George at ASDA Halloween ‘Spooky Scribes’ Challenge

Helloooooooooooooooooooo!

Hmm.

Do you like Hallowe'en? I must admit, it's not really me. I think it's my age - I used to think of it as spooky, whereas my two just think "sweets!". Hey ho.

Anyway, I shall stop being a miserable so-and-so for a minute. George at Asda invited us to join their Spooky Scribes challenge. The idea is that one of the children writes a very short story about Hallowe'en based on a costume that we've chosen from their Hallowe'en range. Now, writing is something that Monkey needs to work on a bit so I asked him if he was up for it and to my surprise, he was. However it has not been easy but after a few false starts, he's finally come up with something that I can share with you today. As part of this process, I have discovered that a) he thinks he has no imagination (which I find quite sad because he has a good imagination) and b) he writes better on a computer than he does writing it with a pen and paper. In order to finish this off, he did dictate the second half of this story to me but his spelling was noticeably better than when he writes with a pen.

Anyway, here is Monkey's story, which I will call

Hallooooooooooooooooooowe'en birthday

On the day of Halloween, I was extremely happy because I was going trick or treating, but it was also my birthday. I was going to wear my werewolf costume; it has a hairy, itchy chest, sleeves that tickle my elbows and a squished nose. I don’t look very scary with a squished nose.

I am so excited because after trick or treating, I’m going to Grandma’s for a sleepover and she’s got my present. I don’t know what it is, but it had better be good!

I go downstairs and everyone sings Happy Birthday. I open my presents; Lego, cars, and a games console.

The day passes slowly and I have lots of fun. Then it starts raining hard and Mum says I can’t go trick or treating or I’ll catch a cold. I start to cry. “Don’t worry,” Mum says, hugging me. “It’s time to go to Grandma’s.”

Knock, knock, knock on Grandma’s door. “Hello”, says Grandma when she opens it. “Are you here for your sleepover?  I’ve got your present, let’s go inside.”

My present is a bike. I’m so happy, I howl like a werewolf. “Not bad for a werewolf with a squished nose”, says Grandma.

THE END

(He insisted I add the words "THE END" bit to the bottom, in case you didn't know that it had finished!)

There is a competition to win a £50 voucher for the post with most comments but I'm not really bothered about that - I'd like people to leave comments to encourage Monkey, to give him confidence that he CAN write and he does have good ideas. I will read all comments to Monkey (and possibly allow him to reply to them too!).

(Asda sent us a free fancy dress costume along with some facepaints in return for a story being written about their costume. They also asked for a link to the fancy dress Hallowe'en costumes be included in the post. All participants in the challenge will receive a £20 Asda voucher and a commemorative book, but the post with the most comments will receive a £50 voucher.)

Chocolate and Raspberry Trick-or-Treat cake

One thing is for sure - going to Clandestine Cake Club certainly stretches your baking capabilities! Every time I see the theme for our local group, I start thinking about what to do and try to come up with something different.

This time, however, I thought I was going to have to give the group a miss as it fell on the day that husband was due to be running the Guild Marathon. However, he had to drop back to the half due to a problem with his knee swelling up over the summer and we worked out it was just about possible to get me there on time if we did some slightly complicated juggling of children.

This time, the theme was Trick or Treat which posed a problem. I don't do fancy or intricate cake decoration - I'm just not cut out for it. That means no cakes in the shape of witches etc, so I had to take a different tack.

I came up with the idea of doing a normal cake but one that bleeds when you cut into it. To me, that meant raspberry and what goes better with raspberry than chocolate? Chocolate cake it was. I tend to stick to the same recipes so Googled a bit and found one I thought would work. It had a raspberry ganache with it but I thought it looked lumpy so went for adding a bit of raspberry flavour to it whilst keeping it smooth. I've never made ganache before so I was a bit tentative about it. Some more Googling offered up the way to get the blood into the middle of the cake - make some raspberry coulis (easy), scoop out the middle of your cake, and "line" it with some buttercream to stop the coulis soaking into the cake. Phew...that gave me a few things to do, which made planning it a bit of a nightmare as I had no time on Sunday to finish off and I was out all of Saturday. So, I had to make my coulis on Thursday, cake and buttercream on Friday, then make my ganache on Saturday and finish it all off.

When I made the cake, the top went a bit mad and bust away from the rest of the cake, which when picked away, left a big dip in the cake, so all I had to do was add the buttercream, spoon in the coulis and sandwich the cakes together. Some of the coulis dribbled down the edges and I was dubious that this was going to work but having procrastinated all evening, I made the ganache and ended up whipping it to thicken it enough to spread. The result was a normal looking cake which gave no clue to its hidden secret.

