“This post/recipe is from Heather and it originally appeared on SugarDishMe.com”

I freaking love Halloween.

Every year we throw a costume party at my house. And we go ALL OUT.

We start decorating in early September (because otherwise it’s not worth the effort. I do the same thing at Christmas – don’t hate). It’s an unspoken competition to see who is going to show up in the best / funniest / most creative costume.

We usually order pizza because I don’t want to spend my day making food. I want to paint my face, carve pumpkins, and replace all my lightbulbs with Edison bulbs for spook-factor.

But I DO make appetizers. And I DO make dessert.

My most popular Halloween dessert is this Bloody Good Cheesecake. It’s an easy red velvet cheesecake recipe but has a glaze made with red food dye and light corn syrup that is completely creep-tastic.

I don’t usually like making recipes where you have to go out and buy a thing to make it happen. And I will say that you CAN make this cake in two 9 X 9 or 8 X 8 round pans. I actually tested both to be sure. BUT THE SKULL CAKES Y’ALL.

They are super cool.

THE CAKE

This cake is dense and dark. It’s super rich and moist and I will warn you ahead of time that it’s not a one-bowl cake. You are gonna get some dishes dirty. But IT IS SOOOOO WORTH IT.

It’s a Devil’s Food Cake recipe that I tweaked a little. I love the results and you will, too!

You don’t have to have fancy cocoa to make these Black magic Skull Cakes, but you DO need to use dutch process cocoa. Hershey’s Special Dark works if you just wanna grab what you can at the store.

Another fun thing to note: BROWN SUGAR.

SKULL CAKE DECORATING

Heads up: these cakes are not easy to decorate with frosting. I definitely could have gotten fancy with some piping bags and colored buttercream, but I am always in a hurry and I like easy. So my FAVORITE way to decorate these skull cakes is just to dust them with a little powdered sugar or cocoa powder.

BLACK MAGIC SKULL CAKES

Heather says,

Black Magic Skull Cakes are perfect for all your halloween celebrating. Dark, dense devil’s food cake made in a fun skull cake pan!

Reposted with permission from Heather at SugarDishMe.com

Heather blogs at Sugar Dish Me where she shares tried and true, tested recipes that work well in a home kitchen, without lots of complicated stuff.  Her goal on her blog is to give you simple, family-friendly, fresh recipes with un-complicated ingredients, that you can find in a  regular store, on a regular budget.

Find Heather on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter 

• Icky Intestines Bread
• Little Chocolate Skeleton Men Cookies

The post BLACK MAGIC SKULL CAKES appeared first on The Southern Halloween Queen.

“Shared with permission from Cheryl at PooksPantry.com”

I think that Sugar Skulls are just beautiful and I love the meaning and traditions behind the Day of the Dead. These Day of the Dead Mexican Chocolate Cupcakes are made with Mexican chocolate and they’re decorated with bright colored sprinkles and sweet little sugar skull candies.

I love the sugar skulls and the super colorful sprinkles! My son is in love with the movie “Coco” so I may have to make these! – Angie

Day of the Dead Mexican Chocolate Cupcakes

Cheryl says,

Día de los Muertos or “Day of the Dead” – what exactly is this holiday?  Since the movie Coco came out, I think it helped people understand that it is not the Mexican version of Halloween.  It is a time to remember friends and family who have passed on.  In Mexico, people go to the cemeteries to give the departed offerings of their favorite things.  They’ll often leave food and drinks, candles, photos and little trinkets.  It sounds a bit morbid, but it’s quite the opposite.  It’s a celebration of life and it’s full of color, which is why I wanted to share these Day of the Dead cupcakes with you.

Reposted with permission from PooksPantry.com

Cheryl blogs at PooksPantry.com – Cheryl is a Chef by day and Blogger by night! She attended culinary school in New York and is a classically-trained Chef who worked in fine dining and high-end catering for over 13 years in New York City before leaving Brooklyn to relocate to Florida.  She started her own personal chef and catering business four years ago.

Find Cheryl on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest

Love it? Pin it! 

The post Day of the Dead Mexican Chocolate Cupcakes appeared first on The Southern Halloween Queen.

