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

Printable Recipe At Bottom of Post

These Bloodshot Eyeball Apple Slices are perfect for dessert after a Halloween dinner party but they’re also a fun project to make with the kids! We love chocolate and caramel apples around here but we don’t always want to make a bunch of chocolate covered apples as in the WHOLE apple.

I made Chocolate Covered Bloodshot Apples a few years ago for Halloween and they were amazing but let’s be honest. Most little kids are going to take a few bites and be done with it, that’s why I love these Bloodshot Eyeball Apple Slices. They are just as spooky and fun as the entire apple being transformed into an eye ball but they’re more manageable and less wasteful when it comes to treats for the kids!

Here are a few things I used for these apple slices:

Wilton’s Eyeball Icing Decorations

These royal icing sugar eyeballs are perfect for the center of these bloodshot eyeball apples. They look great and they add awesome detail to treats without any decorating talent needed!

Paper Straws from Sweets and Treats –

I love these purely for decorating purposes when it comes to these candy eyeballs. I use a chopstick to skewer the apples to make the pops but a plain ol’ chopstick is kind of boring looking. So once I dip the apple slices in white chocolate candy coating I just slide one of these paper straws over the chopstick and into the melted chocolate at the base of the apple to create a fun apple stick without much work.

How to make Bloodshot Eyeball Apple Slices:

These Bloodshot Eyeball Apple Slices are so simple to make y’all!
Look at this.

You take an apple and slice it into 3 or 4 thick slices. If your slice has seeds, remove those.

Skewer the apple slice carefully with a chopstick.

Pat the apple dry with a paper towel and dip it into melted white chocolate candy coating.

Add a candy eyeball to the center of the apple slice and slide paper straw over the chopstick. Press the paper straw into the melted white candy coating at the bottom of the apple to make sure it sticks well.

Melt some red candy melts and drizzle some onto the eyeballs to line up with the bloodshot lines on the candy eye.

Let the apple slices sit for 15-30 minutes or until the candy coasting has hardened.

I think that these are best if made

I made Graveyard Apple Slices last year and they were such a hit that I’ve been working on more ideas for Chocolate covered apple slices!  Any themed or ideas you’d like to see transformed into an apple slice dessert? I’m thinking Jack Skellington next!

Q&A:

• Can I use regular white chocolate instead of candy melts.

Maybe. I don’t dip fruits and candies in regular melted white chocolate though so I can’t promise it will look like the photos.

• The white chocolate isn’t sticking. Is the apple too wet?

It could be! Make sure to pat the apples dry very well before dipping!

Bloodshot Eyeball Apple Slices

Bloodshot Eyeball Apple Slices

Yield: 8-10 APPLE SLICES

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 6 minutes

Cool Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 51 minutes

Love Chocolate Apples but don't want to dip tons of them for a party? These Bloodshot Eyeball Apple Slices are the answer to your problems! Just as tasty and oh so spooky when decorated to look like bloodshot eyeballs! 

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Ingredients

• 2 large apples
• 16 ounces Chocolate Candy Coating
• Royal Icing Eyeball Decorations
• 6 ounces Red Candy Coating
• 8 - 10 chopsticks
• 8 - 10 paper straws

Instructions

Slice apples into thick slices and remove seeds. Each apple should give you 4 or so apple slices.

Carefully push a chopstick into the bottom of each apple slice. Make sure not to break the apples.

Pat apple slices dry with a paper towel.

Melt white candy coating according to package directions.

Dip apples completely in melted chocolate. Tap off excess.

Lay on a flat surface that's been covered with foil or parchment paper (or on a silicone mat).

Slide paper straw over the chopstick. Press the paper straw into the melted white candy coating at the bottom of the apple to make sure it sticks well. 

Add candy eye to the apples.

Melt red candy coating according to package directions.

Drizzle red onto the eyeballs to line up with the bloodshot lines on the candy eye.

Let apple slices sit until chocolate hardens.-

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The post Bloodshot Eyeball Apple Slices appeared first on The Southern Halloween Queen.

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

 Printable Recipe At Bottom of Post

Have you seen the Pet Ghost in a Jar DIY crafts online before? I’ve seen a few over the years online and in magazines but I decided to take that ideas a little further into the food world and created these Pet Ghost in a Jar Pudding Cups for #HalloweenTreatsWeek this year!

