A Sweet Halloween

It's no secret that I love sweets, and just because I've surpassed trick-or-treating age doesn't mean I've stopped the tradition of candy at Halloween. Not a chance! :)

So for this holiday, I set up a spooky yet sweet buffet of Halloween confections, cake and other snacks.

I picked the lace tablecloth to echo the spider theme, and it keeps it from looking too scary.

The spiders and witch hat candies described below are actually complementary, both using Oreos halves. As you split open each Oreo, reserve the creamy cookie half for spiders and the plain one for witch hats.

Spiders

• 2 Oreo halves with the cream filling

• 8 pretzel sticks

• optional dab of peanut butter

• tempered chocolate to affix the eyes

• 2 matching M&Ms

Press the pretzels into the Oreo cream and smush the other cookie down on top to secure the spider legs. Peanut butter may also help in sticking the cookies together. Put 2 small dabs of melted chocolate where the spider's face would be and quickly place 2 matching M&Ms for the eyes.

Witch hats

• 1 Oreo half, without cream filling

• 1 Hershey's kiss

• tempered chocolate to affix the kiss

• sprinkles or sanding sugar

Dip the base of each kiss into the melted chocolate, then affix it to the center of a plain Oreo cookie half. Press it down so a little chocolate oozes out around the sides, creating a hat band of sorts. Sprinkle this chocolate with sanding sugar (gold used here) or Halloween sprinkles.

Spiderweb Cake (The Showstopper)

A two-layer cake composed of chocolate and pumpkin layers, with a rich cream cheese buttercream. I made a fancier spider to garnish the cake. Its legs are chocolate-dipped pretzel sticks, broken and reattached at an angle to create bent "crawly" legs. The web was drawn on with Hershey's Special Dark chocolate syrup, which is almost black in color and seems to set as well as a decorating gel would. (I will note that I kept the cake chilled in the fridge.) Marbling was my very favorite part. Just drag a knife through the chocolate at regular intervals and voila, spiderweb!

Well, I hope this post has provided a bit of inspiration for fun (mostly easy) Halloween treats you can whip up for the 31st!

'Til next time,

Eva