500+ Spooky Fun Witch and Ghost Halloween Cupcake Baking Cups

500+ Spooky Fun Witch and Ghost Halloween Cupcake Baking Cups

• 500+ Spooky Fun Witch and Ghost Halloween Cupcake Baking Cups
• Great For School Bake Sales, Large Parties, Retail Bakeries
• Brightly Colored With Just the Right Amount of Ghoulishness
• Can Hold Candy Corn At your Little Ghosts Get Together
• Use to embellish Scrapbook Pages

500+ Spooky Fun Witch and Ghost Halloween Cupcake Baking Cups

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Exactly How To Organize A Excellent Halloween night Celebration

Exactly How To Organize A Excellent Halloween night Celebration

Halloween is a Fall holiday that is celebrated by nearly every religion and culture on the planet. The celebration dates back to the early sixteenth century and has remained extremely popular ever since. Children love dressing up to go trick-or-treating door to door collecting candy. Teens and adults love to dress up in Halloween costumes too, but you’re more likely to find them at parties rather than trick-or-treating on Halloween night.

Obviously you need somewhere to go once you’ve found the perfect costume. Enter the increasingly popular Halloween party. You need to buy a few accessories and holiday items in order to host your own party on All Hallows Eve. You’ll need at least a few weeks to plan the party. This way your guest will have time to make their costume plans. And you’ll be completely prepared when the big night arrives. Start out by making a list of all the things you’ll need to get done. This will make things much easier on you..

Food is a very important at these types of parties. You’ll definitely want to have munchies like candy corn, popcorn balls, caramel apples and gummy worms on hand. These are foods that make people think of autumn and/or Halloween. You could also decorate cupcakes with a holiday motif. Give them scary faces with big scared eyes, or mean eyes with sharp eyebrows. What about cutout cookies shaped like pumpkins or ghosts?

Enforcing a costume rule will make your party even more fun. You could even throw together a costume contest among all of the event’s guests. Ask everyone who wants to participate to contribute five bucks and award it to the person who wins the vote. Or get prizes ahead of time and give them out for the scariest, funniest and most original costumes.

Get into the scary spirit of Halloween by setting apart a few rooms of your house and making a haunted house. Hang fake spider webs in the corners and put on a CD of scary music and noises in the background. Lighting is a major part of the special effects. Try black lights or a strobe – but not in the same area. Everyone will enjoy going through the haunted rooms again and again, especially children and teenagers. They may even get involved and try to scare one another.

You’ll need a few games to keep your guests entertained. There are a number of activities that are traditional at Halloween parties. The tried and true favorite fall game is bobbing for apples. This is great for all ages, and is one of the few games that puts adults and kids on a level playing field. Get a large clean tub, and fill it with cold water. Then add plenty of ripe apples. They’ll float to the top and look easy to get. Add a handful of ice to the tub throughout the night to keep the water chill.

Another popular and slightly spooky activity is a blindfolded tactile tour of scary Halloween substances. Put things like cooked spaghetti, grapes, hot dogs, and chopped peanuts into separate bowls. Have the guests dip their hands into each of the containers and tell them the contents are guts, amputated fingers, eyes and witches nails. Have younger children skip this activity and have them decorate their own cookies or cupcakes instead.

Last but not least, the decorations can sometimes make or break a Halloween party. Dim the lights and hang stuffed witches and plastic skeletons around the house. Get Halloween themed paper plates, cups and tablecloths at your local party store. Not only will this add to the ambiance, but it will make cleanup a breeze. Get a fog machine or pick up some dry ice at the grocery store. The fog will send a shiver up your guests’ spines.

Decorating Cupcakes #18: Buggy Halloween Cupcakes

How to make not-so-scary insect cupcakes. These bugs are made with chocolate and an assortment of candies. I found this idea in a book called “What’s new cupcake” by Richardson and Tack. Music by Jason Shaw www.youtube.com Jason Shaw@audionautix.com

Bake a Cake This Halloween!

Bake a Cake This Halloween!

If you are having a Halloween party this year, you might want some other dessert besides fun sized candy bars. A Halloween cake makes a great dessert, and can also be a fun centerpiece on your dinner table while the meal is being served. Here are two creative Halloween cakes that you can try on your own. Don’t feel pressured to limit yourselves to these – you can always create your own Halloween dessert masterpieces.

