Halloween 2021: Delicious recipes, baking kits, spooky cake moulds and ready made brownies

19 October 2021, 17:19

By Emma Gritt

@emmagritt

Halloween isn't about the tricks... it's all about the treats! Whether you're an avid home baker or prefer your cakes and brownies to come ready made, decorated and ready to go, we think you'll love these...

Crosstown Bakery

• Halloween Box – Fifteen Halloween Dough Bites + the option of adding specialty drinks (From £37.95). 
• Halloween Trick or Treat Box - Fifteen Halloween dough bites + eighteen or thirty-six 35g cookies + the option of adding specialty drinks (From £62.95). 

Specialty drink options include Craft Beers by Mondo Brewing Company and Forest Road Brewery Co, St. JOHN Wines, Gusbourne English Sparkling Rosé, Crosstown x Caravan Espresso and more.

Pre-orders for delivery across England, Wales, and lowland Scotland will be available from 15 October 2021.Delivery dates available – 28 to 31 October. The Halloween Dough Bites will also be available in Crosstown stores across London, individually (£2.70) and boxes of three (£8) between 28 and 31 October. 

For more information visit Crosstown

Lola's Cupcakes

• Trick-Or-Treat Cupcakes (£27.99 for 8 Cupcakes – delivery nationwide) - These terrifyingly tasty cupcakes pair a delicious chocolate or vanilla base with vibrant buttercream and are finished with an array of spooky sprinkles and toppings including ghosts, graves, and evil eyes.
• Trick-Or Treat Vegan Cupcakes (£20.10 for 6 Cupcakes) - A scarily good box of vegan cupcakes featuring chocolate or vanilla sponge topped with vegan buttercream and decorated with pumpkins, gravestones, and spooky sprinkles.
• Boo! Brownie Box (£16.99 for 6 Brownies – delivery nationwide) - Beware – these brownies are to die for! Created using only the finest Belgian chocolate and decorated with green, purple, and orange icing along with scary skeletons, bones, evil eyes and a ‘Trick or Treat’ topping.
• ‘Made with Monsters’ Fantasy Cake (£65, for 7”, serves 12-14 people) - This slimetastic showstopper is the perfect addition to any Halloween party! Choose from a light vanilla or rich chocolate sponge decorated with an eerily dark black buttercream, vibrant green drip, creepy eyes, bones and topped with tentacles. Plus, once you cut the cake, you’ll also see layers of orange and green buttercream sandwiched between the delicate sponge for added shock-factor!
• ‘Made with Monsters’ Vegan Cake (From £18, for 5”, serves 4-6 people) - Baked with scares, choose from a vanilla or chocolate sponge decorated with a vegan dark chocolate ganache, a ghoulish green slime drip, creepy eyes, and tentacles.
• Ghosts & Graves Layer Cake (From £17, for 5”, serves 4-6 people) - Hand baked with tender loving scare, choose from chocolate or vanilla sponge finished with green and purple buttercream, a chocolate drip and topped with haunting Halloween decorations.

Pre-orders available from 1st October with delivery (to London and surrounding areas) from 18th October.

A selected range of Halloween cupcakes & brownies will also be available in stores from 18th – 31st October.

For further details on the full Halloween range including giant cookies, brownies, and tiny cupcakes, please visit the website: www.lolascupcakes.co.uk.

Britain Loves Baking Scary Bakes

Online baking box company, Britain Loves Baking, has launched its seasonal ‘Scary Bakes’ collection of Halloween home baking kits.

The four boxes offer little monsters the chance to get creative as they will be doing all the baking and decorating - all you need to provide is a guiding hand (and eggs if you haven't opted for vegan versions!)

• "Do Yourself a Scary Flavour” box - create 12 personalised Halloween cupcakes with an array of scary sprinkles, terrifying toppers, chilling colourings, and chocolate and orange flavours
• Spooky Glazed Mini Cakes version, with a spine-chilling, supernatural silicone mould and ready made cake glaze
• Creepy Cookie Baking Box - comes with four 3D cookie cutters, a bag of icing mix, a selection of food colours, Halloween sprinkles and lovely juicy, edible eyeballs.
• Make Your Own Ghoulish Giant Chocolate Kit - fill 6 tombstones and ghost shapes with mashed Zombie brains (a mixture of blood red liquid caramel, white chocolate coated honeycomb, chopped nuts and marshmallow pieces) Then watch the Zombie brains ooze out as you eat them!

Where to buy: Britain Loves Baking.com, £9 per box, or 4 for £30 (+£2.99 delivery nationwide), until the 28th of October

Pleesecakes' Halloween Chuffles

If you have never tried chuffles - cheesecake truffles - before, what better excuse than Halloween?