“This post/recipe originally appeared on my main blog BigBearsWife.com”

I miss working on crafts. I use to craft all the time and to be honest I’ve been crafty since I was a toddler. My grandma use to give me a needle with thread when I was little to sew masterpieces in old washcloths.

I begged my parents to buy me every type of craft kit under the sun at the toy store and I could spend hours working on my crafts.  I never was one for long detailed crafts though.

I wanted almost instant gratification when it came to crafts. haha. I wanted things that I could create in like an hour or less.

I wanted to work on it and be able to hold up my masterpiece soon afterward.

That’s why I love this Halloween lantern.

I’ve gotten a bit more patient as an adult when it comes to my crafts and such but I still don’t want crafts and decorations to take hours to make.

This Halloween lantern just less than 15 minutes to throw together and I LOVE how it looks hanging in our apartment.

What you’ll need:

• 1  black lantern  (I found this one at Target but I’ve also found great lanterns at Marshalls and TJ MAXX for like $10) and the one I used is 12.25 inches (H) x 6 inches (W) x 6 inches (D)
• 1 – 4 inch bendable skeleton (I found mine at Target)
• Plastic Spiders (You can normally find these at the dollar store or craft stores)
• 1 LED flickering flameless candle (I found a 3 pack at Marshalls for $5)
• 1 large Halloween bow (Normally I make them for my lanterns but I bought this one at Michaels already made)
• 1 black crow decoration
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks

This is how I put mine together:

Clean the inside and the outside of the lantern before you start decorating.

Next, place your flameless candle down into the lantern. Don’t try to glue it or stick it to the lantern with anything though because you’re going to want to be able to remove it later to turn it on and off.

As far as which flameless candle to buy, I’m going to leave that up to you. I found a pack of 3 at Marshalls for like $5 but I’ve seen them at Hobby Lobby and other craft stores ranging in price from $45-$60. I don’t know about you but I’m not paying $60 for a candle.

Next, add in your plastic spiders around the candle.

I found these spiders at Target in the Halloween section but I’ve seen them at the dollar store, Walmart, Hobby Lobby and Michaels before.

I pretty much just randomly threw them into the bottom and made sure that they didn’t stay on top of the candle.

Next, bend your skeleton and place him (or her haha) down into the lantern around the candle.

Close the lid and decide on where you want the bow to be.

Hot glue the bow to the top, hold for about 30 or 45 seconds or until the glue sets. Fluff the bow.

Next hot glue the black crow to the top of the lantern so it’s just peeping out from behind the bow.

Now turn your ghostly lantern on, dim the lights and enjoy the eerie glow of your Halloween lantern!

Happy Haunting! Check out all of the spooky Halloween recipes and crafts on BigBearsWife.com!!

Disclosure: The links below are affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission if you click one and purchase something that I have recommended. While clicking these links won’t cost you any extra money, they will help me keep this blog up and running.

Halloween Lantern

PIN IT!!

The post Halloween Lantern Decoration Idea Tutorial appeared first on The Southern Halloween Queen.

If you know me at all you KNOW that I LOVE the movie “The Nightmare Before Christmas“. I mean I really, really love it. I actually watch it at least twice a week. I have my tablet set up in the kitchen with speakers and that movie is on while I’m baking and cooking (I switch between that and Alice in Wonderland). It’s my “cooking movie” haha.

I don’t know why I love it so much, but I just do. Side note — if you want to win my heart forever, get me or make me a The Nightmare Before Christmas birthday cake! Really, that’s how much I love it. haha. It probably goes hand in hand with my love of Halloween.

Speaking of Halloween, it’s almost here!!! Only a few more days! So I’ve got something special for you! Amazingly super easy, Jack Skellington Oreo Pops!! Jack Skellington, please tell me that you know who Jack Skellington is! If you don’t I just don’t feel like we can be friends….

If you need a refresher, Jack Skellington is the Pumpkin King! He’s the main character in “The Nightmare Before Christmas” aka the best movie ever. OK well maybe not the BEST movie ever but it’s on up there for me.