At our meeting, the cake looked very plain until people started cutting into it and the dark red coulis started oozing out. I usually try my cake first at cake club (just to taste it's OK!) so it took all my self-control not to do so. And it was a huge success - this is yet another cake not for the faint hearted, very rich and certainly, with four chocolate bars in it, not the sort of cake you make every day. But it's really, really worth a go to trick your friends on Hallowe'en which turns out to be a delicious treat.

This was my most popular cake so far at any of the meetings I've gone to - after everyone had taken cake to take home, there was only a quarter left.

Why don't you give my cake a try? Maybe not if you're on a diet, eh?

Chocolate and Raspberry Trick-or-Treat Cake

Serves 16-20 probably - you don't need a huge piece

Ingredients

For the raspberry coulis:
200g raspberries
50g icing sugar (or to taste)
lemon juice, to taste
1-2 tsp cocoa powder (optional)

For the cake:
200g dark plain chocolate, preferably 70% cocoa solids, broken into pieces
200g butter, cut into pieces
125ml freshly brewed (ie hot) espresso, as strong as you can bear
85g self-raising flour
85g plain flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
200g muscovado sugar, preferably dark but light will do
200g caster sugar, preferably golden
3 eggs
1tbsp natural yogurt (I used fat free Greek)
100g frozen raspberries

For the chocolate buttercream:
100g butter, softened
200g icing sugar
2 heaped tbsp cocoa powder
1-2 tbsp milk

For the ganache:
200g dark chocolate, chopped into pieces
300g double cream
1 tbsp light soft muscovado sugar

1. First, make the raspberry coulis. Whizz the ingredients in a blender or food processor, or mash the raspberries with a masher and stir in the icing sugar and lemon. Press the mixture through a fine metal sieve to  remove the pips. Taste and add more sugar or lemon as desired. Sprinkle over the cocoa powder if using, and stir into the coulis - this will help to darken it slightly to make it more like blood, and it will take a bit of stirring to mix right in.  Refrigerate until needed whilst you make the cake.

2. Next, make the cake. Preheat the oven to 160C/Gas3. Butter the sides of a 20cm deep round baking tin ( I use cake release spray) and line the base with baking parchment. Place the broken chocolate into a heatproof bowl and sit this on top of a pan half filled with hot water, taking care to ensure that the water is not touching the bottom of the bowl. Add the butter and the hot espresso, and heat gently until everything is just melted. You can do this in the microwave by heating on medium for around 4 mins, stirring every couple of minutes.

3. Whilst the chocolate melts, mix together the flours, baking powder, sugars and cocoa in a big bowl until evenly distributed. In another bowl, beat the eggs together and stir in the yogurt.

4. Pour both the melted chocolate and the egg mixtures into the dry ingredients, mixing carefully but slowly and stopping as soon as all the ingredients are mixed together. Scrape carefully because the dry ingredients tend to get stuck to the bottom of the bowl! The cake batter will be smooth but quite runny.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin, tapping gently to remove air bubbles and level the mixture. Press frozen raspberries into the batter evenly across the tin then place in the oven. Cook for 1.5 hours, until a skewer comes out clean. Don't worry if the cake cracks on top. Leave to cool in the tin for a little while, then remove from the tin and leave to cool completely on a wire rack. Place in the fridge to get it really firm, then slice the cake into two. Scoop out some of the one of the halves - choose the less even of the two halves. Leave at least a 2cm gap all the way around the edge of the this half or your cake will not sit evenly.

6. Make your chocolate buttercream. First, beat the butter until smooth, either by hand or with a mixer. Sift in the icing sugar and cocoa powder, mixing thoroughly. Add the milk until you get a light but spreadable consistency.

7. Next, assemble your cake. Place the scooped out half on a plate or board. Spread the buttercream all over the indentation left by your scooping - not too thickly but ensure you have a solid layer of buttercream or the coulis will leak through into the cake. Spread buttercream around the edge as well as this will stick the cakes together.

8. We're now ready to fill the hole with "blood". First, take out 1-2 tbsp of the coulis and reserve for later. Then, carefully spoon the coulis into the buttercream lined hole as close to the brim as you dare. Top with the other half, press down gently. At this point, some coulis may leak out of the sides so it's best to leave this in the fridge to "set" the dribbles. The cake can be refrigerated until you need it. I also spread some leftover coulis over the top of the cake to soak in and add to the raspberry flavour.

9. When you are ready to cover your cake, make the ganache. Place the chopped chocolate into a bowl. Place the cream into a pan with the muscovado sugar and heat until it is about to boil. Remove from the heat and pour over the chocolate, stirring together until everything melts. Stir in the reserved coulis then leave to cool until it is thick enough to spread. If the ganache is not thick enough, you may whisk it with a balloon whisk for a minute or two until it begins to thicken. Beware as the ganache will continue to thicken after you have stopped whisking so stop just short of soft peaks - I whisked until it felt thicker but was leaving a slight trail in the bowl but it soon firmed up further.

