My Dearest Ghouls, every year I look forward to Halloween and this year was no different. But after hosting Halloween parties for 8 years straight I wanted to shake things up a bit. So I decided to pare back my guest list and give my friends an experience that they hopefully would never forget.
Halloween Recipe Quicklinks
Click here for Halloween Wedding Cake Vanilla Killer Recipe
Click here for Jack Skellington Blackberry Pie Recipe
Click here for Black Widow Macarons Recipe
Click here for Haunted House Sugar Cookie Recipe
Click here for Elegant Gravedigger Cocktail Recipe
Click here for Bloody Mary Oysters Recipe
Click here for Home-made Squid Ink Pasta Recipe
Click here for "Rotten egg" Coffin Sandwich Recipe
Click here for Smelly Graveyard Cheese Platter Recipe
Click here for Halloween Bat Cracker Recipe
Click here for Vomiting Buns Recipe
There would be a ghoulish afternoon tea, face painting, cocktails and a 6 course degustation-ahem I mean disgustingation (it's a word if you say it is :P) full of ghoulish treats and red wine all in a maginifcently gothic, taxidermy laden house. Take my hand Dear Ghoul and let me lead you into the woods!
The week before Halloween is full of strange food and I warned Mr NQN that his lunchbox might contain a few surprises all in the name of recipe testing. There were exploding choux buns, black as the night soup noodles, "scabs" and all sorts of strange food items that would eventually find their way onto the menu.
My dream Halloween was first in motion a couple of months ago. I had grounded myself from travelling for the whole month of October and busied myself with prepping all the details for Halloween.
I rented a house for the day and it was already extravagantly decked out in quirky touches and taxidermy so I only needed a few things from my friends at The Party People.
My invitation asked guests to match their costumes with the vintage surroundings. The next step was to hire a face painter for the occasion because last year we had our faces painted at a restaurant and I thought it was just about the best idea ever for Halloween plus it's the only way I'll get Mr NQN to appear in any photographs.
There are plenty of face painters in Sydney but most of them do kid's parties. I went with one that had a good gallery of Halloween faces and adult faces. Then my last step was to have Mr NQN's brother take photos of the fun because he is works as part of a television crew and because I also wanted to have fun with my friends.
Afternoon tea started at 4pm while each of us went in for our makeup. I was wearing antlers and a veil so I decided to go as a deer or as other people pointed out, as a snapchat filter.
One by one we had our make up done by Aspasia from Bewitched Faces. The afternoon tea selection was a menu of Jack Skellington blackberry pies, Black Widow macarons, Haunted House Sugar Cookies and "rotten egg" coffin sandwiches.
The blackberry tarts were bursting with blackberries with a tart flavour and shortcrust pastry. The black macarons were topped with blackberry gums on top and decorated with lace like royal icing while the pumpkin pie spice Haunted Houses sugar cookies were perfect to dunk into cups of tea.
At 5pm there was a knock at the door and it was Queen Viv and Miss America, late of course, and off brief of course as they tend to do their own thing. They arrived as Eddie and Patsy from Absolutely Fabulous!
"I don't eat food you know that but these have got to be the best egg sandwiches I've ever eaten," quipped Queen Viv aka Patsy while nursing a bottle of vodka.
The sandwiches were a last minute addition - I wanted to add avocado (the green or rotting bit) but at the supermarket they were all rock hard so I mashed some peas, added it to the egg along with chives, aioli and horseradish cream and served them on buttered white bread shaped as coffins.
Miss America aka Eddie Monsoon took turns batting his eyelashes at Manu, Mr NQN's brother who was busy taking photos. He then moved onto Viggo who was playing the piano.
When Belinda lay back to close her eyes she awoke to her biggest nightmare, a giant spider crawling over her. Mr NQN and Julie battled over whose crucifix was the largest.
One by one everyone emerged from having their faces painted. Belinda went all steampunk to match her outfit while Louise decided on a detailed mask drawn around her face.
