedding planning notes and ideas.

 

 

I’d been thinking about decorating notebooks as gifts for a while but hadn’t gotten around to it, then when I got engaged – and was seeing my mum the following weekend, I thought it would be a really nice thing to do.

 

I had a small square notebook that was perfect – it had blank pages and a stiff, plain cover. I got it from Tiger for I think only £2 or £3 (I love that shop!).

 

I wanted the notebook to say ‘mother of the bride’ as I thought my mum might enjoy getting it out of her handbag in shops or at wedding fairs and letting people see the cover. I imagine she’s relieved that at the age of 36 one of her daughters is finally getting married!

 

I found the perfect die-cut on Ebay that was made of thick cardboard so all I did was stick that on and let the words take centre stage. I decided it did need something else so found a cream die cut heart in my card stash. I added a few hearts and flowers stickers around the edge as well.

 

I found the ‘mother of the groom’ notebook a bit harder but did want to make one for her as well. I spent ages looking online for a sticker or die cut with the correct words but couldn’t find anything.

 

 

In the end the only thing I was able to get were the words spelled out in diamante (luckily that’s more her style than my mum’s) for ironing onto clothes. I decided to give it a go anyway and covered a larger but thinner notebook with thick purple paper, and ironed the letters on. It worked!

I stuck a heart print ribbon strip along the top and bottom of the notebook and added some silver outline stickers from a wedding sheet, of champagne glasses, hearts and a lucky horseshoe.

 

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Meal Planning Monday Week 44

It's half past 10 on Sunday night and I'm only just getting around to planning my meals for the coming week - I have about a million other things I needed to get done this weekend as well. I've had a really busy few days with my sister and another friend staying, going out with my uni friends for the first time in months and most importantly wedding dress shopping! So I really do need to step up the weight loss now I've found a dress, unfortunately I ate and drank quite a lot this weekend!

Monday: sausage, beans and mash for him, salmon and veg for me

Tuesday - out at a blog event

Wednesday: chicken kiev and chips for him, stir fry for me

Thursday: gammon for him, rest of stir fry for me

Friday: homemade chicken curry

Saturday
Lunch: French toast stuffed with cream cheese (on menu but didn't make last week)
Dinner: Chicken Chilaquiles from my Mexican recipe book  (on menu but didn't make last week)

Sunday
Lunch: bacon sandwich for him, Quorn sausage sandwich for me
Dinner: roast dinner

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Toffee Apple Oreo Popcorn Chocolate Fridge Cake with Haagen Dazs ice cream

With Bonfire Night just around the corner I wanted to find a recipe I could make to use two things I bought on holiday in America: toffee apple (or candy apple) flavour popcorn and caramel apple flavour Oreos.

 

In the UK we have only ever been able to get chocolate Oreos - with Golden Oreos recently launching over here. But in the US there are a whole host of limited edition flavours at different times of the year, and I've never been able to get hold of any of them before, until now. The caramel apple cookies have a part green, part caramel colour filling and are very sweet and quite different but do taste quite nice!

I wanted a recipe that would allow me to use both the cookies and the popcorn and the obvious thing seemed to be a 'fridge cake' - basically melted chocolate mixed with broken biscuits, and often marshmallows like a rocky road, but this time I was going to use popcorn instead.

To serve, you can cut or break it into pieces and eat it as it is, or make into a dessert as I did. I was sent some vouchers for Haagen Dazs ice cream to celebrate National Chocolate Week and I used one of the vouchers to buy some of their pralines and cream ice cream. I actually thought pralines were something to do with chocolate - and it often is. Pralines are frequently chocolates containing small pieces of nut though in the case of the Haagen Dazs ice cream it was 'smooth vanilla flavour ice cream, crunchy praline pecan pieces and sweet caramel swirls'. Either way the ice cream was absolutely delicious.

I served a few scoops of the ice cream and a few pieces of the chocolate fridge cake in a tall sundae glass which made a very good dessert. Here's the recipe for the fridge cake

Toffee Apple Oreo Popcorn Chocolate Fridge Cake
an original recipe by Caroline Makes

400g plain chocolate
50g butter
250g caramel apple Oreos
100g candy apple popcorn
to serve: Haagen Dazs ice cream

Melt the chocolate and butter in a large pan and remove from the heat. Add the popcorn and broken up cookies (into large chunks - not crushed). Stir in gently until well combined.

Line a small oven tray or serving dish with greaseproof paper and spoon in the chocolate mixture. Leave in the fridge until set.

Remove from the fridge at least half an hour before you want to serve or the chocolate will be too hard to cut or break. Remove the ice cream from the fridge about 15 mins before serving so it softens a little.









I found it easiest to break up the fridge cake using a dinner knife (that is, not a particularly sharp one) - do be careful! I then alternated pieces of the fridge cake with scoops of ice cream in this dessert. The ice cream was lovely - very creamy and luxurious. It was very popular in my house!

Thanks to Haagen Dazs for the ice cream vouchers

I'm sharing this with Formula 1 Foods, the blog challenge I host based around the location of each F1 Grand Prix as this weekend it's America and that's where I bought the popcorn and Oreos in this recipe.

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