When I first learned how to carve a pumpkin, I mean really carve one – I was working in one of my first architecture firms and we were having a design competition (of course). Not wanting anything ‘crappy’, they taught us all the basics of carving, and I’ve never looked back. Every year I think about what I’m going to carve, but don’t get down to it ’til right before Halloween.

The Baby is waaaaay into Batman. So of course he wanted one carved into a pumpkin. I’d done Batman before, so this time I thought I’d do it with a little extra oomph. Action pose!

To start off, just print out something from the computer. Line weight and positive/negative space will help you out immensely – the simpler the better. (Or you can always freehand something, which is how I did the Peter Pan pumpkin.) Tape the image to the pumpkin.

Now this is how *I* do it, I don’t necessarily recommend it, it’s just an old school way of doing it. I use and x-acto knife and punch holes (like tin-punching) all over the lines I want to carve. I even made a video, here:

I don’t know why the Baby is yelling “AGUA, AGUA!!” in the background. I guess he wanted water? You never know with him. Sometimes he just yells BACON for no reason. Anyway, after you do all that punching…

I trace the punched areas over with a pencil. I accidently got a shot of the sign on my desk in the back and it cracked me up, so I left it in the picture.

After you have your image on the pumpkin, start carving. Just go for it. I use and x-acto for everything only because I am comfortable with it. It gets tiny clean lines done easier and let’s you scrape away mistakes fairly easily. When you cut, your pumpkin will weep. It’s sad. No, seriously – with every cut, the juice will weep out, just dab at it with a towel and keep going.

Now, I clean out my pumpkin AFTER I’ve carved it. Weird I know, but I find it easier. Because here’s the trick – after you’ve taken out the guts and seeds, really scrape down the area behind the image you’ve carved. Try and get a 1/2″ to 1″ thick wall, but leave the rest of the pumpkin walls thick. Why? That way when you light it from the inside, your image will pop a lot better.

Here’s your final image, now…light it!

It’s simple. Just pick something easy. 5 minutes into this one I was questioning my sanity, but only because I knew exactly how I wanted to to look. Thin outlines are time consuming. Pick something easier, with a lot of negative space. A LOT. Once you do one, they’ll just keep getting easier, I promise!

Every year I say I’m probably not going to do a pumpkin.
Yeah. Right.
Then I can’t help myself.

I’ve made Peter Pan:

Julius the monkey from Paul Frank:

PLEX from Yo Gabba Gabba:

Batman:

And even…MYSELF.

If you want to see the process of how I did these, go to: Pumpkin Carving how-to.

I wanted to make something cute and seasonal. A giant stash of candy corn proved to be just the inspiration.

ingredients:
White cupcake batter
yellow gel dye
orange gel dye
buttercream frosting

So I’m not going to give you a white cake recipe because you should have one, but if god forbid you decide to go with a box mix, well – just don’t tell me about it. Don’t get me started.

Once you have your NON- box mix batter (heh) separate it into two bowls. I like to use gel dye because it doesn’t take that much and give you a strong color. Dye one half of the batter yellow, the other orange.

Prep your cupcake pan by filling the liners 1/3 of the way with yellow. Then go back and top that off with 1/3 orange. Bake as your recipe directs.

Once cooled you will have a lovely two tone cupcake, resembling the bottom of candy corn! Now for the white top – make up some white buttercream, and get your mini sous chefs to decorate with candy corn!

These are a very easy way to make cute Halloween treats and the kids love to help!

This how-to is pretty simple, but it combines all the elements kids love on Halloween. Cupcakes. Cookies. Candy. I’m fairly sure it will go over just as well with adults.

ingredients:
cupcakes
frosting
sprinkles
bat cookies
dum dum lollipops

I bake the bat cookies the day before and keep them in a sealed container. It makes for quicker assembly, and who has time to be fooling around last minute?

