31 Days of Halloween!(+1!) Nov 1 - Day of the Dead

Make: Skulls!
Recipe: Krispy Treat Skulls!
Made:Skulls!



Make: Day of the Dead Skulls

Recipe: Rice Krispy Treat Skulls and Skull Cake

Made: Leather Day of the Dead Masks

~> The first recipe I'm posting for Day of the Dead is crispy rice treat skulls! Information about the skull cake will be posted second.



~~> Recipe: Rice Krispy Treat Skulls

Most of this recipe follows a regular rice krispy treat recipe!
Basically, the differences are that you smash up the rice krispies before you start and you mash them in to skull molds instead of a pan! (you can do this with any firm mold and they are great used as cake toppers or individual treats)
ONE batch would fit a 13x9x2 inch pan.


Ingredients:
Rice Crispy Treat 
3 Tsp butter OR margarine
1 package (10 oz., ~40) regular marshmallows OR 4 cups miniature marshmallows
5 1/2 cups crispy rice cereal (a bit less makes for a denser cast of the skull, can decrease to 5 cups)
Decoration (optional)
fondant/sugar paste or marzipan
melting chocolate
sanding sugar
sprinkles


Crush the rice cereal a bit in a heavy food bag (a freezer bag works fine); you can use a rolling pin or the back of a wooden spoon). Smaller pieces make for more detail in your castings of your food molds! (and make the treat much more dense!)
Use a light baking spray on your mold pan (I used the Wilton  3-D mini skull baking pan as a press mold).
Use a large saucepan (a paella pan or wok also works great ; ) to melt butter on low heat, add the marshmallows, and stir until melted in.
Add your crispy rice cereal and stir until evenly mixed and well coated.
Use wax paper or a buttered spoon/spatula to press mixture into molds (or you could lay it out on aluminum foil and cut it with cookie cutters).
Allow to cool.
These are best if served the same or the next day. If you need to hold them you can freeze them between layers of wax paper for up to 6 weeks.


~~> Recipe: Skull Cake

There are (at least) two good 3-D baking molds for "full sized" skulls available: Wilton and NordicWare. The Nordic Ware pan has a more complete skull shape, with the back of the skull being more rounded, but may be harder to find. Wilton also has a 3-D mini skull baking pan with molds for 4 complete smaller skulls which are great for baking or using as a press mold.
Prep baking mold (grease / lightly flour).
Fill with any standard cake recipe or mix (The recipes and mixes we have used are given here).
Allow to cool and remove from mold pan, breaking the edge of the cake/pan border with a butter knife.
After the cake has cooled, cut the un-molded edges flat and spread some frosting thinly across both facing edges to "glue" together.
Gently frost the cake. Using the Wilton mold I tend to frost the base differently than the skull.
Then pipe decoration. You can use a small plastic food bag with a tiny corner snipped off for piping.


~~~> Made:

  

           

  

Enjoy! 
 
DeWyk

31 Days of Halloween! Day16- Make: Mini Mummies!

What could be more Halloween than.......the dead!
But the dead can be so messy. Zombies leave bits of themselves everywhere (and they squish! xp), Vampires are constantly at everyone's' throats, and Ghosts have this nasty habit of throwing furniture around every time they want to get your attention. The best way to incorporate the dead into your Halloween plans? Mummies! Occasionally they may wander around and leave bits of bandages places, but given proper treatment of their canopic jars most Mummies are quite well behaved.

However, the difficulty of obtaining natron and the caustic-ness of certain other embalming agents can make the creation of mummies in the home a less than family-friendly process...not to mention certain other complications associates with mummy making (see above: squishing).
Our solution to this issue is quite simple: Flour dough mummies! They are quiet, clean, and take up very little space! Also, this project is completely food safe and great for kids.


What you'll need:
-Flour
-Water
-Salt
-Cheesecloth or thin cloth bandages
-Cookie or candy molds


1. Find an animal shaped cookie or candy mold. For example, the Wilton's mummy candy mold, or chocolate animal molds, are perfect!

                





2. To make the dough, mix 1 cup flour with 1/2 cup salt. When these are thoroughly mixed together, add 1/2 cup water and mix that with the flour/salt mixture. If the dough seems too thick, add more water in VERY SMALL INCREMENTS. You don't want too much water.

3. Press or pour the dough into your mold. If the mold is heat safe, you can put it into the oven on low heat to accelerate the drying process. If the mold is not heat safe, you will need to allow the flour dough to air dry. Do not remove the dough until it has dried hard. Note that the more water you add to the dough (beyond 1/2 cup), the more the dough will shrink as it dries. This will become your mummy base.

4. Get the cheesecloth or bandages. If you have cheesecloth, tear it into very thin strips 5-8" long. If you have thin bandages, just cut them into 5-8" long strips (though the mummy will look less ragged).

5. Make another flour/water/salt mixture. This time, use 1/3 cup flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1 cup water. What you're going for here is more of a traditional papier-mache paste.

6. Soak the strips of bandages in the papier mache paste, and wrap them gently but firmly around your mummy base. Wrap the bandages in a crisscross pattern for the most mummy-like effect. Make sure to cover your entire mummy, and do not get the papier mache paste too thick onto the bandages. You're using it to stick the bandages to the mummy and make them look distressed, not to cover up the bandages!

7. Allow the mummy to dry. Once it is dry, you can do one of a few things to finish it off:
-You can leave it as is, as an off-white mummy
-You can "antique" the mummy. Brew a very strong cup of tea, using loose-leaf tea (or break open the bag). Use a paintbrush or cloth rag to apply the tea stain to the bandages.
-You can paint your mummy using acrylic paints.

Enjoy! 
 
DeWyk