PUMPKIN PATCH CAKE

Recipe from the Washington Post.

For this operation you need a traditional-shaped Bundt pan (or two), two boxes of cake mix, enough white frosting to cover 2 cakes, orange and green food coloring, a cupcake tin, and some extra devil's food cake crumbs or chocolate jimmies. (If you know how much scratch cake to make to fill two Bundt pans, go ahead and make it from scratch.) What you do is make up the two boxes of cake mix as usual and bake them in the Bundt pan(s), except for one lonely little cupcake baked in the cupcake tin. Cake flavor doesn't matter, though if you use chocolate you will be able to use the crumbs later on, as you will see.

Unmold the Bundt cakes and place them bottom-to-bottom. If you use the original Bundt pan, the ridges on the cakes will make the cakes resemble a pumpkin at this point. Set the cakes on a large platter (one cake will be on top of the other, upside-down) and frost them with the white frosting tinted orange. There will probably be a big hole down the middle of the cake. Fill that with leftover frosting and set the green cupcake on top. The cupcake will be the pumpkin stem. Unwrap that and put it in the hole in the cakes and frost that with the white frosting tinted green. You can use leftover chocolate crumbs or chocolate jimmies to sprinkle around the cake on the platter to resemble soil. You could use crushed Famous Chocolate Wafers or even Oreo cookies to make "soil." For the finishing touch, carve a jack o'lantern face out of the pumpkin cake!

QUOTE NOTE: "I tried the pumpkin patch cake last year and got rave reviews! The only thing different is that I used a regular ice cream cone for the stem of the pumpkin (covered with frosting) and I colored cocount an orange-brown color and scattered it around the bottom of the cake. Also, I used candy corn and licorice to make the face. Remember that you can do the same cake for Thanksgiving, just leave off the face!"

KITTY LITTER CAKE #1

Prepare cake mixes and bake according to directions (any size pans). Prepare pudding mix and chill until ready to assemble. Crumble white sandwich cookies in small batches in blender, they tend to stick, so scrape often. Set aside all but about 1/4 cup. To the 1/4 cup cookie crumbs, add a few drops green food coloring and mix using a fork or shake in a jar.

When cakes are cooled to room temperature, crumble into a large bowl. Toss with half the remaining white cookie crumbs and the chilled pudding. You probably won't need all of the pudding, mix with the cake and "feel" it, you don't want it soggy, just moist; gently combine. Put mixture into clean litter box.

Put three unwrapped Tootsie rolls in a microwave safe dish and heat until soft and pliable. Shape ends so they are no longer blunt, curving slightly. Repeat with 3 more Tootsie rolls and bury in mixture. Sprinkle the other half of cookie crumbs over top. Scatter the green cookie crumbs lightly over the top, this is supposed to look like the chlorophyll in kitty litter. Heat remaining Tootsie Rolls, three at a time in the microwave until almost melted. Scrape them on top of the cake and sprinkle with cookie crumbs. Place the box on a newspaper and sprinkle a few of the cookie crumbs around. Serve with a new pooper scooper.

KITTY LITTER BOX CAKE #2

Lisa Sepa -- sepa@mccada.mauicc.hawaii.edu
servings: 24

Prepare cake mixes and bake according to directions. Prepare pudding mix and chill until ready to assemble. Crumble white sandwich cookies in small batches in blender, they tend to stick, so scrape often; set aside all but about 1/4 cup. To the 1/4 cup cookie crumbs, add a few drops green food coloring and mix using a fork. When cakes are cooled to room temperature, crumble into a large bowl. Toss with half the remaining cookie crumbs and the chilled pudding. Gently combine. Line a new, clean kittly litter box with a litter box liner. Put three un-wrapped Toostie rolls in a microwave safe dish and heat until soft and pliable. Shape ends so they are no longer blunt, curving slightly. Repeat with 3 more Tootsie Rolls and bury in mixture. Sprinkle the other half of the cookie crumbs over the top. Scatter the green cookie crumbs lightly over the top, this is supposed to look like the chlorophyll in kittie litter. Heat remaining Tootsie Rolls in micowave, 3 at a time, until almost melted. Scrape them on top of the cake and sprinkle with cookie crumbs. Serve with a new pooper scooper.