For these cupcakes I made, seeing as it was Halloween and all, and I thought it’d go good with the chocolate bats. Chocolate bats on chocolate cupcakes would have been good too. Mmm. Chocolate overload.

pumpkin cupcakes

After the cupcakes cool, frost them. I used white chocolate and chocolate frosting to give some variation, it looked really nice when served. I edged the cupcakes in different colored sprinkles, it added a lot of color and texture too them, without going overboard on the decoration. Not a fan of going nuts with the decor, nope.

I then placed the Dum Dum lollipop towards the ‘back’ of the cupcake, to act as a little stand for the bat. Now place the bat near the front and lean it on the lollipop. You won’t really need to add anything to make it stick, it should stay put just fine.

I recommend assembly right before serving, if you do it ahead of time, your bats may get soft, the moisture in the frosting will creep into your little bats.

This is a fun party food, Trick or Treat!

Caramel apples are very fall-ish, and I know I’d seen caramel apple cupcakes done before – because the completely useless stick is just so cute. So here’s my version – let me tell you it has been tested well, as I gave them out to 3 separate groups of people who all gave them rave reviews, so give ‘em a try.

Apple cupcakes
ingredients:
(frosting to follow)

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 large eggs
1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup applesauce
1 cup shredded or finely chopped, Granny Smith apples

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Prep a cupcake pan with liners.

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.

In a mixer, stir the eggs, butter, and applesauce. Mix until combined. Carefully add the dry ingredients.

Now is when I chop the apples. This may seem like last minute, but I hate how quickly apple brown up after cutting. So I do it right before I throw them in. The way I do it – peel and slice the apple. Then using a grater, grate the apple into fine shreds, like cheese. You can also chop it finely which works just as well. Now stir the shredded apples into the batter mixture.

I like to fill the cupcake liners 2/3 full to almost full, so that they have a nice rounded top like an apple. This batter will make 12 cupcakes.

Bake for 15-20 mins, 17 works best for me. Test with a toothpick for done-ness.

See how they rise a little and puff and overflow? That is perfect to me, because then when you frost it – it gives it a little roundness, and makes it more…apple-y? If that makes sense. Cool on a wire rack. While they are cooling…make the frosting.

Caramel Frosting
ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup whole milk
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1tsp cinnamon
1 TB maple syrup

In a saucepan on medium heat, melt the butter and brown sugar. Paula Deen would be in heaven right now. Give it a stir now and again. When they are melted and bubbly, add the milk. Carefully raise the heat and bring the mixture to a quick boil. Careful – you don’t want to burn it. Once it foams up and turns that lovely caramel color, take it off the heat immediately.

Remove pan from heat and stir in the powdered sugar and vanilla, cinnamon and syrup, mixing until frosting is smooth. I like to put it in the fridge for about 20 mins to cool down. Then I simply frost the cupcakes by dipping them into the frosting. It’s more of a glaze – in the sense that it will firm up.

Now the fun part – you can roll the sides in sprinkles and of course, for effect, put in a popsicle stick to make it look like a real caramel apple. It’s totally useless but lots of fun. Even without the sticks, these are really tasty and I think they’d be great for a party.

Pumpkin and chocolate chips, yummy on a cold winter’s day.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 oil
2 eggs
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup water
1-1/2 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Prepare muffin pans with grease or liners, whichever you prefer.

Mix sugar, oil and eggs. Add pumpkin and water.
(Looks kind of nasty, doesn’t it? – Don’t worry, it gets better.

Now here’s the GOOD STUFF.

This recipe depends on these spices. That’s what gets rid of the bland pumpkin taste and adds lots of tasty goodness.

In separate bowl mix together the baking flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices and salt.

Add wet mixture and stir in chocolate chips.

Fill muffin cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes.

Mmmm. Yummy with a nice cup of hot coffee.

This was a Martha Stewart recipe. It makes 24 cupcakes, which I think is too much – too much for me anyway. I changed it a tiny bit here and there but not much. I like it because you just use two bowls and don’t have to turn on the mixer.

ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon coarse salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 can pumpkin purée (15 ounces)
1 Tablespoon maple syrup

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prep a pan with cupcake liners. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice; set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together, brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter, and eggs. Add dry ingredients, and whisk until smooth. Whisk in pumpkin puree and the syrup.

Divide batter evenly among liners, filling each about halfway. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.Checking with a toothpick for doneness. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely.

I happen to like the taste of pumpkin plain, but a cinnamon frosting, or chocolate would go great. Here they are with fondant Snoopys on them.

Use Vegan ChocoBATs and Vegan GingerBATs for these. The ice cream obviously cancels out the vegan-ness of these, but damn is it good.

Get your preferred ice cream (soy/tofu substitute) out of the freezer. Mush it up a bit on a cutting mat.

You can just use a knife and spread it on a cookie or go nutso with the perfectionist in you (like ME) and actually fill the cookie cutters with the ice cream, thus giving you the PERFECT bat shape…

…you know which is the easiest. So do that. And press it between two cookies and you have a YUMMY HALLOWEEN TREAT!

So after I went to all of this work, someone emailed me and said, ‘Hey great idea, couldn’t you just use the cookie cutter and cut it out of regular store bought ice cream sandwich?’ D’OH! Sure. Do that.

I like to make these in combo with the Vegan GingerBATs, the two colors look really nice together. You can also make them into ice cream sandwiches. Which cancels out the veganism completely, but, you know. Whatever.

Ingredients:
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup plain soymilk

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix together the oil and sugar until well blended.It should be a crumbly sandy consistency. Now add the honey and the soymilk, blend well, it won’t completely blend together, so don’t worry about it.

Sift all the dry ingredients together. Slowly blend the dry into the wet ingredients.

You will get a mushy chalky kind of dough. Roll it into a ball and flatten to a disc. Wrap it in plastic wrap and throw it in the fridge. The longer the better of course, but an hour will do if you are rushed. (The other dough is the Vegan Gingerbread dough.)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Once the dough has chilled, roll it out onto a floured board. I like to use a slab of marble myself, cause it keeps the dough nice and cold. But a big cutting board will do just fine.

I made the ’spooky’ eyes by pressing sprinkles into the dough before cooking. Now, we used bats since it is Halloween, of course. But any cut out will do, any time of the year.

Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes. Cool on a rack. These are really tasty as is, but you can also sandwich ‘em between ice cream if you want! (see how, HERE.) However, there goes the ‘vegan-ness’ of them. I guess you could use a dairy substitute for ice cream and drink a glass of soy milk. *sigh* Give me dairy any day.

My Kid has a milk allergy. And an egg one. And a chocolate one. And, well, MANY. So I found this recipes on the post punk kitchen and tried it out. Amazingly good. You don’t even miss the butter and eggs.

I also adapted it and made Vegan ChocoBAT cookies AND used them for ice cream sandwiches. Not so Vegan but still DELISH.

Ingredients:
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup plain soymilk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

Mix together the oil and sugar until well blended.It should be a crumbly sandy consistency. Now add the molasses and the soymilk and vanilla, blend well, it won’t completely blend together, so don’t worry about it.

Sift all the dry ingredients together. Slowly blend the dry into the wet ingredients.

You will get a mushy soft dough. Roll it into a ball and flatten to a disc. Wrap it in plastic wrap and throw it in the fridge. The longer the better of course, but an hour will do if you are rushed. (The other dough you see is the Vegan Chocolate cookie dough.)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Once the dough has chilled, roll it out onto a floured board. I like to use a slab of marble myself, cause it keeps the dough nice and cold. But a big cutting board will do just fine.

I made the ’spooky’ eyes by pressing sprinkles into the dough before cooking. Now, we used bats since it is Halloween, of course. But any cut out will do, any time of the year.

Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes. Cool on a rack.

These are really tasty as is, but you can also sandwich ‘em between ice cream if you want! (see how, HERE.) However, there goes the ‘vegan-ness’ of them. I guess you could use a dairy substitute for ice cream and drink a glass of soy milk. *sigh* Give me dairy any day.