10. Remove the cake from the fridge and spread the ganache over the top and sides of the cake, smoothing it with a palette knife. (If you want to get really fancy at this point, you can grate chocolate over the top or decorate with fresh raspberries but I didn't!). Refrigerate to "set" the ganache then transfer to a serving plate. Take the cake out of the fridge about an hour or so before serving to enjoy it at its best. If you end up with any spare coulis, you can always bring it out to pour over the top once the surprise has been revealed!

Linked up to Dollybakes Calendar Challenge for October.

Getting a-head with Lego Hallowe'en storage

Ahead, a-head. Geddit? Oh never mind!

We are a Lego obsessed household. Well, not me. Monkey, mostly, egged on by the other male in the house. New sets make it onto his present list every time Christmas or a birthday come round. But it's overtaking the house, especially his room. Over the summer holidays, the two of them had a sort out and spread all the Lego across my conservatory for weeks until I found a reason to eat in there (we have a dining table in there).

But now, and quite appropriately given that Hallowe'en is next week, Room sent us these to go some way towards controlling this plastic invasion. OK, so the brick isn't Hallowe'en themed (and rubbish photography on my part - you can't see that the brick is actually green. They really are like giant lego as they all fit together!

I'd show you the brick full to the brim with Lego bricks but Monkey, with infinite logic that only a 7 year old possesses, has decided that it is perfect for storing all his Match Attax cards (and that collection is almost as extensive as his Lego brick collection.) It looks and feels study and like it will withstand the worst a 7 year old boy can throw it - and that's quite a lot.

The Hallowe'en heads have also been used as props at the school Trick or Treat Bingo event and were quite a talking point as you can see at the top of this post. I think Monkey's friends were jealous.

I think I may use the orange one as a cheat's way of having a Jack O'Lantern without the pumpking carving bit. Lazy? You betcha!

(Room kindly sent us these products all the way from Denmark. All opinions are my own etc.)

Getting in the Hallowe'en spirit

Hallowe'en has changed a lot since I was a kid. I remember learning about witches and making pictures but trick or treating was a strange custom they did in the USA when I was small. I think I was pretty grown up before I even heard of it happening here, but it seems like it's the norm these days. I'm really in two minds about it - I think it can be great fun for children and I don't mind joining in if the children are just out to get as many sweets as possible - that'll be my two then - but I don't like the ones that are quite obviously out for money and are vaguely intimidating if you don't offer coins. I mean, what the hell? I am not made of money. There are times I've sat in the living room with all the lights off in the front of the house and ignored the door. Yes, I know, I'm a killjoy - what of it?

The children love Hallowe'en. A couple of years ago, they got to go trick or treating for the first time, round at some friends who live on an estate where nearly everyone does it. Their friend's dad dressed up in an inflatable pumpkin and I don't think I've ever laughed so much in my life. My friend and I trailed round the estate with 5 children under the age of 5, knocking on all the doors. The children got so many sweets, they lasted until Christmas! They've been to Hallowe'en parties and the school, not being religious, holds Hallowe'en discos as fundraisers just before they close for half term.

This year, I've been sent a few things for Hallowe'en next Monday. I can't decide if we're going to go trick or treating as it's a school night but we have plenty of things in now to be able to mark the occasion. First, Poundland set me a Hallowe'en challenge to see how much I could buy with £10 vouchers that they kindly sent me. They were especially generous because somehow, I also got an envelope full of Hallowe'en tinsel, deely boppers with spiders, a witch's hat, a themed wine "glass" and some frog's leg sweets!

So, off to the local store we went. The children loved that they could choose things and actually buy them. (Can you tell I'm Mean Mummy?) We got:

- 2 flashing ghost lights
- 2 Simpsons Hallowe'en mugs
- Skeleton party straws
- Critters party decorations
- Jewelled ring
- 3 packs of Hallowe'en sweets

As the Hallowe'en items apart from the sweets were on 6 for £5, we had a pound left over. What did we buy? A book on times tables, at Monkey's request. Seriously! Poundland have pretty much everything, including some costumes in the smaller children's sizes, masks, all your partyware, sweets and decorations. We're sorted now for Hallowe'en; I might actually bother to answer the door to trick or treaters this year.

Something else we have been sent are a couple of items to try by Dr Oetker for a spot of Hallowe'en baking. They've sent me a bat cookie kit and some gel food colouring. I'm thinking of using the gel colouring to make a Hallowe'en version of my Neapolitan marble cake from last week for the day itself but we've made (and, er, eaten!) the bat cookies. The kit contains everything you need to make the cookies apart from 85g butter. You just rub the butter into the mix and bring it into a ball, then roll it out and use the bat cutter to cut out your shapes. I think my butter might have been a bit too soft as the dough was very crumbly. I tried bunging it in the freezer for a few minutes which helped a bit but my, it was fun trying to keep the shapes intact and onto the baking sheet.

