Shaggy Monster Cookies and Ghost Cupcakes
In case you couldn’t tell, this is W as Spiderman as Frozone.
I’m a little bit bummed that W wanted to be Spiderman for Halloween, and that Mike gave in and dropped $30 on a costume, complete with ripply muscles, while I was away in Toronto. I kinda wanted to piecemeal together an ensemble for him, staying up late to figure out how to sew it (my friend’s 4 year old wanted to be a “bloody, squished caterpillar”) -although I probably wouldn’t have been able to afford scarring more digits by attempting to use the sewing machine. (By the way -it’s difficult to take your contacts out with two bandaged thumbs. If we had a hidden camera in the bathroom the past ten minutes would probably have made a good little comedy segment.)
I love Halloween. It likely has something to do with its proximity to my birthday, or the plethora of candy that comes with it. Or the fact that it falls squarely in my favourite season, and as soon as its over a) mini chocolate bars are 70% off, and b) it’s almost time to take a running start at Christmas. In recent years, we’ve been leaving for Christmas in November a few days after Halloween (we go this Thursday).
Because it fell on a Saturday we couldn’t rightly not have some sort of party. We decided to have a shadow puppet party, which mostly involves eating, and for entertainment we pulled a painting off the living room wall, pointed a flood light at it and made crazy things with our hands and bodies and whatever else we could find. Then we lit the pumpkins, left Mike with his strobe light, chainsaw and bloody apron to dole out candy, and went trick or treating. Lou dressed up as Superman (although clearly a dog) with the easy attachment of a cape to his collar.
W, let me tell you, is quite keen on this idea of ringing peoples’ doorbells and having them give you chocolate. He insisted on carrying his Easter basket, the one with the two sparkly hanging pink and teal eggs that look like nads, which filled up so fast we had to head back home after two blocks. (The corner store was handing out pop, and since W and his 6 year old cousin don’t get pop, they gave them bottles of water. You could see the expressions under their masks as they stared blankly at the ladies behind the counter – a counter covered with candy displays, mind you – not wanting to be impolite but internally going dude – are you serious? Water?? You’re giving us water? For Halloween? We get this stuff anytime we want at home for free you know! We said trick or TREAT! The bottle took up half of W’s basket space, which worked out just fine. And it was a good idea to rehydrate.)
I’m not sure what happened to dinner. We had meatballs – the kind in the grape jelly and chili sauce that my aunt used to make – and we force fed the kids some fruit. There were a few leftover ghost cupcakes, which I made by turning cupcakes upside down before icing them – which allows a completely new perspective on the cupcake shape you may be more than familiar with. Yesterday on BT I frosted mini cupcakes in such a fashion, then dunked them into green coconut (you make it green by tossing it with a few drops of food colouring – makes good grass and Christmas tree needles too) to make muppet-like monsters.
I also turned some of that Linzer cookie dough into dudes with gunshot wounds, oozing Nanking cherry jelly. How could I not have thought of this before? You bake gingerbread men, poke holes through half of them with a straw before you bake them, spread the reddest jelly you can find on the intact ones, and top with the cookies with holes – the jelly oozes through and looks like blood. You can make bleeding heart cookies this way too.
H sent over witch cupcakes, which I ate one of (minus the black licorice hair) plus several stumps (most of the kids are just after the top stuff – the icing and candies – several were licked clean):
And there were shaggy green monster/mummy cookies made by pressing soft sugar cookie dough (like a spritz cookie dough, tinted green) through a potato ricer onto a cookie sheet, and loosely piling it into little piles before baking. I saw this somewhere, but can’t remember where – I’ve googled it and come up with nothing. Maybe it was a monster/potato ricer dream? Aren’t we supposed to receive more profound messages in our dreams than how to produce cookies using nontraditional methods? Only I have deep, meaningful dreams that involve kitchen gadgets.
Shaggy Monster Cookies
AuthorJuliePreheat the oven to 375F. In a mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat
in the egg, vanilla and food colouring. Add the flour and salt and beat until smooth.
Press the dough through a potato ricer in chunks, scraping the dough off the
outside of the ricer with a knife and gently shaping it into mounds on an ungreased
baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until pale golden around the edges and set.
If you like, press eyes into the cookies while they are still warm.
Ingredients
Directions
Preheat the oven to 375F. In a mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat
in the egg, vanilla and food colouring. Add the flour and salt and beat until smooth.
Press the dough through a potato ricer in chunks, scraping the dough off the
outside of the ricer with a knife and gently shaping it into mounds on an ungreased
baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until pale golden around the edges and set.
If you like, press eyes into the cookies while they are still warm.
One Year Ago: Sticky Ginger-Soy Ribs, Peas and Rice
Sounds like you had a great halloween! I decided to not go wild with the candy this year and instead focused on Beer …. next year I’ll go back the candy, it never made me feel this crapy the next morning.
And that “next year I’ll go back to candy” …. oh I have a long day head!
The ghost cupcakes are so cute! Creative people you all are.
Couldn’t W have gotten a bottle of juice? Poor lad… I can imagine the silence hanging while viewing a bottle of water in the candy cache 🙁
He doesn’t drink juice either! It wasn’t bad, actually-he loves bottled water, and it was a good thing to get – we all had some. It was just funny!
Oh, the staying up to late to make the costume is overrated. I did. I can’t decide if I’m awesome for doing it or it all just looks sad. But The Monster was happy and ridiculously happy as a pink unicorn.
This mont’s Canadian Living has a recipe for dough bound a the potato ricer with witch (ha ha) to make monster cookies…
THAT MUST BE IT! Gotta love Canadian Living!! When I was a kid I so badly wanted to grow up to be Elizabeth Baird…
Those cupcakes are too cute.
C spiked a fever yesterday (the latest member of the family to get the flu) so not wanting to share the flu with the neighbours we kept the kids home. We played the Great Pumpkin, T handed out candy and I made polymer bouncy balls with the kids. They missed trick or treating but had a blast with the kitchen science.
Love the ghost cupcakes and the monster cookies too cute! Sounds like you had a great night. Thanks for sharing 🙂
My favourite is the dudes with gunshot wounds, I laughed aloud, so I did!
Also love the shaggy green monster cookies, and am most impressed with the icing load on the ghost cookies.
Glad to see your muse is still visiting!
I love the ghost cupcakes! It’s about time someone paid attention to the bottom of a cupcake.
Yikes! The first thing that came to my mind when seeing the ghost treats was…KKK Kupcakes! I know it’s sick but ultimatly scary as well. Your ingenuity in coming up with such Halloween delights is amazing. Living in the country on a sparsely-populated stretch of road (scary in itself), there are no kids coming to call. Sigh, sometimes I miss the big city…just for the wee ones out early, not the hooligans in the WEE hours!
After those Linzer cookies with the bleeding gunshot wounds, you are definitely a woman after my own heart! I’m so following you on Twitter! Right now.
okay, those ghost cupcakes are so adorable I don’t know what to do with myself….can I make them even though it’s not halloween anymore?
OMG those shaggy monsters are the cutest!
Love your Halloween ideas! Two questions: With the bleeding dudes with gunshot wounds (bleeding dudes with gunshot wounds — it just rolls off the tongue) cookies do you put the jelly/jam on the half of the cookie before baking or after? Also, how many cookies do the shaggy monster and bleeding man cookies make? I think I’ll have to break down and buy a potato ricer. Thanks!
Sorry – I can’t recall how many they made! but with the bleeding gunshot guys yes, spread the jam on after they’re baked – otherwise the jam won’t ooze out!