The Happy Pumpkin

You can easily turn your everyday cake mix into a pumpkin creation with the help of bunt pans and decorative icing.

Take 3 boxes of your favorite white or yellow cake mix, and mix according to package decorations. Pour the batter into two bunt pans, and bake according to package decorations. Allow the cakes to cool completely and remove from the pan.

While you are waiting for the cakes to cool, empty three cans of vanilla frosting into a mixing bowl. If you are pretty practiced with cake decorating, 2 may be enough, but three cans will allow extra to work out unevenness and fingerprints. Add red and yellow food coloring to the frosting, stirring until the frosting becomes the desired orange color for your pumpkin. Frost the flat side of the bunt cakes, and then stack on top of each other to create your pumpkin shape. Then continue to frost the sides of the cake until you have an orange pumpkin.

If you would like to turn your pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern, simply use some black icing to draw your eyes, nose, and a mouth. You can also consider decorating a small cupcake with brown or green icing to create a stem. If you are very practiced in cake decorating, consider some pumpkin vines down the sides and back. Your company is sure to be impressed.

The Creepy Spiderweb

If you want something a little spookier for your Halloween party, consider a creepy spider web cake. A little frosting and a chocolate muffin can help you make this creepy cake.

Take one box of your favorite chocolate cake mix and mix it according to the package decorations. Bake in two round pans and allow to cool completely.

While the cakes are cooling, scoop 2 cans of vanilla frosting into a large mixing bowl. Combine yellow and blue food coloring (or yellow and green) until you come up with a spooky green color. Spread a layer between the two cakes, and the cover the rest of the cake with frosting.

Draw a spiderweb on the top of the cake using black icing. You can start by drawing lines straight across as though the cake was a clock – from12 to 6, 1 to 7, 2 to 8, etc. Then starting at the center of the cake, draw larger circles working their way outwards until the web is complete.

Take a chocolate muffin or cupcake and cut of the “stem” so you are left with the top. Frost the entire thing with chocolate frosting and then roll in chocolate sprinkles. Set onto the “web” and attach small pieces of black string licorice to be the legs.

If you would like to get even more creative, you can extend your web down the sides of the cake, and draw on bugs using different colored icing.

With a few cake decorating skills and some creativity, you too can create spooky Halloween desserts.

Halloween Activities

Halloween Activities

With more and more Halloween celebrations taking place in the classroom, at home parties, or at community events, here are some cross-curricular Halloween activities for you to enjoy.

1. Read a Halloween poem or song and find rhyming words, similes, metaphors, nouns, verbs, onomatopoeia, and so on.

2. Find Halloween-related words in the dictionary by using guide words. Divide them into syllables, write the accent mark, tell the part of speech, give the definition, add suffixes…whatever skills you want to review.

3. Research the origin of Halloween and its symbols. Write a report and include a bibliography.

4. Brainstorm a list of Halloween words and create your own crossword, kriss-kross, or word search puzzles.

5. Write a Halloween story or a short play. Perform the play and tape it!

6. Tape the class singing Halloween songs and play them on October 31.

7. See how many 3-letter words you can make out of ‘Halloween.’

8. Cut out Halloween pictures from different print media to make cards or a collage.

9. Give everyone some colored M&M’s and have children graph them. Alternately, have children classify the candy they bring to school and graph the different kinds. Possible categories are chocolatey, nutty, soft, and hard.

10. Look through newspaper ads and see what you would buy if you had . If your children are old enough, have them calculate the tax for your area.

11. Review following directions, measurement, health, and safety by making Halloween cupcakes, a cake, or cookies. Use Halloween-related cutters, food coloring for frosting, and small candies as decorations. Of course, adults should supervise children.

12. Use a pumpkin for the following activities:

a. Cut out the stem, take out the seeds, and carve out the pulp (refrigerate it). Have children draw a face for a jack-o-lantern and cut it out.

b. Roast the pumpkin seeds and have store-bought seeds on hand. Let children eat both and compare the taste, texture, and color.

c. Heat the pulp until it is soft and use it to make your own pumpkin pie! (NOTE: One recipe usually makes three regular pies.) Make sure to save pieces for the principal and others in your school. Tell children to remember the taste so they can compare it to a store-bought pumpkin pie.

d. Make sure to take pictures of each step. Have children write a caption for each one and make a book.

13. Foster multi-cultural awareness by having candies from different countries.

I hope these ideas are useful and inspire your own creative thinking. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

And remember…Reading is FUNdamental!