This ghostly ghoul is ready to hang out at Halloween parties and party on the dessert table!

What you need to make Pet Ghost in a Jar Pudding Cups:

• Chocolate Pudding (recipe below)
• Gummy Ghost
• Whipped Cream (Homemade or Spray Can)
• Halloween Sprinkles
• Jar
• Twine
• Pet Ghost Tag (Free Printable Below)

These gummy ghost and these fun Halloween sprinkles are from Wilton and I just love them! They gave me some great inspiration for this project!

If you want to make your own pet ghost dessert cups and want to use the same little ghost tag that I made, you can click HERE to get the file. Just right click and save it.

Then you can add it to a word document or how ever you want to size it and print it.

I found these little jars at the Dollar Tree in the Fall section and they worked perfectly for these desserts. I bet these would also be cute in little plastic shot glasses if you wanted to make a bunch for a party.

Oh and let me give you a little tip for making these ghost in a jar pudding cups.

While you can totally fill these treat cups with anything you’d like, if you are going to use something like pudding you need to make the ghost gummy sit as flat against the jar as possible. I laid the ghost on my kitchen counter and rolled over them with a rolling pin to flatten them a bit before adding them to the jar. Then when I did add them in, I kept the jar laying sideways until I filled it about half way with pudding and then sat it up to fill it the rest of the way so that the ghost would stay put.

Those ghost, I tell ya, they’re some sneaky little creatures…always trying to disappear into the pudding haha.

Pet Ghost in a Jar Pudding Cups

Ghost tag Printable File Here

Pet Ghost in a Jar Pudding Cups

Yield: 4 servings

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

ChillTime: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes

You better eat this dessert up fast before your pet ghost vanishes! These Pet Ghost in a Jar Pudding Cups have a friendly gummy ghost hiding in delicious chocolate pudding that makes the perfect Halloween treat!

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Ingredients

• 1 cup Dixie Crystals Extra Fine Granulated Sugar
• 8 tablespoons dark cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 8 eggs
• 6 cups milk
• 2 teaspoons chocolate extract (or vanilla)
• 4 gummy ghost
• Whipped Cream
• Sprinkles
• 4 small jars or glasses

Instructions

1. In a medium bowl combine 1 cup sugar, cocoa powder, cornstarch, and salt.
2. Mix together.
3. Take 6 eggs, separate yolks from whites. Save whites for another recipe.
4. Add remaining whole eggs to egg yolks. Add egg yolks to sugar mixture and mix well.
5. Stir in 1 cup milk.
6. Heat 5 cups of milk in a saucepan; when milk is warm whisk in sugar and egg mixture.
7. Cook on medium heat uncovered, until thick, about 10 minutes. Whisking occasionally.
8. Remove from heat, add in chocolate or vanilla extract. Stir well.
9. Let pudding cool slightly and pour into a bowl. Place a piece of plastic wrap over pudding, pressing it onto top of pudding to prevent a skin from forming as it cools Place into fridge for 1 hour or until chilled.
10. Lay gummy ghosts on a flat surface and use the palm of your hand or a rolling pin to flatten them a bit.
11. Lay glass or jar on its side and press each ghost onto the inside of a glass or jar.
12. Stir the chilled pudding and spoon into glasses. Once glass/jar is half way full sit it up and fill until full.
13. Top with whipped cream and sprinkles.

Notes

Ghost tag Printable File Here

If you make this recipe, snap a picture and share it on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter with the and hashtag #bigbearswife —

I love to see what your cooking from the blog! 

Love it? Pin it!

The post Pet Ghost in a Jar Pudding Cups appeared first on The Southern Halloween Queen.

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

Printable Recipe At Bottom of Post

I’m so excited to share these Chocolate Candy Witch Cauldrons for #HalloweenTreatsWeek with y’all! They came out even better than I pictures in my head and I just think they are fantastic. What a perfect recipe to start off #HalloweenTreatsWeek this year!