There are four spook-tacular flavours of the adventurous dessert hybrid which have a thick chocolate shell filled with soft cheesecake mix .

Witch will you try first? Sour Lime, Black Forest, Raspberry Caramel or Vanilla White Chocolate splattered with gory dashes of red. 

You'll receive a box of 24 chuffles, featuring six of each flavour. Perfect for parties or movie marathons with pals. Nationwide delivery available from the 18th – 28th October.

Where to buy: Pleesecakes, £24 + delivery

Skeleton cakelet pan

• Where to buy: Nordic Ware, Harts of Stur, £43.20

Vegan cupcakes

• Where to buy: Sainsburys £1.50

Monster bake and craft kit

These monstrous biscuit kits come with everything you need to bake and decorate 10-12 delicious biscuits and a cute monster biscuit bag to make and decorate.

Where to buy: Craft & Crumb, £19.99

Haunted skull cakelet pan

It's not just cakes you can make in this skull cakelet pan, you can have a go at pizza skulls too - they're so easy to make!

After greasing the pan, roll out some ready made pizza dough and place it over one of the skull-shaped holes.

Fill with a tablespoon of pizza sauce, and a handful of cheese and any other toppings you fancy.

Home made pizza skulls

Push down the edges of the dough and seal with water, or egg wash.

After about 10 minutes in the oven, they'll be baked through and ready to go - and cutting one open to reveal the cheesy strings inside is definitely a treat you'll want to enjoy again and again!

• Where to buy: Nordic Ware, Harts of Stur, £43.20

Haunted Manor Bundt Pan

• Where to buy: Nordic Ware, Harts of Stur, £41.60

Haunted gingerbread house

• Where to buy: Morrisons, £5

Vegan Jack Skellington Buttercups

Ingredients:

• LoveRaw ButterCups (Peanut Butter, Salted Caramel, Cookie Dough or Hazelnut)
• Vegan white chocolate
• LoveRaw Just Chocolate M:lk Choc Bars

Instructions:

1. In a bain-marie (a fancy, culinary term for a warming appliance - think of a hot pan with water over a stove to melt your choc), melt the vegan white chocolate. Remove from heat and allow to reach room temperature.
2. Unpackage the ButterCups onto a plate and spoon some white chocolate over each ButterCup, spreading it evenly towards the edges.
3. Refrigerate the Cups while you melt the M:lk Choc in a separate bain-marie.
4. Once melted, remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly before spooning the chocolate into a zip lock bag or piping bag if you have one.
5. Remove the Cups from the fridge and snip the corner of the zip lock bag off so that you can pipe Jack Skellington’s face onto each Cup.
6. Refrigerate again until solid. 
7. Prepare as many Butter Cups as you need.

Vegan Mummy brownies

Ingredients (Makes 6 large brownies):

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ¾ cups sugar
• ½ cup vegan butter (melted)
• ¾ tsp baking powder
• 1/3 cup plant-milk
• ¾ cup cacao powder
• 3 x LoveRaw M:lk Choc Bars finely chopped into chunks
• 2 x tsp instant coffee

To Decorate:

• 3 x LoveRaw White Cre&m Wafer Bar fingers
• 12 x edible eyes

Instructions:

1. Whisk together the melted butter, sugar, instant coffee and milk.
2. Sift in the flour, cacao powder, baking powder and salt.
3. Once everything is combined, fold in the chocolate chunks.
4. Transfer the batter into a parchment paper lined dish.
5. Bake at 175°C for 20 minutes.
6. Allow the brownies to fully cool before gently pressing half a White Cre&m Wafer finger on top of each brownie followed by two eyes just above.

Spooky cupcake cases and toppers

• Where to buy: Poundland, £1

Skull Bites Cakelet pan

• Where to buy: Nordic Ware, Harts of Stur, £43.20

Tombstone Cakelet pan

• Where to buy: Nordic Ware, Harts of Stur, £43.20

Creepy coffins bake & craft kit

Each kit makes 15-20 ghost biscuits and a creepy coffin craft box.

It contains a just add butter and honey gingerbread mix, icing sugar, ghost shaped cutter, piping bag and black icing.

Plus there is a creepy coffin craft activity to keep them busy while they're baking in the oven!