Planning a Children’s Halloween Party

Planning a Children’s Halloween Party

Halloween is often a favorite holiday for kids. The costumes, the candy, and all of the festivities make it a favorite time of year for many. Part of that fun often includes a Halloween party. If it is your turn to play host this year, here is a look at some of the things to consider while you are planning. The better prepared you are, the more likely everything will go smoothly.

Who is coming?

Before you can really start the party planning, you need to know how big the party is going to be. Some parents will invite only their child’s favorite friends, while others will make it an event for the entire class. How many you would like to invite is totally up to you, but it is helpful to have a number in mind before you start buying Halloween candy and favors.

Costume contest

A great way to pass some time during the party, as well as encourage everyone to come in costume, is to have a costume contest. If you are hosting a party for younger children, you will want to make sure that you have enough categories so that everyone wins a prize. Scariest costume, funniest costume, most creative costume, best animal costume, etc. can all be categories. If you have the time, you can have party goers nominate and vote for the different categories. Find some fun Halloween favors to hand out as prizes, or you can create your own medals or award ribbons.

Face painting

If you have a little artistic talent, face painting is another fun activity for a Halloween party. Brush up on drawing ghosts, pumpkins, black cats, and witches, and you will be good to go. This can be a great way for kids to participate if they didn’t come in costume, or just a way to have fun. You might forewarn parents ahead of time that you are going to be doing face painting so that your little witches don’t come in already coated in green face paint and warts.

Treat bag/bucket decorating

For a craft idea, you can have kids decorate their own bags or buckets to use that evening for trick-or-treating. You can purchase inexpensive bags or buckets for the kids to decorate with paints or by gluing Halloween decorations to them. Check your local craft store for inexpensive Halloween themed items to use.

Food, drink, and atmosphere

Food and drink are a part of any party, and Halloween is no exception. Of course, you will want to make things spooky. Consider decorating cookies or cupcakes with Halloween themes, serving punch with floating spiders, or trying out any other creepy Halloween recipes you have on file.

To set the mood, try dimming the lights. Orange and black streamers and balloons can give the room a festive air. Or you can hang fake spider webbing and put up tombstones if you want a creepier feel. Find some Halloween music to play in the background as well.

With a little creativity and planning, you can create a Halloween party that your kids will always remember.

Great Treats to Give Out on Halloween

Great Treats to Give Out on Halloween

If you are planning a Halloween party of any type, there is a good chance that food will be involved. However, with Halloween being a night of creeps and spooks, you might want to get a little more creative than the typical chips and dip. Here are some ideas for how to incorporate the themes of the season and the holiday into your kitchen.

Seasonal foods

Halloween comes at the end of fall, a time when there are plenty of fresh harvest items to enjoy. You can incorporate these into your Halloween dining for fresh, (and often inexpensive) delights.

One of the favorite Halloween traditions is the carving of the Jack-o-lantern. And as anyone who has ever carved a pumpkin knows, the glowing creation on your front steps on Halloween night leaves behind a pile of slimy pumpkin guts. However, you can use this pumpkin flesh to create delicious treats. Pumpkin cooks up well into pies, cookies, muffins, and soups that you can serve for your Halloween meal. And seasoned and roasted pumpkin seeds are a popular snack. You can always experiment with flavors to create your own delicious versions.

Another bountiful harvest item around Halloween is the apple. Apples work great fresh, candied, and baked into cakes, muffins, and pies. And of course there is always applesauce! If you are in need of some game ideas for your Halloween party, bobbing for apples has always been a long time favorite.

Other Treats

Of course, your ghouls and goblins are probably not thinking about healthy fruit when they are donning Halloween costumes. For many, Halloween is as much about the candy as it is about getting to dress up. So you will want to have plenty of sweet treats on hand as well.

Cookies are always a favorite with kids of all ages. You can use your favorite cookie dough flavor, and then shape it into fun Halloween shapes using cookie cutters. Bats, ghosts, and jack-o-lanterns/pumpkins all work well for shaped cookies. Or, you can choose to decorate your favorite cookies using orange, black, and white frosting and/or sprinkles. If you are pressed for time, pre-shaped holiday cookies are often available at your local grocer.

If you are looking for another treat idea, popcorn is always fun. You can take your favorite popcorn ball recipe and fashion ghosts instead of balls. Add a few pieces of candy for eyes and a mouth, and you have a fun treat. Or, put fresh-popped popcorn into disposable plastic gloves, with a piece of candy at the finger tip, to create monster hands.