I tired a few different techniques for making these Chocolate Candy Witch Cauldrons but this is what I found worked best for me:

What you need to make Chocolate Candy Witch Cauldrons:

• Brownies – Homemade Recipes – Pumpkin CheeseCake Brownies or my favorite brownie recipe
•  Bone Sprinkles
• Green candy Pearls
• Black Candy Melts
• Green Decorating Icing
• White Pearl Dust
• Piping Bag
• Food Coloring
• 1 cup Measuring cup

I’ve got the printable recipe for y’all below but let me know you how to make these Chocolate Candy Witch Cauldrons!

Start by melting the black candy melts according to the package directions.

Spoon some of the melted black candy melts into a 1 cup measuring cup like the one pictures above. You don’t have to use a measuring up but I like the way this one molded and I thought it looks like a cauldron when it was done.

Make sure the entire inside is covered, turn the cup upside down and tap out the excess candy melts back into the candy melt bowl.

Place the measuring cup, right side up, in the freezer for 20-30 minutes or until solid.

Carefully pop candy cauldron from measuring cup.

Next it’s time to add some “rust” to this witch cauldron. You’ll need orange and yellow. Or you can mix red and yellow together to make orange and then another bit of yellow on it’s own.

I also used some pearl luster dust to mix with it so it wouldn’t be so wet.

Just use a paper towel and dab it into the luster pearl dust and food colorings and blot it onto the sides of the cauldron.

NOTE – I found that all of the food coloring wouldn’t try so if you’re serving these at a party you may want to serve them on on a cupcake liner or or on a small plate, if they don’t dry all the way they may or may not add a bit of orange coloring to your fingers haha. Of course this didn’t bother us because we just washed our hands after eating them.

Once your witch cauldron has some rust on it, it’s time to add the handles. Just add a little bit of melted black candy melts to a piping bag and pipe a circle onto the side of the cauldron. Then add a dot to the top of the handle to make it look like the handle of a cauldron.

Hocus Pocus, it’s done!

Now fill it with whatever wonderful treats you want to fill it with.

For this post I filled it with brownies pieces and green icing.

Then I topped it with more witchy green icing and added some bone sprinkles and “green bubbles” to make sure the cauldron was filled with a great witch’s brew!

You could fill these Chocolate Candy Witch Cauldrons with things like:

• Homemade Pudding
• Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake
• Eclair Dessert
• Chocolate Bark (You could make the bark looks like witches brew with green candy melts and bone sprinkles!)
• Ghost Snack Mix

Or you can fill it with brownies using one of these recipes:

• White Chocolate Brownies
• Toffee Brownies
• Dulce De Leche Brownies

 Q&A:

• Can these be made in advance?

YES! I made these Chocolate Candy Witch Cauldrons and left two of them (unfilled) on the counter for a week to make sure they still looked good and they were perfect. Just fill them before serving.

Chocolate Candy Witch Cauldrons

Chocolate Candy Witch Cauldrons

Yield: 4-6 cauldrons

These Chocolate Candy Witch Cauldrons can hold all kinds of treats for your wicked little witches and warlocks! These cauldrons are filled with brownie bites, icing and topped with a witches brew of bone and bubble sprinkles!

Print

Ingredients

• 12 ounces Black Candy Melts
• 16 ounces Green Decorating Icing
• White Peal Dust
• Piping Bag
• Food Coloring
• 1 cup Measuring cup (to use as a mold)
• Bone Sprinkles
• Green candy Pearls

Instructions

Start by melting the black candy melts according to the package directions.

Spoon some of the melted black candy melts into a 1 cup measuring cup. You don't have to use a measuring up but I like the way this one molded and I thought it looks like a cauldron when it was done.

Make sure the entire inside is covered, turn the cup upside down and tap out the excess candy melts back into the candy melt bowl.

Place the measuring cup, right side up, in the freezer for 20-30 minutes or until solid.

Carefully pop candy cauldron from measuring cup.

Next it\'s time to add some "rust" to this witch cauldron. You\'ll need orange and yellow. Or you can mix red and yellow together to make orange and then another bit of yellow on it\'s own.

I also used some pearl luster dust to mix with it so it wouldn't be so wet.

Just use a paper towel and dab it into the luster pearl dust and food coloring and blot it onto the sides of the cauldron.

