“You’re Not Quite Normal are you?” my friend says staring at my practice brain for Halloween. I’m not offended and agree. I’m a Halloween girl, there’s no doubt about it and I’ve been planning this year’s Halloween party since let’s think… November 1st last year? The one item I really wanted to make was a bloody brain jelly but alas I didn’t have the time to buy a mold last year. This year I was determined to do it though and nothing was going to stop me. I was more determined than Tracy Flick from Election or Rachel Berry from Glee. If I rode a fitness bike, I would have had a picture of the brain jelly in front of me while working out furiously to music. Thankfully no such props were necessary and a purchase of the brain jelly mold was easy.

At first I wanted to make a glowing green jelly brain a la Dr Frankenstein’s lab but when I saw the effect of a creamy vanilla pannacotta jelly with faux blood clots on top of it I was sold on the latter. And like all of my Halloween food, it’s entirely edible and it tastes just like a regular vanilla pannacotta in a thicker jellied red sauce. The idea of slicing this up did frighten my friend and remind her of that surreal scene in Hannibal involving Ray Liotta but once she tried a slice of it, any protests were quelled with a murmur “Mmm brains” she said. I think I turned my friend into a zombie…

Donna Hay cupcakes $3.50 each

And I was excited to see two of my favourite stores also share an interest in the Halloween theme. Donna Hay’s General store in Woollahra has a window devoted to Halloween where you can order cupcakes and buy boxes of pumpkin, witch and ghost cookies, lollies and trick or treat bags.

The Halloween window!

Ghost, witch and pumpkin cookies

I bought some lollies for my Halloween party and was offered a Gift With Purchase of a box of Donna’s Cookie mix (I chose oatmeal and cranberry) which comes with a purchase of $80 or over (while stocks last for this coming week).

Then Buppa from Buppa’s Bakehouse in Newtown emailed to let me know that she had some Halloween food including Pumpkin Pie (of course!), a rat treat, a mummy cupcake, a ghost cake and a skull cookie. I knew what I had to do with this box of Buppa’s goodness. Share it with my mum who is addicted to them.

The Mummy Cupcake was a moist chocolate cupcake topped with buttercream and jaffas for eyes. Ingenious!

The rather realistic rat was made of smooth, rich ganache like chocolate coated in finely ground cookie crumbs.

The Pumpkin Pie had a lightly spiced pumpkin and a slightly wet crust probably due to the pumpkin.

The Ghost cupcake was a light and fluffy vanilla cupcake taken out of it’s sleeve and coated with a rich buttercream.

The Skull cookie was my favourite with a crumbly chocolate cookie filled with cream cheese icing.

Happy upcoming Halloween fellow creepies!

So tell me Dear Reader, are you celebrating Halloween this year? And if so, what is your costume?

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One of the biggest complaints when I was a child was not being listened to. My parents, at their peril, ignored me on several choice occasions (children were meant to be seen and not heard). Let me tell you of one such story where they should have listened to me. We were on holiday and travelling in Taiwan and our tour bus had spent hours circling this mountain and it had finally reached the top. I was full of Toblerone and food and when we sat down at the dining table along with the rest of the tour group my stomach was still swirling around continuing to do the countless loops around the mountain. I grabbed my mother’s arm and implored “I feel sick”. She ignored me and kept chatting to the woman on her right. Frantically I looked around for a bathroom and it was only seconds later that I threw up all over the dining table in front of the thirteen other diners at the table. As I said, ignore me at your own peril.

Another less dramatic instance involved donuts. I loved jam donuts but my parents always bought cinnamon donuts. No matter how many times I asked for a jam donut I was always passed a cinnamon donut. I resented cinnamon donuts for the longest time. To me they represnted being ignored. When I got a jam donut I felt like someone had actually listened to me.

Fast forward many years later and I have of course gotten over this cinnamon donut loathing although they never were my favourite taste wise – my favourite of  course is still is a jam donut. And when long time friend Miss America was having a birthday, I knew he’d love a Jam Donut pudding. I did use cinnamon donuts as that was what they had at the store and he has no such cinnamon donut loathing and I spread them with strawberry jam but of course feel free to use jam donuts or Krispy Kreme or whatever ones you like.

This is one of those puddings that it also fabulously easy to make-freakishly so. All you need is a large jug and a little weak wristed beating action. Like all bread and butter puddings this can be done with staler donuts or breads but I have done this with both fresh and stale so don’t fret and feel that you necessarily need to make them stale. The jam dotted custard and cinnamoney and jammy donuts are gorgeously soft and very moreish and comforting as bread and butter puddings tend to be. I like to keep the donuts whole so that it’s easier to serve but of course you can cut them up but then you don’t get the cute bear face appearing. You can see him can’t you?

So tell me Dear Reader, what’s your favourite type of donut?

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Everyone has a dish that they bring a lot to a gathering or party. My mum’s is these quick Mochi cakes, a sweet, sticky and chewy cake that many people eat in Japan and Asia. In Japan, they eat these on New Year’s Eve and the stickiness and chewiness indicates a long life. Ironically many elderly choke on these every year and a death count of unfortunate mochi chokers is published in the papers a few days after. If I were an elderly person with false teeth I’d want to ensure a long life ahead and avoid these should any well meaning relatives offer them to me.

I’ve eaten many, many mochi over the years as I love the chewiness and stretchiness of them and the little surprise inside of filling. My favourite fillings are sweetned lotus paste or red bean but when I was grocery shopping, I picked up one of my favourite spreads ever: Coconut Kaya Jam. If you’ve never tried Coconut Kaya Jam I urge you to. It’s glorious and even for people that don’t love coconut it’s not overwhelmingly coconutty. It’s like a rich curd or butter and yes I have eaten it by the spoonful it’s that good.

The easiest way to remember this recipe is with the 1, 2, 3 rule. 1 cup of sugar, 2 cups of water and 3 cups of glutinous rice flour is all that it takes to make them plus whatever centre you want. Filling them is the hardest part but even then it’s not impossible. Practice really does make perfect and it doesn’t really matter all that much if it doesn’t seal perfectly as long as it mostly holds together-just put the seal at the bottom and it won’t show. Just remember that water prevents it from sticking but you need a certain amount of stickiness to seal them then it becomes easier. Coconut Kaya Jam is also harder to work with than a more solid filling like sweetened lotus paste but the way around this is to freeze the kaya until it becomes firmer – it won’t freeze hard but it will freeze to a more solid consistency which is infinitely easier to work with.

Are they worth the effort? Absolutely so and I adore the sweet burst of coconut curd in the centre and the mouth stretching, jaw workout chewiness of the mochi.

So tell me Dear Reader, what dish do you always bring to a party? A favourite dip? A much requested dessert? Or do you bring a bottle of Champagne or wine and be done with it?

And yes that’s right, we’ve made it to another Hump Day! Today is Wallpaper Wednesday which means a new wallpaper: a Cheese, Cherry & Coconut Strudel.

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