The day after Halloween I stare into the candy bowl and inspiration comes. It usually comes in the shape of Domo but when doesn’t it? Domo has been my muse for cookies, cupcakes, MEATLOAF and now chocolate.

Just a little piping and your ordinary chocolate snack is transformed into a the cutest monster treat ever!

ingredients:
snack sized chocolate bars
black frosting with a #3 tip
white frosting with a #3 tip
red frosting with a #5 tip
chocolate pearls or mini chocolate chips

Open the chocolates and place the flat side up. Pipe a small amount of black frosting to hold the eyes in place, then place a chocolate pearl of mini chocolate chip for the two eyes.

One third of the way down pipe a rectangle using the red frosting. This will be the mouth.

Over the red rectangle, use the white frosting to pipe Domo’s signature ‘teeth.’

That’s it! A simple and fun way to repurpose Halloween candy!

Every year this cereal hits the shelves and every year I fall for it and buy it, especially when it’s at the after sale. This year I decided to dress the cereal up in its own costume as a marshmallow treat!

ingredients:
2 Tablespoons butter
4 cups mini marshmallows
6 cups Frankenberry cereal

Grease a 9″x13″ pan with melted butter. Set aside.

In a large pot heat the marshmallows and the butter. Once it starts to break down and melt, stir well.

Fold in the cereal, careful not to crush it.

Once the cereal is coated in the marshmallow mixture, pour it into the prepared pan.

Push down to even it out flat, and let sit to cool. Cover with plastic wrap until you are ready to serve. Then cut into squares.

Back from the Grave cupcakes (recipe here)
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Trick or Treat Cupcakes (recipe here)
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Bug cupcakes (recipe here)
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Spider cupcakes (recipe here)
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Gingerbread Haunted Library (recipe here)

Here’s a rundown of some of the pumpkins I’ve carved for Halloweens past…

Batman in action (how-to, here)
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Peter Pan pumpkin
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Julius the monkey from Paul Frank:

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Batman face

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Star Wars pumpkin (how-to here)

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And even…MYSELF.

When I went to the Wilton Tent Sale in Chicago it was all I could do to control myself and not bring home every single pan they had. But to pack heavy cake pans in my suitcase? Hm. I had to really pick and choose. The one I absolutely could not live without was the Wilton Skull Pan. Sure it’s for cakes, but I knew right away it’d be the perfect vehicle for ice cream.

I had an idea in my head: a skull entirely made out of homemade ice cream and when you sliced into it…oh the brain you would find. Sweet, delicious, a mochi brain is the only brain I would ever want to eat.

ingredients:
2 batches vanilla ice cream (recipe here) (2 half gallons if you’re going store bought)
tiny mochi balls

As with all things I mold out of ice cream – I lined the pan well with plastic wrap. It makes for a much easier release.

Once the pan was lined I filled it with vanilla ice cream. Using a spatula I pressed the melty ice cream down deep, hoping to get every crevice of the skull face.

Only in Hawaii can you find the world’s most kawaii and tastiest mochi balls. These things are so tiny and each has their own distinct fruity flavor. If you can’t get to Hawaii for shopping, there are places that sell mochi balls online. (here)

I dug a little well in the back of the head and filled it with the teeny mochi balls. Then I put the skull back into the freezer.

Removal of ice cream molds is always tricky, but wrapping a warm towel around the pan pretty much ensures a quick release, plus the plastic wrap helps if you need to yank it out. This pan gives really nice detail!

This particular skull pan comes in two parts, the back being a base for the front face to sit on. Now in cake form this makes sense, in ice cream form it’s a heck of a lot of extra work to get that to line up. Just sayin’.

Once the skull was put together I was ready to chop into him…

…and just as I had hoped – the lovely fruity mochi brain was revealed! Best lobotomy ever!

Halloween is one of the best holidays for decorating! So much creepiness, so much deliciousness. I made up a bunch of cupcakes for parties this weekend:
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Spider cupcakes (recipe, here)

Spiders really freak me out and despite knowing these are edible I still felt uncomfortable making these. Blech.
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Mummy cupcake (recipe, here)

It’s the yellow eyeballs that are creeping you out, right? Right?!?
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Gravestone cupcake (recipe, here)

You’ll see a lot of these this time of year, using Milano cookies or chocolate dipped Oreos, and let me tell you – I’ve designed a few tombstones in my time and they do NOT look like Milano cookies. These are much more authentic…!
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Kissable Pumpkin cupcakes (recipe, here)

Sweet little edible pumpkins. Perfect for kissing.
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Make one, or all of these for the perfect Halloween dessert party!