Once the cookies were baked and cooled, there's also black writing icing to draw features on your bat. We've all had a go - and I discovered that writing icing takes a bit of warming up to work properly and you need to be slightly patient with it to get your designs drawn. I think my husband found his calling and did the best design on the bat:

(The upside down ones are mine, and the children's efforts are on the left hand side!).

As I said, the cookies didn't last very long - we had an afternoon cuppa (milk or juice for the children) and they were gone! They are shortbread like in texture: I made 8 whereas the pack said it made 6, but I thought the thinner ones were better as they were crisper. I would have rolled the dough out thinner had I been able to roll it out better so 8 is probably conservative.

I may not be a huge fan of Hallowe'en, but I think we're all more in the spirit of it this year.

(I was sent the items mentioned above by Poundland and Dr Oetker and I have received no other compensation. All opinions and words are my own, and I retain full editorial control.)

Hallowe'en Pumpkin Cake

The lovely English Mum is running an Autumn Bake-off competition and I thought I would have another go. I don't do pretty cakes but I thought I'd enter anyway.

When I thought about what to do with a vaguely autumnal theme, I was a bit stumped. I made parkin once and it wasn't all that successful. I thought of something appley but again, apple cakes don't seem to do it for me. I like them with blackberries but they are past their best by early September and I refuse to pay supermarket prices for blackberries.

At this time of the year, I normally end up making a cake for Hallowe'en as we do a fundraiser/family event in our NCT branch. So, I set about thinking of a cake to make that would fit both briefs. Of course, pumpkins are a big feature of Hallowe'en so I set about wondering if you could make a pumpkin cake. After all, pumpkin pie is a big thing in the US, right? So pumpkin cake can't be that different. I tweeted this thought out loud and some lovely ladies furnished me with links to recipes. I was sold on this recipe when I realised that it doesn't require the pumpkin to be pre-cooked, thus making the whole process easier and quicker. It's very similar to carrot cake, right down to the cream cheese frosting, which I'll admit now is not my forte.

I actually made this with butternut squash because I had one on I wanted to use. The timings are slightly variable as the pumpkin or squash can vary wildly in water content so it might take a lot longer to cook.

Here's how I made it

Hallowe'en Pumpkin Cake
(makes around 15 pieces)

Ingredients


for the cake
300g self-raising flour
300g light brown muscovado sugar
3 tsp mixed spice
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
175g dried fruit (I used raisins, you could use sultanas)
1/2 tsp salt
200g butter
4 eggs, beaten
zest of 1 orange
1 tbsp orange juice
500g (peeled and deseeded) pumpkin or butternut squash, grated

to finish the cake
85g butter, softened
200g full fat soft cheese (low fat doesn't work, don't do it!)
100g icing sugar
zest of 1 orange and juice of half

First, prepare your tin. Take a roasting or baking tin around 20x30cm (8x12 in), butter it well and line with baking parchment. Preheat your oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.

Mix all the dry ingredients for the cake together (not the pumpkin) in a large bowl until combined. Melt the butter (best done in a jug), then beat in the eggs and add the zest and juice. Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients and stir until well combined, then stir in the grated pumpkin. Pour the cake mix into the prepared tin. Bake for 30 mins or until golden and firm, springing back when touched. I found mine needed much longer as the middle was not cooked so I turned it down to 160C to avoid burning and cooked for about another 15 mins.

Whilst the cake is baking, make the frosting by beating together the cheese, butter, icing sugar, most of the orange zest and 1tsp of the juice until smooth and place in the fridge until needed.

Take the cake when done out of the oven and leave it to cool for 5 mins before removing it from the tin and placing on a wire rack to cool. Whilst the cake is still warm, prick all over with a skewer and drizzle over the rest of the orange juice. Leave to cool thoroughly.

Once cool, you can trim the edges of the cake (the sides of my tin weren't straight so I did, but you really don't have to.). Swirl the frosting over the top of the cake using a flat knife or spatula. Decorate with the rest of the orange zest.

And so, finally, let me unveil my entry to English Mum's Autumn Bake Off. It's shocking photography but I made the cake, went out for a curry, came home and finished off the cake and I remembered late on that I hadn't taken a pic, so it's as bad as, if not worse than my usual standard. Still, it's all I got so this will have to do.

(Late edit, but here is some of the cake cut up and ready to be eaten at the Hallowe'en Party.)

And if you want to have a go yourself, please do. The winner will get a cook book by Diana Henry and there is a kid's prize of a Chef Curly Bear. You've still got until midnight on 12th November to enter the competition so get baking!

Happy Hallowe'en!