KITTY LITTER BOX CAKE #3

Prepare cake mixes per package directions. Bake them in any size pan you like (you'll break them up into pieces later, so it doesn't matter).

Prepare pudding and chill. You may or may not need/want all the pudding; use the leftovers to eat later on.

Pulse cookies in small batches in a blender, scraping the sides often. Remove from the blender and divide.

To 1 cup of the cookie crumbs, add a few drops of green food coloring (it's suppose to look like the chlorophyll in the Kitty Litter). Mix with a fork or shake in a jar to mix. Set aside.

When cakes are at room temperature, crumble them into a large bowl. Toss with half of the remaining (uncolored) cookie crumbs and enough of the pudding to make the mixture feel moist, but not soggy.

Place a liner in the box and pour in mixture.

Unwrap 3 Tootsie rolls and heat in a microwave until soft and pliable. Shape blunt ends into slightly curved points (use your imagination). Repeat with three more rolls. Bury the rolls decoratively in the cake mixture, sticking out of the cake mixture at random intervals.

Sprinkle the remaining white cookie crumbs over mixture, then scatter green crumbs lightly over top.

Heat the 6 of the Tootsie Rolls, three at a time (* see below) in the microwave until almost melted. Scrape them on top of the cake and sprinkle with crumbs from box.

* This is my idea; I save one of the Tootsie Rolls, lightly roll it in a mixture of the white and green cookie crumbs, then hang it over the side of the pan. I KNOW, I'm gross!

Place box on a couple of sheets of newspaper and serve with the scooper! 


     Linda/BDT Burbank, CA (USA)                   (

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     Internet address: linda.magee@burbank.com     )  ( )

                 (aka BZ Baker)                     .....

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"SAND" CAKE

Using soapy water, wash sand buckets and shovels, rinse them and dry them, then set them aside. On a microwave safe dish, place butter. Place in microwave on defrost (or 30% power) for 1 minute. Put butter in large mixing bowl. Repeat softening process with cream cheese and add to mixing bowl. (Note: you can also place butter, cream cheese, and whipped topping on the counter for 1 hour to soften them.) Mix butter and cream cheese together. Uncover frozen whipped topping and place in microwave on defrost (or 30% power) for 1 to 2 minutes. In a medium-size bowl, add milk. Sprinkle pudding over milk and whip or beat until thickened, about 1 minute. Add pudding and whipped topping to the cream cheese mixture and mix until smooth using a wooden spoon or electric mixer. In a food processor, process vanilla wafers until they form a fine even crumb. Or place wafers in a plastic bag and roll them, using a rolling pin, until you have completely broken them up.

In the buckets, place a layer of crushed vanilla wafers, then a layer of the cream cheese-pudding mixture. Keep layer until full and end with a layer of crushed wafers. Cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate several hours. Before serving, decorate with Beach Bears, Gummy Worms or Sharks if desired. Use shovel to serve.

Serves 8-10 people.

FLAMING GHOST CAKE

"This recipe is more of a procedure than a recipe and of course I didn't save the post or remember who wrote it. Anyway, first make a 9"x13" cake. When cool, cut the 2 upper corners of the cake, not straight, but sort of rounded. The curvature adds to the shape of the ghost's head and the corner pieces become the ghost's arms. I know, the diagram is really bad as ascii art goes, but hopefully you get my meaning (the original poster had a "much" better diagram). You can also "carve" the body so it has a more ghost-like shape (bell-shaped?)." 


