Fun Halloween Dessert Recipes

The best think about Halloween is the fun Halloween dessert recipes you can create. I love nothing more than seeing a fun cake all decked out and Halloween is a great time to see those creative cakes you can make.

Image Source: Flickr

CHOCOLATE SPIDER WEB CUPCAKES
www.holidaysforbusypeople.com

1 boxed chocolate cake mix
1 T. instant coffee powder
1 c. milk chocolate morsels
2 T. butter
½ c. heavy cream
1 egg white
3 c. confectioners’ sugar
Water

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees; line 24 muffin tins with paper liners. Prepare the cake mix as directed on the box, adding the coffee powder to the dry mix. Allow the baked cupcakes to cool completely on a wire rack.
2. Place the morsels and the butter in a small mixing bowl. Heat the cream in a small saucepan until it’s just boiling. Pour over the morsels and whisk until well blended. Frost the cooled cupcakes by dipping and swirling just the tops of the cupcakes in the ganache. Place on baking sheet.
3. To make the spider web design, make royal icing: whisk together the egg white and the confectioners’ sugar in a small mixing bowl. If needed, add water, 1 t. at a time, to achieve a smooth, workable semi-thick icing. Transfer about half of the royal icing to a quart-sized zipper top plastic bag. Snip a 1/8 inch corner from the bag and pipe a spiral of icing onto the cupcakes. Using a toothpick, lightly drag the icing from the center to the edge to achieve a web effect. These keep best covered in the refrigerator; bring to room temperature before serving.

Jack-O-Lantern Brownie
http://www.CelebrateWithHersheys.com

* 3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter or margarine, melted
* 1-1/2 cups sugar
* 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 3 eggs
* 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/2 cup HERSHEY’S Cocoa
* 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* Yellow and red food color
* 1 can (16 oz.) canned vanilla frosting
* Garnishes: HERSHEY’S MINI KISSES Brand Milk Chocolates, Twizzlers Nibs Licorice Bits, Twizzlers Pull-n-Peel, HEATH English Toffee Bits, HERSHEY’S assorted baking pieces

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 12-inch round pizza pan. If using a disposable pan, place on baking sheet to bake. 2. Beat melted butter, sugar and vanilla with spoon in large bowl. Beat in eggs. Stir in dry ingredients; beat with spoon until well blended. Spread in pan. 3. Bake 20 to 22 minutes or until top springs back when touched lightly in center. Cool completely. Add yellow and red food color to frosting for desired shade of orange. Frost brownie; garnish to resemble a jack-o-lantern. 12 to 16 servings.

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Halloween Graveyard Cake from Driscoll’s
http://www.driscolls.com
1 container (6 ounces) Driscoll’s blueberries
cup water
1 package (18.25 ounce) devil food cake mix
1/3 cup oil
3 large eggs

Heat oven to 350F. Lightly grease and flour 2 (9-inch) square baking pans. Combine in food processor 1 cup blueberries and water. Puree 1 minute or until smooth

BLEND cake mix, blueberry mixture, oil and eggs in large bowl on low speed just until moistened. Scrape sides of bowl. Beat at medium speed 2 minutes. Stir in remaining blueberries. Divide batter evenly into prepared pans. Bake 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely.

Raspberry Strawberry Filling
1 container (6 ounces) Driscoll’s raspberries
1 cup coarsely chopped Driscoll’s strawberries, divided
1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch

Combine raspberries and 1 cup coarsely chopped strawberries in food processor. Puree 1 minute or until smooth. Press through a sieve to remove seeds. Whisk sugar, cornstarch and berry puree in small saucepan until blended. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly and boil 1 minute. Remove from heat stir in cup chopped strawberries; set aside. Cool completely.

Chocolate Ganache Whipped Frosting
2 cups heavy cream
12 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
Garnish
1 container (6 ounces) Driscoll Blueberries
1 container (6 ounces)Driscoll Raspberries

Bring heavy cream to a boil over medium- high heat in medium saucepan. Whisk in chocolate, whisking constantly until the chocolate is completely melted. Pour chocolate into a bowl, cover surface with plastic wrap, chill 2 hours. Beat on low to medium speed 30 seconds or just until ganache is thickened and begins to hold a shape. Do not overbeat.

To Assemble:
Place one cake layer on serving plate. Spread raspberry strawberry filling to inch from edge. Top with second cake layer. Frost sides and top with ganache whipped frosting. Arrange blueberries around top edge of cake and raspberries around bottom edge of cake. Sprinkle center top with cookie crumbs. Arrange strawberry ghosts and press cookies into cake, for tombstones.

Yields
Raspberry Strawberry filling= 1 cup
Whipped Ganache yield 2 cups

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Spice Pumpkin Cake
http://www.duncanhines.com

1 pkg Duncan Hines® Moist Deluxe® Spice Cake Mix
2 large eggs
1 cup water
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup chopped nuts
2 tubs Duncan Hines® Creamy Home-Style Classic Vanilla Frosting
green, red and yellow food coloring
1 flat bottom ice cream cone

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Pumpkin Graham Cracker Recipe
http://www.cupcakeproject.com/2009/10/pumpkin-graham-crackers.html

* 2 T (1/4 stick) unsalted butter, softened
* 2 T pumpkin puree
* 1 egg
* 6 T sugar
* 4 T honey (Some graham crackers use half honey and half molasses. You might consider trying that as a variation.)
* 1/2 t baking soda
* 1 t ginger
* 1 t nutmeg
* 1 t cinnamon
* 3/4 t allspice
* 2 t water
* 3/4 t salt
* 1 1/2 C graham flour (If you can’t get a hold of graham flour, there are plenty of graham cracker recipes that use regular whole wheat flour such as this graham cracker recipe from Baking Bites. You may also be able to directly substitute whole wheat flour in this recipe, but I haven’t tested it and I make no promises.)
* 3/4 C all-purpose flour

Combine the butter, pumpkin, egg, and sugar in a bowl and beat until smooth and creamy. Stir in the honey. Dissolve the baking soda in the water and add to the butter mixture. Add the salt, graham flour, all-purpose flour, and spices to the mixture and blend thoroughly. The dough should hold together and be manageable. If it is too tacky, add a little more graham flour. Liberally dust a surface with graham flour and roll the dough to a thickness of about 1/8 inch. Use your cookie cutters to cut out p

umpkins or any other shape. Use the tines of a fork to make Jack O’ Lantern faces on the pumpkins. Using a spatula, place the pumpkin graham crackers on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 F for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool on racks. They won’t be hard when you first take them out of the oven, but they will harden as they cool.
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California Pizza Kitchen’s Jack-O-Lantern Pizza
http://www.cpk.com/about/community-relations/cookbooks/

Ingredients: Pizza dough, confectioners’ sugar, pumpkin pie filling, mini chocolate chips, chocolate kisses, whipped cream, candy corn.

1) Place the sugar in a fine-mesh strainer and sift a then, even layer of sugar over the dough. This will caramelize as the pizza bakes
2) Transfer the pizza to the oven and bake for 5 min to set the dough. Once the crust has been partially cooked, spread with a thin layer of pumpkin pie filling and return to the oven for another 5 -10 minutes, or until the filling is set. Remove and allow the pizza to cool
3) Decorate the pizzas using mini chocolate chips to represent the vertical lines, whipped cream for the eyes and mouth, chocolate kisses for the eyeballs, and the candy corn for the teeth.

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