What’s frightfully scary, but delicious at the same time? Ghoulish Goodies by Sharon Bowers!  Both kids and grown-ups alike will get a kick out of these fanciful recipes — from Chocolate Spider Clusters to I’Scream Cake to Unblinking Eye Halloween Meatloaf — the snacks, party favors, and meals all add up to an unforgettable holiday. Offering a mix of recipes, some simple enough for kids to create on their own, as well as more complex concoctions, there’s something for everyone. You better believe that Halloween will never be the same.

Swamp Creature Toes: (Makes about 36 toes!)

Salty, sweet, and nutty, these funny big-toe-like snacks are made extra ghoulish by tossing the almonds with green food coloring to give the end result an eerie glow.

Even if you skip the green color, you’ll still have funky toes.

1/2 cup whole skinless salted almonds
green liquid coloring
1 (12-ounce) package semisweet chocolate chips (2 cups)
1 (6-ounce) bag 8-inch pretzel rods (about 12)

1. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment or wax paper. Blend the almonds with about 10 drops of coloring in a small stainless steel, ceramic, or glass bowl (plastic might stain). Stir well until all the nuts are coated. Spread the green almonds on a plate to dry.

2. Put the chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl and melt the chocolate in the microwave: Heat on high for 60 seconds, and then stir well. If it’s not quite smooth, heat in two or three 10-second bursts, stirring well after each burst.  (Alternatively, you can melt the chocolate, stirring frequently, in a double boiler, over just-simmering water. Avoid overheating, which can cause chocolate to seize up into a stiff mass.)

3. Break each pretzel rod into 3 pieces. Dip a broken piece about three-quarters of the way into the melted chocolate, leaving a broken end visible. (If it’s an end piece of the pretzel, dip the finished end, leaving the broken end showing.)

4. Lay the dipped pretzel on a prepared baking sheet and lay a green almond on the top of the dipped end. If the almond won’t stick, dip the underside in a bit more chocolate. When all the toes are decorated, place the baking sheets in the refrigerator or freezer to firm the chocolate. Serve cool.

Gingersnaps most likely have their origin with the Pennsylvania Dutch, and their name probably comes from the word snappen, which means “easy.” The cookies are rolled in sugar before baking, giving them a lovely, crinkly top.

For more baking tips, check out yesterday’s post, How to bake just like your grandmother did. Or even better.

Makes about 40 cookies.

1 1/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons dark molasses
1 tablespoon warm brewed coffee
6 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger

1. Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl.
2. Combine the molasses and coffee into a small bowl.
3. Cream together the butter, the 1/4 cup granulated sugar, and the brown sugar, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves in a large bowl. Add the molasses mixture and the flour mixture, beating until well blended. Stir in the crystallized ginger. Gather together the dough in a ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for at least 1 hour, until firm.
4. Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Lightly grease two baking sheets.
5. Shape the dough into 1-inch balls. Roll the balls in 2 tablespoons of the granulated sugar. Place them on the prepared baking sheets about 2 inches apart. Press down each cookie with the bottom of a glass dipped in the remaining 1 tablespoon granulated sugar until the cookies are nice and thin.
6. Bake, one sheet at a time, for about 10 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven before their edges start to brown; they will be soft in the center but will harden when cool. Watch the cookies carefully and do not allow them to scorch.
7. Transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool.

If you’re looking to jump-start your baking skills, you might as well begin with cookies. For starters, there usually aren’t any super-complicated pieces of equipment, ingredients, or Le Cordon Bleu-type knowledge required. And secondly, most cookie doughs are forgiving, meaning even those of us who are challenged in the kitchen can turn out a tasty cookie. Andrea Chesman and Fran Raboff’s 250 Treasured Country Desserts is a collection of tried-and-true recipes that have been passed down through the generations—and all of which have stood the test of time.  As a bonus, this cookbook offers tips and techniques to guide you along and boost your baking know-how.

