Family Halloween Fun - Ghost Meringue Recipe

Family Halloween Fun - Ghost Meringue Recipe I make this recipe every year for my family and for Halloween parties and it is always a big hit! It's great because the recipe is easy and the treats come out lite and tasty.

It's also a great Halloween project to do with the kids, because they can get creative with the shapes and decorations. In our house our favorite Halloween meringue cookie shapes are ghosts and bones, but the possibilities are endless. Ingredients 1 1/2 cups of sugar 5 egg whites at room temperature 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar pinch of salt 1 to 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract to taste Black gel icing Directions Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 220 degrees fahrenheit. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar with mixer until soft peaks form, this could take from two to five minutes. I alwys use a Kitchenaid standing mixer but a hand mixer will work as well. Gradually add sugar while also gradually increasing the mixing speed to medium. Add vanilla extract and continue beating until stiff peaks form. Spoon the mixture into a cake or pastry piping bag with a 1/4 - 1/2 inch tip or with a plastic bag and cut off a 1/4 - 1/2 inch tip at the corner of the bag. Pipe a swirl to make a ghost and repeat until the cookie sheets are filled. Bake for one hour. Then, turn off heat and allow the cookies to sit for at least an hour. Do not open oven at any time during the baking process. Use black gel icing to make eyes and mouths on the ghosts. Carefully remove cookies from parchment paper and enjoy them while they are fresh or store in an airtight container. If you want to make meringue bones, simply pipe a 3-4 inch line and add two balls to the end of each. Recipe yields 3-4 dozen. Family Halloween Fun - Ghost Meringue Recipe

Creepy and Cute Halloween Cake Design Ideas

To help you get started scheming and designing your ghoulish confections, here are a few Halloween Cake Design Ideas. Try these or create your own spin-off's!

Haunted House - Sheet, Novelty Pan or Sculpted Castle This Halloween cake can be made in many ways. 1. Trim a sheet cake into the shape of an old Victorian house with gables. Then pipe icing windows, doors, and other details, including cobwebs. Ghostly shapes are easy to pipe and fill in with snow-white buttercream icing. Add bats and other easy to pipe Halloween creatures. 2. Or you can use a novelty cake pan with the haunted house theme. Many of these come with decorations and instructions. 3. For a really exciting Halloween cake, try a haunted castle cake! Butter cakes works well. Stack two or more cakes, being sure to place supportive plates in between the layers. If the cake is large like a wedding cake, add cake dowels. Towers can be created with upside down ice-cream cones or paper towel rolls, shortened to fit proportionally to your cake. For edible towers, bake a pound cake in a jelly roll pan, and then using a cookie-cutter or glass, cut our circular pieces of uniform size. Skewer these, and then stick the skewered towers into the cake. Then ice them and pipe designs and windows. For an amazing haunted house castle - think detail. For example, you could cut out windows and place inside kooky ghosts or other ghoulish figures (modeled with rolled buttercream, created with gum paste molds, or store-bought). You might even want to add a moat and drawbridge! Tuck green miniature lights behind the turrets and under the drawbridge for an eerie glow. A basic set of confectionary tools will help you model your Halloween cake creatures. You can find these and all sorts of decorating supplies at www.CandylandCrafts.com If you model your Halloween cake figures with gum paste, creations will dry hard and last for years, but the children won't enjoy the taste much. Marzipan's expensive, and this almond paste isn't as much of a hit with kids as grown-ups. Your best bet for your Halloween cakes is Rolled Buttercream. It's a great tasting icing dough that can be easily modeled or molded. Frankenstein's Bride - Vintage Halloween Cake Here's a spin off from our charming doll cake that is made with a Barbie type doll and a cake dress. Use a doll with black hair. Tease the hair so it's all puffed up and then paint the lightening stripes up each side of her hair do. (For a humorous version, you could make her hair stand straight up). Paint her face a pasty white, add make-up (search online for "Bride of Frankenstein doll" and "Bride of Frankenstein costumes" for ideas. Cover the negligee dress with smooth, white buttercream and maybe add some black spiders and lacy impressions. Another idea: A vintage 60's Halloween doll cake could be fashioned after the Adam's Family's Mortisha. Jack o' Lantern Bundt Halloween Cake This is an easy Halloween cake for cake decorators new to cake sculpting. Young children will adore a Jack o' Lantern cake with a cute or goofy expression, while most older kids will get a kick out of an outlandish or spooky face. Start with 2 bundt cakes (butter, pumpkin and pound cakes work well). Then after leveling and icing the bottom of the cakes, fit them together to form the pumpkin. Cover the pumpkin with smooth, orange buttercream. Then pipe and/or use rolled buttercream to model the facial features. Pipe green leaves on top and add a stem made of rolled buttercream or an upside-down ice cream cone, iced with green. Last, but not least, here's an important Halloween Cake tip. The amount of liquid food coloring needed to create black or dark brown icing will probably give your icing a bitter taste. To avoid making a Halloween cake that tastes creepier than it looks, try one of these ghoulishly clever tips: · Use gel, paste or powder coloring. They're concentrated, so you won't need as much. · Begin with dark chocolate buttercream, and you'll need even less. · Instead of black icing, cover plain buttercream with crushed, dark chocolate cookies, and use licorice and such for spiders and bats.