            -------------

            |   /   \   |

            | /       \ |      <-- cut pieces are arms

            |/   O  O  \|      <-- eyes

            |           |

            |     ()    |      <-- mouth

            |           |

            |           |

            |           |

            |___________|
"Place the arms on the body so it looks like the ghost is raising its arms, then frost. Traditionalists will want to use white frosting. Use thin licorice to form a mouth, and as you mentioned, use 2 clean egg shell halves for the eyes."

"The next part about the flaming eyes gave me some trouble. You're supposed to place a sugar cube in each shell, add alcohol and ignite. I used half a teaspoon sugar (didn't have cubes) and then tried vodka, wine, sherry, amaretto, and kahlua. In each case the match fizzled and died. Bummer. My ghost ended up with piped frosting eyes instead of flaming ones. Belatedly I found out warmed brandy is a good source of fuel."

NOTES FROM LINDA GROSS: "I made the flaming ghost cake with the outstretched arms and eyes flaming. I used sugar cubes and brandy in the eggs shells for the eyes. The effect was lost in the daylight but later when the lights were out, it was great. Burns for awhile if the cube is soaked with enough brandy.

CHOCOLATE PUMPKIN CAKE

Roblyn Hymes -- Washington, D.C.

"This cake consists of two chocolate cakes, stacked on top of each other, with vanilla frosting in between. Take the remaining vanilla frosting and dye it orange. Then spread the orange frosting over the stacked cakes. Afterwards, decorate the face with candy corn, etc. Then place a chocolate hostess twinkle, I think that's what it's called, at the top of the pumpkin cake to resemble a stalk."

"LITTERBOX" COOKIES

There are two flavor cookies: chocolate and gingerbread. The cookies are dense and not very sweet, this is necesssary so that they will keep their shape during baking. If you use white flour or sugar they may be tastier but they won't look like "shit".

Chocolate ingredients:

Gingerbread ingredients: Mix-ins: Microwave the honey until it bubbles (about 1 minute). Add the butter, and the molasses, if any. Add the egg, mix well, then mix in all the other stuff. Add mix-ins of your choice to some or all of the batter.

Chill 1 hour in the freezer or several hours in the fridge. Roll dough logs of random length and the diameter of cat poops. Roll logs in grape-nuts and bake at 350 degrees till done (10 to 15 minutes).

Serve in a disposable cat litter box on a bed of grapenuts, with a cat litter scoop. I hear you get lovely effects by decorating the box and scoop with melted chocolate or pudding.

QUOTE NOTE: "This recipe worked especially well at my Halloween party where the table was decorated with plastic flies."

SKELETON BONE COOKIES

With an electric mixer on medium speed, beat egg whites and sugar with orange peel and baking powder until blended. Gradually add nuts and flour, beating until mixture is thoroughly mixed. Cover and chill until firm enough to handle, at least 1 hour or up to 1 day.

Lightly flour your hands and pinch off a 3 tb size piece of dough. On a lightly floured board, use the palms of both hands to evenly roll an 8 inch long rope. Cut rope in half; roll each half out again to 8 inches. Fold 1 inch of each end back onto rope; pinch ends to make bone-end shapes. Repeat to shape all the dough. Place bones 1 inch apart on buttered and flour-dusted 12 x 15 inch baking sheets. Bake in a 325F oven until cookies are lightly browned on bottoms, about 20 minutes.

"BUGS"

Melt chips in double boiler & pour over noodles and nuts. Mix well and drop by spoonfuls on ungreased cookie sheet. Chill until firm.

COOL WHIP GRAVEYARD TREAT

From a Cool Whip advertisement - October 1994. Makes 15-18 single servings.

Dessert:

Decorations: Mix together 2 cups of the cookie crumbs, 1/4 cup sugar, and margarine in a 13x9x2" pan. Press firmly into the bottom of the pan to create a crust. Refrigerate.

Beat cream cheese and remaining 1/4 cup sugar in a bowl until smooth. Stir in 1/2 of the Cool Whip. Spread over crust.