Here are a few guidelines to follow when making cookies:

• Don’t use imitation ingredients: Go for the real vanilla extract, high-quality chocolate, and butter (not margarine).

• Butter should always be used at room temperature: Lumps of cold, hard butter in the dough will cause flat cookies.

• Chocolate should be melted over low heat to avoid scorching: A double boiler or metal mixing bowl over simmering water should do the trick.

• Toast nuts before adding them to the batter, to maximize flavor: Nuts should be toasted whole and then chopped. To toast, preheat the oven to 300˚F. Spread out the nuts in a single layer on a baking sheet and toast for 7 to 10 minutes.
• Raisins that are hard and shriveled going into cookie dough will be hard and shriveled in the baked cookie: To reconstitute, pour boiling water over them and let them sit for 10 minutes. Then drain off water and use as directed. For additional flavor, soak raisins in wine, brandy or fruit juice.

Check back tomorrow for a recipe from 250 Treasured Country Desserts.

Frosting a cake is a task that seems straightforward, until you put that first dollop of icing on with a floppy spatula and end up with a crumb-filled, lumpy mess. A stainless-steel spatula and rotating cake-stand are wonderful, but allowing the cake to cool completely and using plenty of icing will make a huge difference. Here’s a video to help your frosting technique.

I’m a long-time fan of The Cake Mix Doctor–it was with Anne Byrn’s recipes that I first experimented with making icing from scratch (believe me, once you try it, you will never buy canned icing again). As soon as The Cake Mix Doctor Returns! landed on my desk, I was already picking out which cake I was going to make first.

I went with the Fresh Orange Birthday Cake with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting. The freshly squeezed orange in the cake and zest in the icing had my kitchen smelling incredible before I even got the pans in the oven. The result was a decadent icing paired with a light and refreshing cake so good that we ended up eating a generous slice for Sunday brunch! One of my favorite things about the Cake Mix Doctor books is how easy it is to mix and match the cakes with different icings, and I’d love to try this one with a chocolate frosting or glaze with some orange zest sprinkled in, but I’ve got 159 cakes to get through before trying repeats!

Fresh Orange Birthday Cake

Vegetable oil spray, for misting the pans
Flour, for dusting the pans
1 large orange
About 1 cup orange juice from a carton
1 package (18.25 ounces) plain yellow cake mix
1 package (3.4 ounces) vanilla instant pudding mix
½ cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 large eggs
Orange Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe below)
12 to 15 fresh orange slices, or candy gum drop
orange slices, for garnish

Continue Reading »

The Cake Mix Doctor Returns! is in stores now, and we’ve got recipes from the new book to share.

For a full-color look at all of the cakes in the book and four recipes including Fresh Strawberry Cake and Orange Birthday Cake, click here or read the excerpt below.

Visit cakemixdoctor.com for Anne Byrn’s tour dates

It’s the return of The Cake Mix Doctor, and Anne Byrn’s latest book is full of brand new recipes that turn ordinary cake mix into unique, delicious treats. Below, Anne shares some snapshots from the photo shoot for the book.

Workman Art Director Lisa Hollander, photo stylist Susan Sugarman, and her assistant work out details before shooting begins on the 163 cake photos in The Cake Mix Doctor Returns!

A huge slice of the Smith Island Cake waits to have its photo made. You cannot imagine the temptation present in this New York loft studio where cakes were frosted, sliced, photographed, then sampled, for five delicious days.

You can see from the fuzziness of this photo why I am a food writer, not food photographer. This darling Blueberry Muffin Crumble Cake, is one of my favorites in the new book. And I promise it will look a lot better in the book than in this photo.

A sumptuous Chocolate Chip Layer Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting rests on the cake stand. There’s a funny thing about photography sessions. Once you’ve seen one cake, you’ve seen them all. I love this cake and yet the food stylists and art director aren’t thinking about how gorgeous this cake looks on that stand. They’re thinking the next cake and the next…

Continue Reading »