Last year Karyn from Pint Sized Baker made these Jack Skellington Cake Pops and I just loved them! I wanted to make them for our Halloween Party this year and wanted to make a batch for #SundaySupper but since I was being lazy  am being super awesome on my Clean Eating Challenge, I thought that having a bunch of cake pops around wasn’t such a good idea. Humm… what else is round? The dang Halloween Oreos that I’ve been eyeing on the top of my refrigerator haha.

Those will work! So with inspiration from my favorite movie and Karyn from Pint Sized Baker, I give you Jack Skellington Oreo Pops!!

Happy Haunting! Check out all of the spooky Halloween recipes and crafts on this website!!

Jack Skellington Oreo Pops

UPDATE! I know a lot of people are having trouble with the Wilton markers, they use to work wonders but the past few packs I’ve bought have been dried out. I recently switched to these AmeriColor Black Edible Markers and I love them!

You should be able to find the Americolor pens at Hobby Lobby, Michael’s and maybe even Walmart.

Another Tip! My Friend Kayrn made Jack Cake pops and she used Black Cookie Icing for her faces! That might work here too!

Disclosure: The links below are affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission if you click one and purchase something that I have recommended. While clicking these links won’t cost you any extra money, they will help me keep this blog up and running.

The post Jack Skellington Oreo Pops appeared first on The Southern Halloween Queen.

“This post/recipe originally appeared on my main blog BigBearsWife.com”

Well this week has been all about Disney Halloween treats and crafts on BigBearsWife.com this week! Well, that’s mainly because Thomas and I are celebrating Halloween a little early this year down here at Disney World!!

Well we were.

We are back home now.

We spent 3 wonderful days down in Disney World but Hurricane Matthew drove us back up north.  We were supposed to go to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween party last night but when were were supposed to be at the party we were half way home to Virginia trying to beat the storm. They cancelled the Halloween party at Disney and closed the parks today. We were supposed to be there until Saturday but with the Hurricane on it’s way, with sad hearts, we packed our bags and cut our trip short.

So no Halloween Party this year, which broke my heart, but Thankfully we made it out of Orlando safe and sound!

Today I was supposed to tell you how amazing our night was at the Halloween Party. I was supposed to be able to tell you how I met Jack and Sally in the Magic Kingdom and how we had the best time. I was suppose to be able to tell you about how amazing the parade was and how the Hocus Pocus show blew me away. But those things just didn’t get to happen.  I am so grateful that we were able to make it make home safe with everyone that was evacuating  but I still have to say that I’m pretty sad about it.

You know how much it meant to me to be at Disney for our first Halloween celebration.

However, I’m trying to keep my head up. I’m trying to just remind myself that we are safe and that’s what’s important. We can always try again next year.

So, to mend my broken heart, I’m going to share something super special because I couldn’t have a Disney Halloween themed week on the blog without Jack Skellington!!

Monday we started the week off with Mickey Pumpkin Marshmallow Cereal Treats.

Wednesday I taught y’all how to make Halloween Mouse Ears with my DIY Ursula Mouse Ears Tutorial.

Today I’ve got Jack Skellington Macarons for you!!

Thomas and I were sitting around the other night trying to think of something for me to make for the last “Disney Themed” treat for this week and I was scrolling through my Jack Skellington Oreos Pops when the idea hit me.

I knew I had to make something with Jack but needed to make some type of round treat in order for that to work. After looking at my Oreo pops I thought of macarons!

I love macarons and I knew that they would be perfect little Jack Skellington desserts! There was only one problem. I had never made macrons and I was scared.

I had eaten quite a few macarons haha but I had never attempted them. I had heard horror stories about people making them at home. I had heard bakers say that it took years to master the art of macarons making and that one would need to practice over and over and over before they even got the first decent batch.

I have literally been watching macaron making videos over and over for like the past year.

I told Thomas that I was nervous. He told me that I might as well get it over with and give it a try. haha

I did. Oh I did and guess what! Macarons, while a tad bit picky, aren’t actually that hard to make.

Let me tell you something, if you can make meringue cookies, you can make macarons!

No, I didn’t get them perfect on the first try. I even failed on the second try. (aka I burnt them haha)

But oh my, the third time was a charm, so I’m going to tell you what I learned during the process.