Getting creative
You can always turn your kid’s favorite foods into Halloween dishes with a little creativity. Food coloring can turn ordinary foods into creepy monster dishes. Decorate cupcakes with licorice legs and candy eyes to create spiders. Or simply get a little creative with how you serve everyday items to design your own spooky feast.

With a little work and a little creativity, you can come up with your own Halloween treats for your little tricksters.

Make Delectable Halloween Treats With Sticky Fingers Premium Baking Mixes

Make Delectable Halloween Treats With Sticky Fingers Premium Baking Mixes

Take a break from the usual Halloween candy this year with wholesome, delicious muffins, scones and brownies that are easy to make with Sticky Fingers Premium Baking Mixes.

Instead of empty calories, you can make nutritious, whole grain treats for your trick or treaters with brownie mix, muffin mixes and scone mixes that are a welcome change from the usual candy bars and such that usually wind up in your kids’ loot bags. With just some water, oil and eggs, you can whip up treats the kids will love. Plus, you’ll save money getting your gourmet baking mixes from Sticky Fingers; even with the addition of common pantry items, you’ll spend less making these homemade treats than you would buying candy. And, you’ll feel good knowing the brownies, scones and muffins you’re giving are better for the kids than candy; you’ll also be introducing them to new flavours and experiences by tossing these unique and unexpected treats into their loot bags.

Baking is a great way to get your own children involved in celebrating the festive Halloween season. Grab a few bags of brownie mix, muffin mix and scone mix, and have the kids help with the preparation. Baking is a fun activity when they get to stir and help pour the batter into the muffin tins and brownie pans. They’ll also have fun making interesting shapes with the scone mix, giving them the opportunity to indulge their creativity. After the brownies and scones are cooled, experiment with different cookie cutter shapes such as pumpkins, bats and ghosts; decorate your home baked treats with simple icing, coloured green and orange, and you have the perfect edible delights for the kids to take to school, or to serve at Halloween parties.

There is no limit to what you can do with Sticky Fingers’ muffin mix and scone mixes. Add whatever tickles your fancy to Original Recipe scone mix, making them into sweet or savoury treats your family will love. Turn the muffins made with muffin mix into little mini cupcakes, perfect for small children’s Halloween treats or for informal gatherings and office parties. Moring Glory premium muffin mix has a carrot cake like taste and texture that makes the perfect breakfast on a cool autumn morning, or a warming after school snack for the kids. Apple Date Oat Bran muffin mix is a harvest favourite the kids will love, with sweet apples and dates, along with the goodness of oat bran. What parent wouldn’t love a wholesome muffin for their kids on Halloween, instead of candy bars loaded with artificial ingredients and preservatives? Sticky Fingers Bakeries thinks the answer to that question is obvious: wholesome treats win every time!

For more information on Sticky Fingers Bakeries products, visit their web site at Stickyfingersbakeries. If you order 12 or more bags of their mixes, you’ll receive free shipping. You can also search for retail locations in your area that carry Sticky Fingers Bakeries products, so you can shop for them in your area.

Candy Corn – It’s Not Just For Halloween Anymore

Candy Corn – It’s Not Just For Halloween Anymore

Like all things, over the years candy corn has changed. It has morphed from an orange, yellow and white Halloween candy into a gourmet candy product suitable for candy buffets, gift baskets, cupcake decorating and, of course enjoying.

Candy Corn – The Early Years

Candy corn was first created in the 1880s by George Renninger of the Wunderlee Candy Company. The main ingredient was orange and yellow colored honey. The idea came from the bright colors of traditional North American corn. Each piece was about the size of a whole kernel from a ripe or dried ear of corn. Since Halloween coincides with harvest time, they quickly became a popular treat to share on that particular holiday. The tricolor design of the candy was considered revolutionary for its time and people flocked to buy it.

At first, candy corn was only produced for 6 months out of the year (from March to November). It was packed into wooden buckets, tubs, or cartons and loaded onto wagons or trains to be sold in nearby towns. Commercial production didn’t really begin until 1898 by Gustav Goelitz. He made it with a broad yellow bottom, a tapered orange center, and a pointed white top. Its unique shape gained popularity quickly in both the cities and in the rural populations of the early 1900s.