Once your witch cauldron has some rust on it, it's time to add the handles. Just add a little bit of melted black candy melts to a piping bag and pipe a circle onto the side of the cauldron. Then add a dot to the top of the handle to make it look like the handle of a cauldron.

Hocus Pocus, it's done!

Now fill it with whatever wonderful treats you want to fill it with.

For this post I filled it with brownies pieces and green icing.

Then I topped it with more witchy green icing and added some bone sprinkles and "green bubbles" to make sure the cauldron was filled with a great witch's brew!

Notes

NOTE - I found that all of the food coloring wouldn't dry so if you're serving these at a party you may want to serve them on on a cupcake liner or or on a small plate, if they don't dry all the way they may or may not add a bit of orange coloring to your fingers haha. Of course this didn't bother us because we just washed our hands after eating them.

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The post Chocolate Candy Witch Cauldrons appeared first on The Southern Halloween Queen.

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

When we got married and moved to Jacksonville I was on a mission to become the perfect housewife. I was learning how to cook, teaching myself to get comfortable in the kitchen and I was also bored out of my mind!

I needed something to do. I didn’t have a job yet, Thomas was on base all day for work (obviously) and I had hours and hours to myself.  There is only so much cleaning and cooking one can do alone without going insane.

So, I signed up for some cake decorating classes at one of the craft stores in town.

One of the things they taught us in the class was how to make puppy cakes out of two cupcakes.

I was so excited to learn how to make these little puppy cakes. haha You would have thoughts that I had decorated a 6 layer cake. haha

I spent the next few days perfecting my new cake decorating skill. I’m sure Thomas got super tired of eating little puppy cupcakes after a few days.

However, those puppy cupcake making skills have come in handy for bake sales. Let me tell you something. I’ve done quite a few charity fundraisers over the past years and when I make puppy cupcakes like this they always sell like hotcakes!

People go crazy over them.

So when it came time to work on Halloween treats, I thought about those little pup cakes and decided to turn one into Werewolf Cupcakes!

So basically you’re just going to need 2 un-frosted cupcakes, frosting and a few candies for eyes.

I KNOW it’s a lot of frosting, but let’s be honest here. You know you don’t have to eat all of that frosting and I know that if you’re sharing this little cake with people that it’s just fine. haha

So let’s get started.

First, you’re going to need 2 cupcakes.

Make them yourself from scratch, use a box mix or grab them from your local bakery.  Either way is totally fine.

If you need a chocolate cupcake recipe, I suggest the base recipe for my German Chocolate Cupcakes over on BigBearswife.com.

Next, you’re going to need chocolate frosting.

Again, homemade or canned. Either way, it’ll do perfectly.

Fill a piping bag, fitted with a M1 large star tip, with chocolate frosting. Remove the cupcake liner and pipe a little frosting onto the top of each cupcake. Flip them upside down and press them into a plate to “glue” them in place.

Now, pipe big stars down the center of the cupcakes. Think of this as the “backbone.”

Take the frosting and pipe big stars all over the cupcakes to create the werewolf cupcake body.

Then add two little ears on one end by piping two giant stars.

Add 2 red M&M candies for eyes.

Tint some of the chocolate frosting black and use a toothpick to add a little nose and pupils to the eyes.

Lastly, add a little mouth was some red icing and stick two almond slivers in for teeth and you’re done!

Oh well, I suppose that you can also add a little tail like this if you like but I don’t know if it’s very noticeable.

Now that’s it! You’ve got a “creepy” Werewolf Cupcake for Halloween!

Isn’t he just the cutest………I mean scariest! haha

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

Werewolf Cupcakes

Yield: 1 werewolf (using 2 cupacakes)

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Cupcakes and Werewolf go hand and hand for Halloween! These werewolf cupcakes are easy to make with homemade cupcakes or storebought! We're taking two cupcakes, some icing, and some candies to make these cute little Werewolf Cupcakes!

Print

Ingredients

• 2 cupcakes
• 2 cups chocolate frosting
• 2 red M&M candies
• Black Food Coloring
• Red Icing
• 2 Almond Slivers

Instructions

Take two cupcakes 2 cupcakes.

Make them yourself from scratch, use a box mix or grab them from your local bakery. Either way is totally fine.