Where to buy: Craft & Crumb, £19.99

Woman Bakes Incredibly Realistic Yet Disgusting Halloween Cakes.mp4

Haunted Cake Skull pan

• Where to buy: Nordic Ware, Harts of Stur, £44.80

Creepy cupcakes

• Where to buy: Morrisons, £5 for 12

Ghost Pavlova

Serves 6 / Prep time: 50 minutes / Cook time: 1.5 hour Cooling 2 hours

Ghost Pavlovas are a Love Fresh Cherries recipe

Ingredients:

For the meringue:

• 6 egg whites, room temperature
• 300g caster sugar
• 1.5 tsp cornflour
• 1.5 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Edible monster eyes

For the filling:

• 200ml double cream
• 100ml crème fraîche
• 400g fresh whole cherries

For the cherry syrup:

• 120ml water
• 120g sugar
• 200g fresh cherries, pitted and sliced

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 100°C and line 2 separate baking sheets with non-stick baking parchment. Put the egg whites in a clean, dry bowl and whisk, using an electric whisk, to stiff peaks.
2. Gradually whisk in the caster sugar, 1 tbsp at a time. Add the cornflour, vanilla extract and lemon juice and whisk briefly, just until incorporated.
3. Place 1⁄4 of the meringue mixture into a piping bag with a large nozzle. Use a little meringue on the underside of each corner of parchment paper to stick it to the baking sheet. Pipe 2 inch high ghosts, starting close to the surface and first pushing down, then raising in an upwards motion with even pressure. Carefully place the edible eyes onto each ghost and bake on the bottom shelf of the oven for 30-40 minutes.
4. While the ghosts are baking, place the remaining 3⁄4 of the meringue in a mound on the other baking sheet and spread out into a 6-8 inch diameter circle (you can draw this out beforehand to help you). Make a shallow dip with the back of a metal spoon in the centre of the meringue mixture to accommodate the cream and fruit. Carefully cover in an airtight container and refrigerate the mixture until the ghosts are out of the oven.
5. Remove the meringue ghosts from the oven and leave to cool. Raise the oven temperature to 140°C/gas mark 1 and place the main pavlova mixture on the bottom shelf. Bake for 1 hour and switch on the oven, but leave the meringue inside to cool for a further 2 hours, with the oven light on. This will keep the meringue warm enough to help prevent cracks.
6. While the meringue is baking, make the cherry syrup by adding the pitted and sliced cherries, water and sugar to a saucepan and bringing to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Sieve the contents over a bowl, gently stirring the cherries to leave you with a syrup. Leave to cool.
7. Just before the meringue has completely cooled, whisk the cream in a large bowl until it is just holding its shape. Gently stir in the yoghurt. Pile the cream mixture into the middle of the pavlova and decorate with the meringue ghosts, fresh cherries and cherry syrup.

Mummy Madeleines

Makes 18-20 / Prep time: 1 hour, 15 minutes / Cook time: 10 minutes / Equipment: Madeleine tin

Mummy Madeleines are a Love Fresh Cherries recipe

Ingredients:

For the madeleines:

• 115g butter, melted and at room temperature, plus 2 tbsp for greasing
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 100g golden caster sugar
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 90 g plain flour (GF option: Replace plain flour for gluten-free flour)
• 25 g cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 small pinch salt

For the cherry glaze:

• 200ml water
• 100g sugar
• 200g fresh cherries, pitted and sliced
• 240g icing sugar, sifted
• Edible monster eyes

Method:

1. Using an electric whisk, beat the eggs and sugar together on high speed for 8 minutes until the mixture is thick, pale, and forms ribbons when lifted. Beat in the almond extract until combined.
2. Using a handheld whisk, mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt together in a small bowl. Gently fold into the egg mixture using a spatula or wooden spoon, half at a time.
3. Mix 3-4 tablespoons of the batter into the melted butter until fully incorporated, and then gently stir it all into the rest of the batter until it becomes thick, silky, and shiny. Cover the surface of the batter with cling film and refrigerate for 1 hour.
4. During the last 15 minutes of chilling, grease the madeleine tin with the remaining melted butter using a pastry brush. Lightly dust the tin with cocoa powder, tapping it upside down in the sink to remove any excess.Refrigerate the tin for 10-15 minutes and preheat the oven to 175°C/gas mark 3.
5. Place the chilled madeleine mixture, which should be airy and mousse-like, into each scalloped well of the tin to around 3⁄4 full, using either a spoon or a piping bag with a large nozzle. If using only 1 madeleine tin, cover and refrigerate the remaining batter for later.
6. Bake in the middle of the oven for 10 minutes, until the madeleines spring back under touch. Transfer the madeleines to a wire rack to cool. To make the cherry glaze, add the pitted and sliced cherries, water and sugar to a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Sieve the contents over a bowl, gently stirring the cherries to leave you with a syrup. Leave to cool.
7. Add the icing sugar to a bowl and mix in 4 tablespoons of cherry syrup, until it reaches a slightly thick consistency. For the madeleine ghosts, dip the madeleines in the icing mixture and place on edible eyes, leaving aside for the glaze to set. For the mummies, pipe the glaze onto the madeleines using a piping bag with a medium sized nozzle and place on the eyes. Madeleines are best enjoyed fresh, straight after baking.