How to make finger breadsticks

Yes! Severed fingers suitable for vegetarians!

This is another simple recipe and the kids can get in on the act too. They don't take too long to make but you do need to give the dough rise time, I started the dough off then got on with some other jobs and came back to it later.

What you need:

• 250g bread/strong flour (I used 150g white and 100g brown)
• 100ml milk
• 80ml water
• 17g sugar or honey
• 5g salt
• 10g olive oil or butter
• 7g dry yeast
• 1 red pepper chopped into small pieces

Decoration

• Onion - cut into thick slices then chop to make fingernails
• ketchup

I have a confession here. I usually just chuck everything in the bread maker to mix up the dough. I have done it by hand, again just throwing everything in and it's work out fin. Might be an idea to add the yeast to the liquid before mixing it all together.

Leave to raise for and hour or until it's doubled in size.

Now comes the fun part.

Pull off a chunk of dough and roll into a sausage shape. Squash it down a little at the end and add a piece of onion, dunk the bottom end in the ketchup.

Use a sharp knife and make a couple of slashes for the knuckles.

Let them stand whilst you heat the oven, 210 Deg C, bake for about 15 minutes, keep an eye on them, they should sound hollow when you tap them and look baked.

The red pepper just adds a bit of flavour and makes them look, well, more revolting!

We served our fingers with the incredibly yummy and easy to make Rustic Ham Mousse

Jelly Eyes Tutorial - perfect to jazz up boring party food

Jelly Eyes Tutorial

I decided this year that I wasn't going to do eyeballs and severed fingers for the party but... I ended up with eyes and fingers again, how does this happen? This year though I changed my fingers and eyes, no sausages and eggs this year.

First up are the stickable yes, these turned out way better than I hope and the brilliant thing is that they just stick to things, no extra 'glue' required.

They are also quick to make, so if you are short of time and end up buying your party food you can son jazz it up with a few sticky eyes.

What you need:

I did two colours of eyes, so this is for two colours but you'll catch the drift, it's hardly brain surgery!

• Silicon tray or greaseproof paper
• 3 small bowls
• Gelatine powder
• Food colours, black for the pupil then I used red and green for the iris
• 3 small bowls
• Warm water
• 3 spoons for mixing
• Pipet

Tip some of the gelatine powder into a bowl

Add a couple of drops of black food colour

Then add the water, I didn't measure it, you want it to be quite thick, it should start to set pretty quickly, so only mix up one jelly colour at a time.

Use the spoon and make drops of jelly on the greaseproof paper, remember to keep them spaced out.

The jelly should start to set pretty quickly, in a minute or two. Once it has set you can mix up the next colour. Basically do the same as before.

This time use the pipet to deposit the jelly around the black dots. Now I did try using a spoon at first but I couldn't control where the jelly went and it was all pretty disastrous! Pipets rule! Again, you need to work fairly quickly because the jelly will start to set. There is no need to move it to the fridge to set. I was working at rom temperature and it was fine.

Once you have done one colour you can do the second. Leave to set completely, once the washing up is done they should be well set. Then you can simply peel off the silicon/greaseproof paper and stick them on whatever you like!

I actually used most of them in the Eyeful Trifle. They stick brilliant to the inside of the glass bowl so I just added the layers for the jelly and had little eyes looking out!

The roll cake got eyeballed before being chopped up for the trifle base *evil laugh*

If you make some let me know, tag me over in Moms That Rock or on Instagram, I'd love to see what you did with yours!

Delicious Brains...

I made some lovely delicious brain for the party, and wanted to share how to do it!
This is what the finished brain looked like...nom, nom, tasty stuff!

What you need:

• Pack of Kanten - I don't know what this is in English, you often get it in fruit salads, it's got a jelly/jello type of texture and sweet (see picture below)
• Strawberry jam
• red and black food colour
• milk 50ml
• sugar (optional)
• brain mold available from amazon.com and amazon.co.jp
• small saucepan
• whisk

In a small saucepan, whisk together one sachet of kanten and 450ml water - I used less water than recommended because I wanted to set firmly. Continue heating and whisking for 2 minutes.

Add in the milk then the red food colour until it's a nice pale pink then a tiny bit of black to give it a nice grey hue. Stir in a dessert spoon of strawberry jam. Stir well until the jam has melted. You might want to add sugar or other flavouring now, mine wasn't very sweet. 

Pour into the mold then pop into the fridge for a couple of hours until it has set.

Once it looks like it has set well, turn the mold over and squeeze out - makes a suitably revolting sound when you do it!

