Halloween party ideas

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http://i.ivillage.co.uk/uk_en/a_ukpix/100x100/pumpkins_cakes_100.jpg










Makes 12 mini pumpkin cakes

http://www.ivillage.co.uk/i/t.gifhttp://www.ivillage.co.uk/i/t.gifhttp://www.ivillage.co.uk/i/t.gifhttp://www.ivillage.co.uk/i/t.gif75g / 2 1/2 oz unsalted butter
100g / 3 1/2 oz plain chocolate
60g / 2 oz raisins, cut in half
1 tsp orange zest (optional)
1 300g / 10 1/2 oz ready-made ginger cake
2 500g / 1lb 1 1/2 oz packs Supercook Ready-to-Roll Icing, which contains black, green, red and yellow icing. You can mix together the red and yellow icing to make orange.
1 tube black Writing Icing

Melt the butter and chocolate either over a pan of simmering water or in a microwave. Stir in the halved raisins and orange zest if using and then crumble in the cake. Mix well and leave to cool slightly.

Roll into 12 individual balls and flatten them slightly into the shape of a pumpkin. Place in the fridge for at least one hour until firm. Mix together the red and yellow icing to make orange and divide into 12 balls. Using a rolling pin, roll into circles on a clean work surface sprinkled with cornflour. Mould the orange icing around each of the gingerbread balls to cover completely and draw lines on the icing with a blunt knife to look like pumpkins. Make stalks from the green icing, and dampen with a little water to stick these onto the mini pumpkin cakes. Roll out the black icing and cut out triangles for the eyes and noses. Draw zigzag mouths using the black writing icing or use some of the black icing to make a mouth.

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175g / 6 oz butter
175g / 6 oz caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
3 eggs
175g / 6 oz self-raising flour
900g / 2 lb ready-to-roll white icing
pink food colouring
tube of black writing icing



Beat together the caster sugar, butter and vanilla essence until light and fluffy. Add one egg at a time with a tablespoon of flour for each egg. Beat well, then fold in the remaining flour.

Spoon into 12 greased and floured dariole moulds, place on a baking tray and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180C / 350F / Gas mark 4 for 20 minutes (160C for fan oven). Remove from the oven and leave to cool. Cut the top of the cakes off to form a flat surface and then turn out on to a board or plate. Leave until completely cold. Colour 75g / 2 1/2 oz of the icing pink using the food colouring. Roll out the remaining white icing on a surface dusted with cornflour and cut out 12 15cm / 6 inch circles (you can use a saucer as a guide). Drape these over the sponge cakes to form ghost figures. Cut out oval shapes from the pink icing (you can use a squashed piping nozzle for this) and dampen the pink icing shapes with a little water to attach them to the ghost. Use a blob of black Writing Icing for the pupils and draw a zigzag for the ghost's mouth

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Fairy Cakes
100g (4 oz) soft margarine
100g (4 oz) caster sugar
2 eggs
100g (4 oz) self-raising flour
(substitute 2tbsp cocoa powder for 2 tbsp of the flour for chocolate fairy cakes)
1 tsp pure vanilla essence

Spider Cakes
100g / 4 oz milk chocolate
Liquorice laces
12 chocolate marshmallow teacakes
Liquorice Allsorts
Mini M&M's or mini coloured candy cake decorations
Coloured writing icing tubes (available in supermarkets)

Bat Cakes
100g (4 oz) softened butter
175g (6 oz) icing sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp milk
1 tube black writing icing
Black Liquorice Allsorts
Edible silver balls

To make the fairy cakes
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 (Fan oven 160C).

Cream the margarine and sugar together until light and fluffy and then beat in the eggs one at a time together with 1 tablespoon of the flour. Add the vanilla and fold in the remaining flour.

Line a bun tin with 12 paper cases, and fill each case about two-thirds full with the mixture.

Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes. Remove and put on a wire rack to cool before decorating.

To make the spider cakes
Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water.

