Jack-o'-lantern shortcrust pastries - Pumpkin (Apricot) Poptarts

Evening all!

So.. Halloween madness is coming to the end..

Another special in ''spookiness'' theme.. I saw this great recipe, well when I say recipe it's actually just when you put things together not strictly following what to put next or how many table/teaspoons you need.

1 cup pumpkin puree (nowhere to find this beauty so I used Apricot jam)
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 package refrigerated pie crust

Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoon milk
1 tablespoon light corn syrup (you can use any syrup you have)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

• In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, sugar, and egg.

• Unroll pie crusts, cut the edges off to make a large square, then cut the pie crust into three equal rectangles (the size I've done I thought it was too big and I could've made it smaller)

• Spoon a small amount of pumpkin mixture into the center of one of the rectangles, taking care to not let the filling ooze near the edges.  Use a small paring knife to carve jack-o-lantern faces into a second rectangle.  Gently lay the carved piece over the pumpkin filling, then press the edges firmly together with a fork. 

• Transfer to a cookie sheet and bake in an oven preheated to 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes, or just until the edges of the poptart begin to turn golden brown.

• In a large bowl, mix together the powdered sugar, milk, corn syrup, and vanilla.  Drizzle glaze over hot pumpkin poptarts.  Allow to cool on a cooling rack before serving.

Call it fast and furious with a happy face and enjoy! :)

Scary Halloween Cup Cakes

When I was a young girl I was very scared of leaving a gap between the pulled curtains. My friend at the time told me a story that there's a creature that flies at night around the houses. The creature has 3 heads and every night it searches for a gap in your curtains to get into the house. When it's lucky, it eats three heads of the family members and leaves just one alive...

After the creature eats 3 heads of the family it attacked those heads become creatures heads and now it has 6 heads and this goes on and on.. Seriously?? Someone flying around with like hundread heads on and no one notices..

I did believe this for ages and it scared me a lot, I even had a peg to clip my curtains together just to make sure there's certainly no gap left. Now I think that the creature somehow would have to get through the window first.

That was then - childhood full scary stories and now there's Halloween not that scary at all :) Fun for kids as for adults too!

Cupcake recipe:

• 150 g butter, softened
• 150 g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 150 g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 2-3 tbsp milk

For the fondant icing

• 300 g icing sugar
• 3 tbsp water
• black food colouring

 

Method

1. Turn on the oven and heat to 180 degrees. Choose 12 pretty fairy cake (or small cupcake) liners and place them in a fairy cake/muffin tin.

2. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and mix in the vanilla essence.

3. Stir in the flour swiftly and with a light touch. Don't overmix. Add a couple of spoons of milk to keep the mix from being too thick and dense. It should just about drop off a spoon.

4. Working quickly, fill the cake liners. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the cakes are nicely risen and golden.

5. Remove the cakes and let them cool on a rack.

6. To prepare the icing, mix the water into the icing sugar and give it a good stir until it is smooth and glossy. If you wish, you can add a few drops of food colour to tint the icing. 

I added black food colour to get those cupcakes into Halloween mood :)

 Didn't plan this but I've done 13 photos for this entry - SPOOKY, huh?

 BOOOO!!!

Cake with Plum Swirls

This is the yummiest Plum cake I've ever had..

and it also came from the shop

Mint Tea & Oaties

Dear All,

I can not believe that tiny bit of rain just came! I can hear it sneaking slowly and bringing Autumn weather as it's suppose to be.
Yesterday - 1st of October and 27C degrees if not even more, which is technically not right and I think Autum is gonna get his claws back onto us very very soon, he'll come back all snappy and chilly..
But for this week as the forecast says is still gonna be hot and we should just enjoy the not-so-october weather!

Sunday Evening and late snack - Homemade Mint Tea and Oaties..

Have a good week everyone!