Stir boiling water into Jello in bowl for 2 minutes or until completely dissolved. Mix cold water and ice cubes together to make 1-1/2 cups. Stir ice water into Jello until thickened. Remove any remaining ice. Spoon Jello over cream cheese layer. Refrigerate 3 hours or until firm.

Spread remaining Cool Whip over Jello layer. Sprinkle with remaining cookie crumbs. Decorate as a "graveyard" by poking sandwich cookies on end into the dessert. Decorate the cookies as tombstones with the decorator icing. Scatter candy corn and pumpkins around on the surface.

PUMPKIN BREAD

Makes 2 loaves. Preheat oven to 350 F. Combine flour, soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar in large mixing bowl. Add eggs, water, oil and pumpkin. Stir until blended. Add nuts. Mix well. Pour into two 9x5" loaf pans. Bake 1 hour. Cool slightly and take out of pans to let cool on a rack. This tastes best if you wrap, refrigerate and wait a day to eat it. It keeps well in the refrigerator and can be frozen.

TOASTED PUMPKIN SEEDS

Even the seeds get into the act. Toast your supply in the time of plenty, just before the frost touches the colourful autumn leaves. They will keep for 1 year stored in the freezer or a few months in a cool place in sealed jars.

Remove the fibres from the seeds of a large pumpkin and place seeds in a saucepan. Top with cold water, add 1 tsp salt, cover and simmer 2 hours. Drain and spread on paper towelling 4-8 hours to dry. When completely dry, place on a baking sheet, sprinkle with a few spoonfuls of salad oil -- just enough to make seeds slightly oily when rubbed together.

Set in a 350 F oven for 20-35 minutes, or until nutty brown, stirring a few times with a fork. When done, spread on brown paper, salt to taste and let cool. Eat as is, immediately, or store, and if you then want a crisper seed, warm up in a 350 F oven for 15 minutes.

CHEESE EYEBALLS

Combine cheese and butter. Add salt, paprika, and flour and mix well. Measure approximately one ts of this mixture and form an "eyeball" around an olive. Turn the olive in the "eyeball" so that it is "staring" outward. Line up the eyeballs on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in 400F oven for 15 minutes.

STRAINED EYEBALLS

Half eggs widthwise. Remove yolks and fill the hole with cream cheese, smoothing surface as much as possible. Press an olive into each cream cheese eyeball, pimiento up, for an eerie green iris and red pupil. Dip a toothpick into ketchup and draw broken blood vessels in the cream cheese.

CRISPY CATERPILLAR COCOONS

From the book "Gross Grub" (which is full of disgusting recipes). Posted on EAT-L by Lailani Tilley .

Preheat oven according to directions on the crescent-roll package. Prepare the sausages according to the directions on the package. Use tongs to remove the cooked sausages from the frying pan and place them on paper towels. Allow to cool ten to fifteen minutes. Cut the sausages in half lengthwise. Then use the rounded tip of a carrot peeler to scoop out a long, shallow trough down the length of each half. Squeeze a thin line of mustard into each trough. Separate the crescent-roll dough into its pre-cut triangle pieces, and lay them flat on an ungreased cookie sheet. To form insect larvae, take two sausage halves and, with their mustard-filled sides touching, put them together to form a whole. Place a whole larva at the wide end of each dough triangle, and roll up dough as you would regular crescent rolls. Pinch the ends and seams of the rolls closed. Bake according to package instructions. (Allow the little buggers to cool fifteen to twenty minutes before chowing down on their tender torsos!). Serves: 4 goo gobblers

GNARLED WITCHES FINGERS

Grease cookie sheet with oil, set aside. Carefully cut chicken breasts part way to create five "fingers" (the uncut part will be the palm of the hand). Slice them a little crooked for effect. Dust in flour, dip in egg, coat in bread crumbs, broil 5 minutes on each side until golden and cooked through. Trim the tips with the olive fingernails and serve on lettuce.

QUOTE NOTE: "Truth be known, I'm going to try shake'n'bake this year to ease my meal prep time on this busy, busy day of the year."