Using a palette knife, cover each cake with some of the melted chocolate. Arrange eight liquorice strips for the spider's legs and stick a teacake in the centre.

Finish with sliced Liquorice Allsorts and mini-coloured candy as eyes. You can stick the candy on to the Liquorice Allsorts using a small blob of writing icing.

To make the bat cakes
To make the chocolate frosting, beat the butter until creamy. Sieve together the icing sugar and cocoa and gradually beat into the butter, together with the milk, using a wooden spoon.

When the cakes have cooled, cut off the tops of the cakes and cut into three sections. Use the two curved ends to make the wings (reserve the middle section). Draw a V with black writing icing on the wings.

Spread a thick layer of chocolate frosting over the surface of the cake, position the wings so that they stand up: you will need to cut small squares of cake from the middle section to position under the wings to prop them up.

Stick edible silver balls on top of black liquorice sweets for the bat's eyes. Note: You could make six of each cake by simply substituting 1 tbsp cocoa powder for 1 tbsp flour for half of the mixture.

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A Real Scary Theme for Halloween

Halloween is not much fun without a theme driven party. While traditional Halloween themes such as Jack-o-Lanterns, paper skeletons, carved pumpkins etc can be good fun, remember that your guests are expecting more than that. Unleash your imagination and innovativeness, and try to find out what theme should impress and entertain your guests the most.

For a real scary Halloween theme, don’t forget the cobwebs, coffins, plastic bats, skeletons and fake bugs. And of course, what’s a scary party without the costumes? Ask your guests to come in their favorite monster costumes or any other ghoulish garments and welcome them with your own – maybe a Dracula suit with fangs dripping blood.

As for the interior, use a combination of the colors red, blue and green as the main theme. Dark colored microwatts can be very helpful for illuminating the room with a spooky, dark effect. Use dry ice for smoke and scatter a lot of cob webs, plastic bats and spiders on the walls and ceilings.

A scary Halloween theme cannot be complete without a touch of some spooky music and sound effects like blood curdling howls, screeching doors, monster’s laughs etc. Place speakers under the tables, on the porch or the lawn.

Try dressing up the food to look like ghoulish things such as eyeballs, body parts, and serve punch that looks like blood etc. Real-looking shrunken heads, made from dried apples, placed on the buffet table can also really surprise your guests. Organize games like spooky story telling, thereby ensuring that your guests will all have a great time

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Halloween games need to be short little fillers since your guests will be busy watching the game, eating and drinking. So here are some quick but fun Halloween game ideas:

Pass the Mini Pumpkin
Don't use your hands! Line up in teams. The first person in each team is given a mini pumpkin to place under his chin. He must pass the orange to the next in line but neither may use his hands. The first team to get the orange all the way to the last person is the winner. If the mini pumpkin drops, just pick it up and continue from there

Bobbing for Apples
A traditional harvest time game. Float apples in a large wash tub filled with water. The object of this game is to grab one of the apples and remove it from the water without using your hands. You must use only your mouth. This is a very messy, very wet, and very fun game. It is even more challenging if the stems are removed from the apples.

Ghost-Centration
To guess pairs of hidden objects. Like the "Concentration " game. Take twelve post-it notes.


Using a crayon or marker, number each post -it note from one to twelve on the front, non-sticky side. On the other side, put on two cards each the words: Ghost, Pumpkin, Witches, Goblins, Treats and scarecrows. Make sure each pair not in numerical order. You can make up any pairs of names you want. Put the post-its on a wall in two or three rows in numerical order.Each player takes a turn asking for two numbers to be turned over. If there is a match, the player wins a piece of candy. The play goes on to the next player whether or not a match is made.

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Cardboard Tombstones
Make tombstones out of cardboard. Here are some ideas of fun epitaphs to write on them:

Dare to Disturb
Yul B. Next
I'll Be Back
Rest in Pieces (body parts scattered around)
Do Not Open Until October 31st (put a shovel next to it)