There’s nothing I hate more than spiders. Hm. Maybe polka dots. I HATE polka dots. Oh and bananas. Hate those too…anyway – spiders creep me out. And even when I was making these I felt a little bit of the heebie jeebies. Yikes.

ingredients:
chocolate cupcakes
chocolate frosting
2 cups Oreos, crushed
black Gumdrops
Black licorice laces

I like to give the spider a little ‘dirt’ base to sit on. So…

To start, take the 2 cups of Oreos, place them in a bag and smash them to bits…Sure you can use a food processor but why when you can SMASH. COOKIES. LIKE. HULK.

Take your frosted cupcakes and dip them into the crushed Oreos, pressing them down so it looks like dirt. Deliciously chocolately dirt.

For the spider’s legs cut the licorice laces into 4-inch pieces. You’ll need four of them – so that when you put the ‘body’ on you’ll have eight legs total.

Lay the pieces across each other, overlapping in the middle, but spreading the ‘legs’ out evenly. I like how the little pumpkins are observing the process in this picture.

Place a little dab of frosting in the middle, then press the black gumdrop right in the center to form the spider’s body.

Is that the freakiest edible long legged spider or what? EW. Totally creeped out now.

There’s nothing creepier or more delicious than a frosted mummy.

ingredients:
cupcakes
white frosting
black frosting
yellow quins

Put the frosting in a piping bag – I prefer the Ateco Decorating Tip #104 – it’s flat but has a wide edge on one side. It give the lines a little more depth if you ask me.

I lost my coupler. Don’t ask me where it is – lost somewhere in the bowels of my kitchen pantry, so I had to make do, it still worked out fine. What you want to do is make ‘bandages’ that overlap, so simply go criss cross across the top of the cupcake, leaving just enough ‘peeking’ space for the mummy’s eyeballzz.

Pipe two small dots with black frosting for the eyes – then place a little yellow round circle quin on the black dot to complete the eye.

Your mummy instantly comes to life! Er..I mean, he’s dead, but looks good, but – oh just eat him!

You’ve probably seen gravestone cupcakes all over the internet, but they use things like Milano Cookies or chocolate dipped Oreos. Let me tell you, I’ve designed a few tombstones in my time – unfortunately I’ve become an expert at it – and they do NOT look like Milano cookies.

ingredients:
chocolate cupcakes
chocolate frosting
2 cups Oreo cookies, crushed
Chocolate dipped cookies
white frosting

I like to use chocolate cupcakes and frosting when working with Halloween cupcakes. It’s dark and spoooky. Also yummy.

Take about 2 cups of Oreos, place them in a bag and smash them to death. This is when the Food Librarian would text me and tell me to ‘use a food processor you jerk’ but I’m like totally Amish so I just use a rolling pin to get out my aggression.

Dip the frosted cupcakes into the crushed Oreos – can you see the dirt-like resemblance? – and set them aside.

Tombstones can be ornate, and I was lucky enough to happen upon these chocolate dipped cookies at Target. I knew immediately that because of the shape and the decoration, that they’d be perfect for edible gravestones. Morbid? Maybe – but we are talking Halloween here.

Using a small piping tip, write the letters R.I.P. on your ‘faux’ tombstone.

I like to use a paring knife and cut a little space in the cupcake so that the ‘tombstone’ has an easy way to slide in. Place the tombstone cookie into the opening….

…and there you have it. The most perfectly ornate, edible gravestone. Death is deelish.

I like having creative friends because they can inspire you in so many ways. When I saw that my friend Leslie was making ‘stache o’ lanterns for Halloween, I couldn’t stop smiling – and I’m no hipster.

Tiny pumpkins scream cuteness. I wanted to take the similar idea of tiny pumpkins but make them edible.

ingredients:
cupcakes
frosting
sprinkles
candy corn pumpkins
heart quinns

I was going to hand make the pumpkins then I realized I could buy a bag of candy corn pumpkins for a buck at Target, so what the heck.

I piped them two little eyes, and then added a teeeeny heart quin mouth. These are the Angelina Jolie of pumpkins.

When I want to give cupcakes some color, but not overwhelm them – I ‘edge’ them by rolling the sides in sprinkles.

I popped the little ‘punk-in’ on top and it was all decked out for Halloween!