WORMS AU GRATIN

Mix dirt ingredients together, sprinkle over worms. Place under broiler for 5 minutes.

RADIOACTIVE PUNCH

Easiest is to mix something yellow with something blue. Orange juice and Mountain Dew are good for the yellow, Great Bluedini kool-aid is good for the blue. You'll end up with a radioactive shade of green. If you're using a punch bowl, try this: Get some of those latex gloves, fill them with water or juice tinted with food colouring, freeze. Unmold carefully and float the disembodied hands in the punch bowl. Dry ice and back lighting are good for effect too."

NOTE FROM Fran E. Rich : Fill a rubber glove with water, tie off the end (at the wrist) and freeze it. When frozen, peel off the glove carefully so as not to break the fingers and float it in the punch. Or heck, break off a finger, then drizzle some red food coloring on it to look like blood.

NOTE FROM LINDA GROSS: "If you try the water in the gloves trick, be careful because the fingers are fragile and snap off easily, but that could add to the effect if you drizzle red food coloring on the "wound"!"

NUCLEAR WASTE PUNCH

The end result is a sort of greenish-brown liquid with scummy bits floating in it and a THICK layer of scum on top. Tastes wonderful, especially if you dunk chocolate bars in. (These are referred to as Control Rods, and the bar of preference is a Toffee Crisp, if only because the crisped rice pieces start floating around in the drink and making it look even nastier)

ONE PERSONA'S NOTE: "The nuclear wastes I've seen mix blue curacao and orange juice (and vodka). Turns everything a very nice shade of fluorescent green."

GLYCOL PUNCH

"Glycol Punch has two primary ingredients: Diet Mountain Dew, which has an decidedly evil odd yellow glow to it. Diet is necessary so that you don't over sugar people. (Alternately, use regular Mountain Dew and mix Kool-Aid with less sugar than usual). BTW, we also tried other sodas, including Squirt, 7-up and Sprite, but none had that evil yellowness."

"A flourescent blue liquid. I know for a fact that the raspberry "little hugs" drinks for kids are the perfect color. There is a Kool-Aid blue flavor that I'm sure would work well, too. For the "little hugs" the ratio is about 4-5 barrels to 1 2-liter bottle of soda. Adjust as you think best. I'd start by pouring out the soda and adding the blue. You know you've got it right when you get the sickly yellow-green of many Glycol-based Antifreezes. Plus, when you drink, it fizzes!"

EERIE WITCH'S BREW

A SERIOUS CAUTION: Never touch dry ice; use tongs to handle.

In a 1 to 2 quart pan, bring 1 cup of cranberry juice and candied ginger to a boil over high heat. Boil, uncovered, about 2 minutes, set aside. With a vegetable peeler, peel zest from oranges; cut peel into thin 2 inch long worms. Add orange peel to cranberry mixture. Cover and chill at least 4 hours or as long as overnight.

Juice oranges; put juice in a 6 to 8 quart pan or heavy bowl. Stir in cranberry-ginger mixture, the 3 cups cranberry juice, apple concentrate, limeade, grapes and water. If made ahead, cover and chill up to 2 hours. Add ginger ale and about a 1 pound piece of dry ice (DO NOT put small pieces in punch or cups); ice should smolder at least 30 minutes. Ladle into cups. Add any remaining ice when bubbling ceases.

"AQUARIUM" JELLO

Great idea for a simple dessert at kid's parties!

Use a new or well cleaned goldfish bowl. In the bottom, the original recipe called for red-hots as the 'gravel', but I plan to use the Jelly Belly beans that look like rocks. Mix up as much blue Jello as your bowl will hold. Mix using ice cubes & cold water instead of the cold water called for on the box. Pour this into the bowl over a knife blade or something to keep from disturbing the gravel. If you want it to have 'seaweed', poke a couple of pieces of purple endive or something similar down into the gravel. When the whole thing starts to jell, use a wooden skewer to push gummy fish into different parts of the bowl. If you're going to be able to supervise the serving, you could even add a plastic diver man, etc.

