Hello my pretties! Take my (severed) hand and let me give you a peek into my annual Halloween party. It’s an event that gets me going throughout the year. This month was particularly busy with the Sydney International Food Festival and before I knew it, it was the 20th of October and I hadn’t even sorted out my costume.

Luckily I had been planning this party even before last year’s finished (yes I’m an obsessive kind of person, can you tell?) and I had my menu sorted. I wanted to make different things from last year and I wanted it to be even more grisly than last year. I waited and waited and waited for my oven. It was about a month late and was on the way to me from the nice people at LG. It finally arrived and I can already see that she (and it is a she no doubt) is also something that loves dramatic entrances so we’ll get along just fine. I was set for my baking duties and so I had to get my costume together.

Bloody Brain Pannacotta and Shortbread Witch’s Fingers

I am not one for sewing. In fact the only craft I can muster up is really cooking. So I chose to buy my costume and there was one I had my heart set on, the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland (I even had the tiara ready for it). Now that I had my outfit sorted, I needed to turn my attention to the decorations. Places were selling out of their Halloween goodies and whenever I’d walk into a shop, there would be a gaggle of people amongst the Halloween section with adults and kids alike grabbing costumes and decorations.

I wanted to go more ghoulish and squeamish this year so I went with Donna the Dead, the moaning sensor activated animated moaning head. I picked up my charming severed head from The Party People in Sans Souci and discovered a treasure trove of ghoulish goodies. We got to chatting and they agreed to lend me some props for the party including these two charming mummies and a faux bloody brain and severed hand! Mr NQN dressed up as a surgeon gone psychotic and answered the door holding the body parts (he was originally to go as Hannibal Lecter holding a bottle of chianti, fava beans and a liver).

But enough dithering, let me show you the food which is always one of the most important parts to a celebration aside from the company!

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I’ve been called Morticia Addams more times than I can remember. As you know, I’ve always felt an affinity with the dark and unusual and so that is why I embrace Halloween. I’m convinced that I were alive in the dark ages, I would have probably been called a witch and perhaps burnt at the stake so it’s rather fortunate that I live in the 21st century and I can carry a Witches Hat shaped umbrella without incident (although let’s be honest, people do stare).

So when I make these witches fingers, they are more of an homage to witches. Of course they had to be green after my favourite witch, Elphaba, the misunderstood heroine of the musical Wicked – a character I identify with. I first saw these on Yeah, That Vegan Shit where they called them Bloody Finger cookies and I tried their recipe but my fingers spread out too much and resembled fat Shrek fingers (which my husband thought they were meant to be) so I decided to use a shortbread recipe as that would maintain its shape. As with all of my Halloween recipes, they aren’t just a novelty and they actually do taste fabulous at the same time so anyone reluctant to try a finger or two may find themselves contentedly gnawing on a knuckle.

My Witch’s hat umbrella

As for my “friend” in the picture, well she’s a special treat amongst others for my Halloween party guests. I won’t give away what her role is but if you do happen to be coming to my party, don’t google it and let her be a surprise to you. For those who aren’t coming, google “Donna the Dead” and you’ll see that she’s the real star of the show come Saturday night!

So tell me Dear Reader, what scares the pants off you?

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This month’s Daring Bakers challenge was exciting. For not only was it chocolate based, it only had 3 ingredients. Yes seriously. Of course I’m not counting the ice cream part. They wouldn’t let us get away with something so simple. But even give this head start of sorts, I still waited til the last week to do this. I’m not usually a procrastinator, indeed I prefer to get things done earlier than waiting and dreading for something. Call me a Peeling-Off-The-Bandaid-Quickly kind of person. I was the one that handed in University papers early (although conversely I sometimes show up 5-10 minutes late to things). It’s probably because I like planning, in fact my husband told me that I was recently talking in my sleep where I impatiently issued him instructions on how to organise and move plants. Yes that’s what my dreams are made of. Hardly hot stuff wouldn’t you say?

But I digress, the cake itself is incredibly moist – most flourless cakes are, but this one contains no almond meal as well as no flour. So the look suffers a little in that is sinks and forms a crater. And for someone that loves the look of a cake as much as the taste, this dismayed me a little. I paced around the house clucking like an anxious Type A personality chicken. What do I do? The plans I had to decorate it were awry. It was too sunken. Then I flicked through Gordon Ramsay’s 3 Star Chef cookbook and combined two decorative touches I saw on the pages. **Sigh** “No Chicken Little,” I said to myself, “The Sky is not falling”.

I’d like to tell you that I reduced some plum juice to a syrup but I took the lazy option and used jam mixed with water to create the pools which gave me a good flavour, without little effort. The biscuits on top I bought from Aldi, which I buy every year for Valentines Day. I did mention that we had to make an ice cream to go along with it, and I had originally intended for an Apricot sorbet (it would have matched the decorations I had in mine before I realised that it was a sunken cake) but instead I used a Cafe Au Lait Ice Cream I had made previously. And whilst it didn’t turn out as I’d originally hoped, the proof as they say is in the tasting. It is a wonderfully gooey cake, like a gorgeous soft nut free brownie.

As for my plans, we’re off to New Zealand’s South Island for our 3rd Wedding Anniversary. I shall of course have internet access and I look forward to reporting back on all that is wonderful, good and foody in the Land of the Long White Cloud.

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE’s blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.
We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

To see other Daring Baker’s creations, click here

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