Let me start off with the recipe I used – well the recipe I used and changed up just a tad since I was making Jack macarons.

I used the recipe that Carrie from Bakeaholic Mama used for her Pumpkin Pie Macarons… but you know… minus the orange and pumpkin haha.

Here are some the things I learned while making these:

Almond meal and Almond flour are kind of different, well around here they are anyways.

–When I first went to make these, I bought almond meal because almost all of the recipes I found called for it. I went home, ran it through the sifter/sieve like I was supposed to. It had little brown pieces in it from the almond skins (I guess you call it skin). Maybe that doesn’t normally matter but I wanted these Jack Macarons to be perfectly white, so those pieces of brown almond has to go. So my first batch of Jack Macarons were tasty but they had freckles haha.

I have freckles, Jack does not.

I found this almond flour at Walmart and it did much, much better!

Also, my first batch of macarons was not as smooth as I wanted them to be. I wanted the smooth top for the macarons and my first batch, while tasty, was a little bumpy and grainy looking.

That was not what I was going for.

Also, even though I had used white food coloring, they weren’t super white but more like a dull whiteish color. womp womp.

The second attempt was going well at first. I colored them just right, once I pipped them they had that super smooth top and I let them rest for an hour instead of 30 minutes before baking.

I just knew that these were going to be winners.

I popped them into the oven, put a wooden spoon into the door (Carrie’s suggestion), set my timer and waited.

When the timer went off I jumped up to retrieve my precious while macrons only to be greeted with burnt rust colored, hard as a rock macarons. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I was so sad. Those were supposed to be perfect.

With a second macaron failure under my belt I set out for the third batch.

Which turned out to be perfect.

I used a lot more white food coloring and I folded the batter a bit more than before.

My tip for the batter – fold the almond flour sugar mixture into the whipped egg whites, slowly. But keep folding. Keep folding until you can drizzle some of the batter with a spatula back into the bowl and it starts to “melt into” the batter in the bowl. You don’t want to over mix but you don’t want to under mix either.

Make sure you let them rest for at least an hour before you bake them. Don’t rush them.

Then for the faces! You can’t make Jack Skellington Macarons without Jack’s face!

For Jack’s face I used one of these black, AmeriColor Gourmet Writer edible food coloring pens. I’ve used other edible pen markers before but these always seem to do the best.

Make sure you let those macarons dry completely before you attempt to make these faces.  I let mine sit overnight before I filled them or drew on the faces.

BE GENTLE! You’ve GOT to use a light hand to draw these faces or you’re going to crack your Jacks! You barely need any pressure to write with these edible pens so be careful.

Also, one last tip. I filled these with a homemade chocolate ganache but you can use any type of filling you want.  However, I do say this….make sure the filling is soft! You don’t want to have to really push down really hard with these when you’re making them into a sandwich because they will crack.

These macarons are wonderful but they’re delicate.

Now go forth! Make Jack Skellington Macarons and let’s celebrate Halloween!!!!

Happy Haunting! Check out all of the spooky Halloween recipes and crafts on BigBearsWife.com!!

Jack Skellington Macarons

Disclosure: The links below are affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission if you click one and purchase something that I have recommended. While clicking these links won’t cost you any extra money, they will help me keep this blog up and running.

Post and Recipe reposted with from my other blog BigBearsWife.com

Angie runs this blog, “Southern Halloween Queen” where she shares her love of Halloween with her own recipes and fun recipes/projects from other Halloween loving bloggers! She also runs her first blog, BigBearsWife.com that’s packed full of Southern recipes, her love of Disney and fun vacation ideas! 

Find Angie on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter for Big Bear’s Wife

and

Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter for Southern Halloween Queen

• Ursula Costume DIY Tutorial
• Werewolf Cupcakes
• Melting Witch Hot Chocolate
• Jack Skellington Macarons
• Spooky Chocolate Caramel Apple EyeBalls
• Pumpkin Macaroni and Cheese
• Rattlesnake Bite Hot Dog Appetizers

The post Jack Skellington Macarons appeared first on The Southern Halloween Queen.