Serve as is, or if you want to use in a bento, quarter the brain and serve with a side of fresh flesh ahem, strawberry jam! This is how I served the brains in the bento boxes at the party (see here)

Using 1 sachet will make you 8 brains, so let the first lot set then when you are ready to make the second set you can just heat up the mixture again, it will melt then pour it into the mold as before.

If you enjoyed this post please pin it and share it! Cheers.

Top Halloween books and activities...

I have a couple of great round ups over on My Organized Chaos...

Top 10 Halloween Books

and

10 spooky Halloween Activities/crafts

Enjoy!

3 Quick and Easy Halloween Activities

I posted this over on My Organized Chaos, each activity takes less than 15 minutes - perfect for sneaking in some spooky fun, even if you are super busy! Pop over and have a gander...

click me

I have put together my favourite Fun & Fast Ghoulish Halloween Treats into an ebook so you can whip them up at anytime (why just serve ghoulish food at Halloween?)

17 absolutely disgustingly delicious treat ideas... 

All fast and fun to make

All pretty healthy, made from kitchen basics

Most of them suitable to make with the kids too

PLUS a bonus labels pack too!

How To Make A Monster Box

We decided to give our craft supplies box a makeover. It was easy and fun to do.

What you need:

A box (we used a shoebox)

Kitchen paper

Paper glue 

Acrylic paint

White glue

Cardboard egg carton

Paintbrushes, water, cloth for spills.

Start by covering your box with a layer or two of paper towels, use the paper glue to stick the towels to the box. It may need a little time to dry.

Next, paint the white paper towels the base colour of the monster that you are going to make. We used a slime green colour.

While the painter is drying, cut out three parts from the egg carton to make the eyes. Use another section of the egg carton to make a nose. When the paint is dry, use the white glue to stick the egg cartons to the box.

Now tear some strips of kitchen paper and glue them to the base of the eyes and some more around the nose. You can also add a mouth if you like. Then make three eyebrows to go above the eyes, use the paper glue to stick these in place. Allowed to dry.

Here comes the fun part, first paint each eyeball white. Then add the iris and the pupil, add a tiny dot of white as reflection. Next, paint on the blood vessels start at the top and work down to the base of the eye, allow some red paint to dribble around the base of the eye.

As we used to slime green as the base colour for the monster, we mixed up some dark green to add definition. Have fun painting your monsters face. Allowed to dry.

We didn't have much time, so we only decorated the top of the box, turned on its side it's quite a scary monster. This technique using kitchen paper is a lot of fun and can be used for many different projects, such as the spell book that we made last year.

Halloween Finger Food

We had our playgroup Halloween party on Saturday. One of the members organized it at their home, well the park in front of their house and talked some of the neighbours into doing the Trick and Treat bit for the kids.

It was great fun, sadly I didn't get many pictures since the battery ran out on my camera. Ebi-kun loved it and wanted to do it all again the next day!

When we have playgroup events, it is usually a potluck party which is great because we get such a mixture of foods. I did forewarn everyone that I would be taking fingers and eyeballs but sooo many people told me after, that they thought I was joking - as if I would joke about such a thing!

So, just in case your supermarket is all out of fingers, here is a quick tutorial or is it a recipe? to make your own. Check out the Fast & Fun Ghoulish Halloween Treats ebook for more revoltingly good ideas!

You will need:

Wiener sausages, I like the mini ones, they look more like tender kids fingers rather than grizzly adult ones.

White onion

Ketchup

Cut a small section off the top of the weiner, this is where the nail will go

Then make 3 small cuts halfway down, this will be the knuckle

Cut the onion into thick slices, then cut the slices into slightly triangular pieces, pop the onion and weiners into boiling water for a few minutes. As they boil the fingers will bend slightly.

Dip the bottom of the sausage in the ketchup, then put a little ketchup on the wiener where the nail with go, add a piece of onion and you are done! Pop them in mini cupcake wrapper if you want to get fancy!

Last year I used yellow pepper for the nails, the onion was easier. You could use green pepper for monster fingers. 

Enjoy!

These disappeared really quickly at the party, a big hit, next up…. EYEBALLS

Other Halloween posts you will love:
Halloween Bento Boxes
Tasty Muffin Tin Dinner
Ghoulish dinner
Candy Eating Monster Treat Bag Tutorial
Make bat wings
Trick and Treat Scratch Cards
Top 10 Halloween Books for kids

I have put together my favourite Fun & Fast Ghoulish Halloween Treats into an ebook so you can whip them up at anytime (why just serve ghoulish food at Halloween?)
17 absolutely disgustingly delicious treat ideas...

All fast and fun to make
All pretty healthy, made from kitchen basics
Most of them suitable to make with the kids too

PLUS a bonus labels pack too!