But when Julie came out with a purple sequin and jewelled face we couldn't believe how Aspasia had managed to create such an elaborate and sparkling face.
Viggo and Mr NQN were last to have their makeup done. Viggo had already planned his outfit way in advance and his face make up was as a homage to A Clockwork Orange and Mr NQN was a possessed priest. He even found time to throw a fake spider Belinda's way and flailing and blood curdling screams ensued (never tell an Elliott your biggest fear is all I can say because they will hone in on it).
After make up was done and afternoon tea was nibbled on, we moved everything to the dining room. Moving the party to a smaller group was a tough decision because I love having lots of my friends around at Halloween but I knew that if I were to cater a 6 course dinner there would be a limit as to what I could physically do myself.
Cocktails were passed around and everyone sat down for their 6 course degustation ahem disgustingation.
On the menu were Scabs & Eyeballs, Bloody Mary Oysters, Vomiting Buns, The Eyes are Always Watching Squid Ink Ramen, Vanilla Killer Cake and a Stinky Cheese Graveyard with Bat Crackers!
The scab snacks were easy, just baked parmesan cheese with tomato sauce for blood. We told everyone that Miss America's recent trip to the hospital had meant he was busy collecting scabs from patients! The eyeballs were pepper dews stuffed with a sliced black olive. The Bloody Mary oysters were enormous Pacific oysters with a fresh Bloody Mary mix on top that Belinda had mixed up.
The next course was a tricky one because I didn't have the ideal equipment. Vomiting buns are a fun, popular items in Chinese restaurants where they make them with steamed buns filled with custard but I wanted to make them out of choux pastry because it is easier and I wanted to fill them with bacon, cheese and chive filling with carrot because well you know what they always say, why does vomit always have carrot in it? Too much vomit talk? Sorry!
Anyway, with choux buns you need to poke a hole into them to let the steam escape when you remove them from the oven. That also serves as the mouth and when you press down on the bun...well custard or vomit comes out! I'll share the recipe for these another day because they are incredibly fun.
The main course was a squid ink ramen. A little bit of squid ink goes a long way and I loved the dark, mysterious tangle of black tendrils-it reminded me of Medusa's hair. I went with an eye theme with salmon caviar and fish balls with a simple broth finished with masterstock.
Dessert was a two part affair: a slice of Killer Vanilla cake with a surprisingly red centre. There were just enough candles for each to us to make a wish so we all did so as we blew out the candles. Despite the name inside beats a vibrant red heart.
This was followed by a Stinky Graveyard Cheese Platter featuring four fabulous aromatic cheeses, blueberry paste (a cousin to quince paste), black grapes and home made bat crackers.
We took the cheese into the drawing room where Mr NQN and Viggo had set up a little surprise for everyone. Storytelling Jack O'Lanterns!! I can't remember where I first saw these but I really wanted to have them as part of Halloween.
The night before the party I was dead tired from looking after a dog for four days and Halloween prep. I crawled into bed before weakly begging Mr NQN to "get me ze talking pumpkin dahlink!!!" before dramatically collapsing into a deep sleep. Well he did and they are so much better than a carved pumpkin (and a lot easier, less messy and cheaper too!). I used some pumpkins from The Party People and projected the image of the pumpkins using a projector and the Jack O'Lantern animations from this store as a few of you already asked me on Instagram and Snapchat where to get these.
And no Halloween in our creepy, kooky land can end without some games. Charades is always a favourite for us and is easy for us to do. We split up into two teams and devised lists of Halloween related things while skeletons danced on cupboards in the background. And a little tip: a hard word to spell out in Charades is "Dementor" and it had Viggo ducking under a black tasselled lightshade in an effort to convey the Harry Potter demons.
Anyway that's enough of our silly Halloween antics! Without further ado, here is this year's Halloween recipes...happy Halloweening my dearest ghouls!
Love,
Morticia xxx
So tell me Dear Reader, are you doing anything for Halloween this year? Do you usually celebrate on the day itself or the weekend before? Do you like getting dressed up in costumes? And when is the last time you got your face painted?
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