As time went by, other color variations were made also. A popular variation called “Indian corn” featured a chocolate brown bottom, orange center and pointed white top. More color variations were made to represent other major holidays, including Christmas (in red, white and green) and Easter (in various pastel colors).

People still love candy corn. It grew from a novelty sweet that was mostly produced for Halloween into a major candy item that is produced year-round. In fact, approximately 35 million pounds of it is produced every year!

It was only natural that smart manufacturers wanted to create new and improved version, so they began to experiment with the original recipe, creating new flavors and colors.

Candy Corn Now – The new explosion of Color and Taste

One if the biggest innovations in this candy’s history has come in the form of gourmet candy corn. With exciting new colors and gourmet flavors, these little guys really take it to the next level

Here are some of the cool new flavors and colors available:

Apple Cider (tan and red)
Blackberry Cobbler (purple with brownish bottom)
Candy Cane Corn (red and white)
Caramel (marigold and brown)
Caramel Apple (red and light brown)
Cherry (yellow tip, red and pink)
Cinnamon (white with light red tip)
Creme Brulee (soft yellow with light brown bottom)
Dulce de leche (brown with marigold bottom)
Pumpkin Spice (bright yellow with dark brown bottom)
Raspberry (red with purple bottom)
Raspberry Lemonade – USA colors! (red tip, white middle and blue bottom) – these taste just like Bomb Pop Ices!
Tangerine (purple tip, yellow middle, orange bottom)

So next time you’re looking for a unique candy treat that will make people do a double take, go pick up up some gourmet candy corn.

Get Organized for an Incredible Halloween Party

Get Organized for an Incredible Halloween Party

We all have one in our lives. She might be your neighbor, your sister, your best friend, the Mom in the carpool line, or your colleague at work. She’s the crafty one that spends hours making homemade chocolate bats for the kindergarten treat bags or the one that manages to find time (and has the talent) to craft handmade centerpieces. We admire her, as she pours us a cup of homemade cider made from the apple trees in her backyard, but we also feel guilty. The cupcakes we brought to the party? They’re from the grocery store. The jack-o-lantern on the front porch? It came pre-painted. Before the guilt bubbles up, remember that the holidays aren’t about the perfect cards or freshly baked treats. They are about having fun – and not just for the guests – you too!

Sarah on “embracing imperfection”

“I work full time and race around trying to get it all done, so when the holidays come, I feel overwhelmed by all of the things I should be doing. You know those movies where the kids are in the backseat asking “are we having fun yet?” That’s me at the holidays. So, last year I made a decision to throw together an impromptu Halloween party. It was pot luck and all of the neighbors came. It was fantastic. Because it was last minute, nobody expected anything over-the-top and everyone was happy to get together for an hour or so before the trick-or-treating. It was the first time I had a great time at my own party and I learned that it’s not about what you’re serving or how you decorated, but who is there.”

Alicia on “a guilt-free holiday”

“I love Halloween. There are no turkeys to cook, no trees to trim – no expectations (other than a stomachache from all of the candy). As someone who loves to entertain but hates to cook, Halloween is tailor made for me. So I make it my holiday when I invite everyone over. Halloween is all about dessert – which I love anyway – so it’s a perfect way for me to entertain without feeling like I should have made the gravy, baked the bread, or whipped the mashed potatoes.”

Here are three low-cost and low-skill ways to throw a fun Halloween party:

1. Use the 80/20 Rule.

We love this rule and use it often. If you’re not familiar with it, it boils down to picking the most important things and forgetting the rest. Whether you apply it to decorations, treats, or party favors, employ it when planning your party. What are the two or three things that you can do to make your Halloween gathering fun? Focus on those tasks.

2. Let Others Help.

Never say “nothing” when somebody asks you what they can bring. Most people want to feel like they are contributing, so pick something ahead of time for each person to bring. Decide what you will make and then divvy up the rest among your guests. It’s a fun way to get them involved and share recipes while also ensuring that you’re not slaving in the kitchen the whole time.

3. The Bill, and The Party, Don’t Have to Be Scary.

It’s easy to run up a huge bill decorating the house or buying up every ingredient for ten different side dishes – don’t. Plan ahead and use what you already have. Make it more old-fashioned and opt for spooky, instead of scary. Throw some spaghetti in a pot to look like worms or put grapes in a bowl to look like eyeballs. The kids will love it (and they won’t be running away) and the adults will appreciate the old-time cheer.

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