Next you're going to need chocolate frosting.

Again, homemade or canned. Either way, it'll do perfectly.

Fill a piping bag, fitted with a M1 large star tip, with chocolate frosting. Remove the cupcake liner and pipe a little frosting onto the top of each cupcake. Flip them upside down and press them into a plate to "glue" them in place.

Now, pipe big stars down the center of the cupcakes. Think of this as the "backbone."

Take the frosting and pipe big stars all over the cupcakes to create the werewolf cupcake body.

Werewolf Cupcake

Then add two little ears on one end by piping two giant stars.

Add 2 red M&M candies for eyes.

Tint some of the chocolate frosting black and use a toothpick to add a little nose and pupils to the eyes.

Lastly, add a little mouth was some red icing and stick two almond slivers in for teeth and you're done!

Werewolf Cupcakes

A black werewolf version with spooky green eyes would be awesome!

You can also use this werewolf cupcake decorating trick to make other little animals like dogs and cats!

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The post Werewolf Cupcakes appeared first on The Southern Halloween Queen.

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

Muhahahaha it’s October!! That means that we can totally be all about everything that’s Halloween! Ok,so let’s just pretend that I haven’t been all about Halloween since the last week of August! haha

Now we can officially be all about Halloween without judgment.

Oh and the best part about Halloween and October? We went to Disney World to celebrate Halloween this year!

Ok, well we didn’t actually go on Halloween, we went a few weeks before Halloween. However it was still awesome to see all of the Halloween decoration out!

I’m sure I’ll be chatting more about that later (ok YOU KNOW I’ll be chatting more about that later) but let’s talk about this magic shell!

It’s the magic shell that’s just perfect for Halloween! Why? Well because it’s Vampire Magic Shell – Bloody Magic Shell!

Yeah, I could decide on if I should call it, Vampire Magic Shell or Bloody Magic Shell for Halloween so I just went with both.

You know what magic shell is right? The chocolate coating that hardens when it touches cold ice cream?

Well now you have a Halloween version!

It’s still hot here in the south for Halloween most years so I can totally see myself enjoying one of these fudgesicles that’s been dipped in magic shell!

I tried a few different options before I found the one I liked, the one that I’m posting today. I tried out a few recipes that called for vegetable oil, I tried some that called for cake mix and a few that called for tons of food coloring.

Some were ok and some were downright weird.

I had high hopes for the red velvet cake mix one I tried out but it fell short and turned into more of a dried blood color than the bright red I was going for. The food coloring tries always ended with way too much food coloring that only yielded a weird pink and the vegetable oil ones just didn’t harden like I wanted it to.

So then I turned to coconut oil and the red melting candy wafers that I had in the pantry. I had almost given up my idea when I spotted the bag of red chocolate in the pantry! I’m so glad that it caught my eye because it was exactly what I needed for this!

So whip up some Vampire Magic Shell – Bloody Magic Shell this evening for your little vampires and monsters.

Side note! If you’re looking for the cherry magic shell like Dairy Queens, just make this and add in a little oil based cherry candy flavoring.

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

Vampire Magic Shell – Bloody Magic Shell

Vampire Magic Shell - Bloody Magic Shell

Yield: 2 cups

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Dip homemade popsicles or store bought ones into this Vampire Magic Shell - Bloody Magic Shell for a hauntingly special treat! Or drizzle it over scoops of ice cream for an eerie evening dessert!

Print

Ingredients

• 2 cups red chocolate candy melts
• 1/2 cup coconut oil

Instructions

Pour candy melts and coconut oil into a medium microwave bowl.

Heat in 30 second burst, stirring after each burst, until melted.

OR

Pour candy melts and coconut oil into the top of a double broiler, add water to the bottom pot of the double broiler and melted on medium -low heat until melted. Stirring as it melts.

Store in an air tight container at room temperature.

Notes

THIS MAGIC SHELL WILL HARDEN ONCE COOLED! TO USE - REMELT IN MICROWAVE OR IN A HOT WATER BATH ON THE STOVE. Do not let water touch magic shell!

Linking this to Meal Plan Monday #34

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 Vampire Magic Shell – Bloody Magic Shell 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

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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! 

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