Meal Planning with Mindie: Halloween Cake, Cookies, and Cocktails

I absolutely love Fall. This is me with my two boys last year at our local pumpkin patch farm.  We go every year, and I can't wait until it opens this year.  We enjoy tractor hay rides, corn and hay mazes, picking out pumpkins, and eating some good pumpkin pie.

As much as I love some old fashioned pumpkin pie, there are really so many fun Fall and Halloween themed dishes out there to try.  Here are a few of my own personal recipes that my family especially loves this time of year.

Orange You Scared Adult Cocktail:

Not Pictured

Ingredients:

                   

1/2 shot of citrus vodka (or more, if you are up for it)

1/2 cup of Fuzzy Navel Wine Cooler

1/2 cup Orange Soda  (I used diet)

1/4 cup Lemon Lime Soda (I used diet)

1 Scoop Orange Sherbet 

 Kiddie Cocktail Recipe:

 Substitute Hawaiian Orange Punch for the vodka and wine cooler in the above recipe.

You will want to serve this drink in clear glasses so that everyone can enjoy the beautiful pumpkin orange color. The scoop of  sherbet ice cream floating in each glass looks nice and helps keep the beverage cold.  You will want to have all of your ingredients chilled before making this cocktail.  You could also make a large pitcher of this and just add a scoop of sherbet to each glass as you serve.  Tip, you could cover the rim of your glasses with black or green sugar crystals for some added fun.

Another easy festive kiddie cocktail idea is to serve some sparkling orange punch with a frozen red ice hand in it.  My sons favorite recipe for sparkling orange punch is a combination of orange soda, lemon lime soda and orange Hawaiian Punch.  The bloody hand was Hawaiian Fruit Punch frozen in a clean powder free latex glove. 

Make sure to check out your local Dollar Store for some fun Halloween labels to add to your wine bar.
We found these last year.  You could always design your own to on Picnik.

Harvest Pumpkin Oatmeal Bundt Cake

The wonderful flavors of fall inspired this cake filled with pumpkin, apples, dried sweetened cranberries, oatmeal, and almonds.  You could make these as muffins for a great Fall breakfast or brunch, and skip the frosting.  I chose to use a bundt pan so that I could after it cooled decorate it to look like a pumpkin, and making it more of a dessert. You could also serve it with butter and honey, or a compound butter of honey, pumpkin pie spice, and vanilla extract.  If you use unsalted butter as I do, you will need to add just a pinch or two of salt to balance the flavors of the compound butter. 

 Ingredients:
2 cups pureed pumpkin
3 packs of cinnamon and spice instant Quaker oatmeal
1 3/4 cups all purpose flower
1 cup of cholesterol free egg product or 4 eggs
1 cup of packed brown sugar
1/2 cup water
4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
Just a pinch of ground cloves
Just a pinch measuring spoon of vanilla extract
3 oz of sweetened dried cranberries
1/4 tsp of salt
1 cup of dried apple pieces chopped
1/8 cup sliced almonds

1/2 cup of canola oil

Mix all of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl, I did this by hand.  Just mix until everything is well incorporated, and bake in a greased bundt pan in an oven preheated to 350 F degrees for 47 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center of  cake comes out clean. It will take much less time to bake in muffin cups.  Let cool before frosting.  Or if you like serve warm with butter.
Decorating:

 I used food coloring to turn a container of store bought cream cheese frosting into orange and green.  The stem is made with an upside down ice cream cone, covered in green frosting. 

Eye Ball Sugar Cookies

We have made in the past cupcakes that looked similar to these eye ball sugar cookies, both are a fun and an easy treat.

What you need:

Any brand will do.

Bake cookies as directed to on package, then let cool. 

 You will mix approximately 2 cups of powdered sugar with about 2 tbs of water to make royal icing.  If you like you can add a 1/2 tsp of some vanilla extract or any flavored extract you prefer to flavor the icing. I like to ice my cookies while they are still on the cooling rack, with the parchment paper I used to bake them on under neath for easy clean up.

When the icing has set and turned hard, you and your kids can decorate with the edible markers.  If you prefer, you could add before frosting has set a chocolate candy to the center to use as the pupil.

These were some yummy pumpkin cookies I made last year with orange cream cheese frosting.  You could also make them with store bought sugar cookie dough and add food coloring to the royal icing to turn it orange.  Then simply decorate with one green chocolate candy to make them look like pumpkins.

Well I know if you give these recipes a try, you and your family will enjoy.  Come back next week when I will be sharing more fun Halloween and Fall inspired recipes.

Bio: When Mindie May Hilton isn't chasing after her two rambunctious little boys, she is blogging at Bacon Time with the Hungry Hungry Hypo, sharing recipes, crafting, and designing for her shop TLC Creations. She graduated from CSUB with a major in Liberal Studies and minored in Fine Arts. She recently took second place in a recipe video cooking contest held by Johnsonville sausage, competing with almost 1500 other chefs. You can find one of her latest recipes published in a new cook book in association with Kraft foods and Paula Deen for the Real Women of Philadelphia.