Sugar-Free Pumpkin Pancakes - A Halloween Treat

Are you forever struggling to lose that last 20 pounds? You aren't alone, there are millions of us out there working on that same goal. You want to be healthy and fit because it would do wonders for your confidence and self-image.

Dedicated exercise programs are a huge help with weight loss - not only will you see weight loss, you'll see muscles coming along - you'll begin feelin' good and havin' more fun.

Sugar Free

Problem weight loss stories are in almost every magazine you pick-up and how often do you pull up your home page on the computer and one or several actresses are looking emaciated - what the heck is wrong with their self-image? They have money, fans, great looks, almost everything money can buy.

Obviously though, thinner bodies aren't making for happier people. In America our female population obsess with weight and how they look. How depressing is that? There are also men out there who obsess about their weight, but studies show men lose weight much faster than women if they put their mind to it and make some positive food adjustments. Besides men are looking for ways to build their bodies up, they want muscles.

When asked, women don't care about muscles, they want to lose weight and men, when asked, want to be more muscular and feel they could weigh more. Women look in the mirror and their inner voice tells them "you're fat, what's with the 10 pounds?" Men on the other hand feel they only have to lose about five pounds. If you're struggling, you're probably five steps away from the latest fad diet. It'll only hurt you more than help and they don't work.

Once you have conquered your own weight loss, share your blooming self-esteem, it's a valued gift you can give to everyone - you can inspire and influence others and you can be supportive as they work off that last 20 pounds. Following is a great recipe for pancakes you might want to share with your kids since breakfast is the most important meal of the day, perfect for Halloween and sugar-free.

Sugar-Free Pumpkin Pancakes

These are flavored with spices of autumn, topped with tangy sour cream, and toasted pecans making your taste buds dance with delight.

1/4 cup chopped pecans, 1/2 cup Lite pancake mix, 1 T. Stevia, 1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon, 3/4 tsp. ground ginger, 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg, 1/2 tsp. baking powder, 1/2 cup heavy cream, 1/4 tsp. salt, 2 large eggs, 1/2 cup canned pumpkin, 1/2 stick unsalted melted butter, 1/4 cup sour cream, and sugar-free pancake syrup.

Heat oven to 350 F. Place pecans in a single layer on a baking sheet, bake until slightly browned, about 8 minutes. Cool.

Mix pancake mix, Stevia, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl. Whisk cream, eggs, pumpkin, and butter in another bowl. Stir wet ingredients into dry until just combined. Let sit for 5 minutes.

Heat griddle or electric skillet to medium. Grease lightly with butter, drop batter onto cooking surface in generous tablespoons. Cook until edges look dry, 3 or 4 minutes, flip and cook another 2 or 3 minutes.

Serve at once with sour cream, chopped pecans, and syrup. Very yummy...

Serves 4; About 350 calories.

Happy Halloween!

Sugar-Free Pumpkin Pancakes - A Halloween Treat