Creepy Witches' Fingers

 

Yield: 5 dozen

Ingredients

1 cup Butter, softened
1 cup Icing sugar
1 Egg
1 tsp Almond extract
1 tsp Vanilla
2 2/3 cups Flour
1 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp Salt
3/4 cup Almonds, whole blanched
1 Tube red decorator gel
(optional, not pictured)

Gross everyone out with these creepy cookies.
In bowl, beat together butter, sugar, egg, almond extract and vanilla. Beat in flour, baking soda, and salt. Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes. Working with one quarter of the dough at a time and keeping remainder refrigerated, roll heaping teaspoonful of dough into finger shape for each cookie. Press almond firmly into 1 end for nail. Squeeze in centre to create knuckle shape. (Accompanying picture showed long rolled shape with bulge at centre for knuckle; you puff it out rather than squeeze it in.) Using paring knife, make slashes in several places to form knuckle.

Place on lightly greased baking sheets; bake in 325F (160C) oven for 20-25 minutes or until pale golden. Let cool for 3 minutes. Lift up almond, squeeze red decorator gel onto nail bed and press almond back in place, so gel oozes out from underneath. You can also make slashes in the finger and fill them with "blood."
(ed. note - I opted not to go for the bloody effect as you can see in my picture above, and my guests were still grossed out! - Britta)

Remove from baking sheets and let cool on racks. Repeat with remaining dough.

Great Pumpkin Cake

 

Prep Time: 20 min
Total Time: 1 hr 5 min
Makes: 24 servings 

Ingredients

1 pkg. (2-layer) cake mix (any flavor) 
1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened 
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened 
4 cups powdered sugar 
Few drops each: green, red and yellow food colorings 
1 COMET Cup 
 
 

PREPARE and bake cake mix in 12-cup fluted tube pan as directed on package. Cool 10 min. in pan. Remove from pan to wire rack; cool completely. 
BEAT cream cheese and butter in small bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating until light and fluffy after each addition. Remove 1/2 cup of the frosting; place in small bowl. Add green food coloring; stir until well blended. Spread half of the green frosting onto outside of ice cream cone; set aside. Set remaining green frosting aside for later use. 
ADD red and yellow food colorings to remaining white frosting to tint it orange. Place cake, rounded-side up, on serving plate. Spread with orange frosting to resemble pumpkin. Invert ice cream cone in hole in top of cake for the "pumpkin's stem." Pipe the reserved green frosting in vertical lines down side of cake (see Tip). 
 
 

 TIPS
 

Cooking Know-How
For a more rounded Great Pumpkin Cake, use a tall 12-cup fluted tube pan. As the cake bakes, it rises and forms a rounded top. When cake is unmolded (upside-down), the bottom of the cake will be rounded. If the cake is baked in a shorter 12-cup fluted tube pan, as it appears on the video, the resulting cake will be flatter.

Fun Idea
Place black gumdrops on sheet of wax paper sprinkled with additional sugar. Use a rolling pin to thinly flatten each gumdrop, turning frequently to coat both sides with sugar. Cut into desired shapes with a sharp knife. Use to decorate frosted cake to resemble a jack-o'-lantern.

Coffin Sandwiches

 

Prep Time: 10 min
Total Time: 10 min
Makes: 1 serving

Ingredients

2 slices whole wheat bread 
3 slices Smoked Ham 
1 KRAFT Singles  Cheese
1 Tbsp. MIRACLE WHIP Dressing 
1 lettuce leaf 
 Mustard or Ketchup
 

CUT bread slices into coffin shapes. 
LAYER with sliced meat, Singles, dressing and lettuce. Spear each sandwich with plastic toothpick to hold it together, if desired. 
CUT sandwich into coffin shape using a sharp knife.
WRITE R.I.P with mustard or ketchup with a pipping bag or sandwich bag & cut a little corner out to write with.
 

Eerie Eyeballs

 

Yields approximately 9 dozen bite-sized eyeballs

Ingredients

3 oz lemon gelatin (can be sugar-free)
1 cup hot water
1/2 cup miniature marshmallows
1 cup pineapple juice
8 oz cream cheese (can be lowfat/Neufchatel)
1 cup mayonnaise (can be fat-free)

Dissolve lemon gelatin in 1 cup water in double boiler, add marshmallows and stir to melt. Remove from heat. Add pineapple juice and cream cheese. Beat until well blended. Cool slightly. Fold in mayo. If you have a truffle candy mold or round ice cube trays, pour the mixture in the molds and leave to set in the fridge. Otherwise pour into a deep ceramic dish and chill until thickened or firm enough for scooping into eyeballs. Using a melonballer, scoop full balls of the mixture and set aside for decoration. To decorate, use liquid food coloring and an old detail paintbrush and get creative. You will need black food coloring for the pupils. Also, if you are in a hurry, instead of painting the colored irises, you can carefully dip the ball in a small pool of food coloring to approximate the iris, but still paint on the pupils.

Kitty Litter Cake Recipe 

If you really want to gross out guests at your Halloween party, make a Kitty Litter Cake! To complete the recipe, transfer it to a lined kitty litter box and serve it with a new pooper scooper. It's delicious -- if you can get past the illusion.

 

Recipe Ingredients

1 pkg. Spice or German Chocolate cake mix

1 pkg. White cake mix

1 pkg. white sandwich cookies

1 pkg. white vanilla pudding mix

1 pkg. small Tootsie Rolls

1 new kitty litter box

1 plastic kitty litter lining

1 new pooper scooper (optional but recommended)

 

Instructions

Bake the cake mixes according to the directions. Prepare the pudding mix and put in the fridge to chill. Use a blender or food processor to crumble the sandwich cookies. Do this in small batches and scrape often, because it will stick to the sides. After the cakes cool, crumble them into a large bowl. Add half of the cookie crumbs and pudding. Gently mix and add to the lined kitty litter box. Unwrap the Tootsie Rolls and put in the microwave to soften them up. Reshape the ends so they are more rounded and not square. Add about 10 of these to the mixture. Sprinkle more of the cookie crumbs over the top. Soften 3 or 4 more Tootsie Rolls and add them to the top of the mixture. Sprinkle with remaining cookie crumbs and serve with a clean pooper scooper!