TOXIC AQUARIUM JELLO

"Well, what we'd do for a Halloween party would be to make a Toxic Aquarium. Mix orange and blue jello to get a putrid shade of green. Lifesavers make old tires and you can toss in other junky things for trash on the bottom of the sea. Something barrel-shaped (root beer barrels?) for that illegally dumped toxic waste. Float your fish upside-down on top, and add a plastic skeleton or two. Haven't figured out a good way to put something on the bottom to represent the sand."

POTTY JELLO

"Purchase the plastic bowl that fits in a child's potty training chair (they sell them at places like KMart). Wash the bowl and prepare lemon jello per package directions. Float miniature O-Henry bars in it, refrigerate, and serve."

EYEBALL JELLO

Linda Gross -- Springfield, VA

"The Eyeball Jello was a hit - although most kids picked out the blueberries, the parents got a good laugh out of it. I poured lemon jello in ice cubes trays and put a blueberry in each cup and let set. I placed them in the sections used for a deviled egg plate with the rest heaped in the center."

DAIQUIRI JELLO

Mix the usual way.

STRAWBERRY-BANANA DAIQUIRI JELLO

Mix the usual way.

NOTES: These are tasty. The 3/4 cup of liquor gives it a little more kick. Good and tasty. I've been making them in 2-oz. plastic "salsa cups" (those little wide shallow ones you get condiments in) and a batch makes about 19 of them.

SHIRLEY TEMPLE JELLO

Use Cherry Jello; use boiling and cold 7-up or other lemon-lime soda instead of water.

SPIKED JELLO

OTHER HALLOWEEN FOOD IDEAS

Find the book "Creepy Cuisine" by Lucy Monroe.

NOTE FROM STEPHANIE DA SILVA: You can take some ordinary foods and relabel as them something creative:
1. Ribs with lots of barbeque sauce.
2. Baked potatoes with chili ladled over for shrunken heads with brain sauce.
3. Spaghetti for your basic guts. A twist on this would be to put brussel sprouts in the sauce instead of meatballs. People won't be able to tell the difference until they bite into them.
4. Fill your candy dishes with Black Jellybeans, Mellowcream pumpkins and candy corn. Drape gummy worms over the sides of the candy dish for effect.

More cookie ideas:
1. Bake brown sugar cookies in pumpkin-shaped stoneware cookie molds (Brown Bag Cookie Molds).
2. Make sugar cookie cut-outs with pumpkin-shaped cookie cutters and sprinkle with orange decorator sugar.

Halloween Spider Cake

Prepare cake and gelatin according to package directions. Except use the 9" round cake pans for the cake. Cut a smaller circle out of one cake using it as the head. Fill the hole left over with the gelatin. Place the other layer on top and trip to shape. To prepare frosting, in a mixing bowl, add blue food coloring to the chocolate frosting until black in color. Frost cake black. Then use the black licorice as leggs and gumballs as eyes. NOTE: When cake is cut into, it spurts green goop.

Holiday Poke Cake

Place layers top sides in in 2 (9 inch round cake pans. Pierce cake with large fork at 1/2 inch increments. Stir 1 cup boiling water into each flavor of the gelatin in seperate bowls 2 minutes or until dissolved. Carefully pour red gelatin over 1 cake layer and lime gelatin over the second cake layer. Refridgerate 3 hours. Dip 1 pan in warm water for 10 seconds; unmold onto serving plate. Spread with 1 cup of whipped topping. Unmold second layer, carefully place on first latyer. Frost with remaining whipped topping. Garnish as desired. Refrigderate for 1 hour before serving.


HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Ideas compiled from various sources on the Internet (EAT-L, CRAFTS-L, rec.food.cooking, AOL, and others) by: Vicki Schlining -- VickiS321@aol.com or Vicki.Schlining@ssa.gov NOTE: If one of your original ideas has been included and I have not given you credit, please email me and I will cheerfully update!