(A bit late) Halloween

I'm a bit behind in updating my blog, as you can tell because Halloween has been and gone! Anyway, I made a number of Halloween themed food items because Halloween is one of my favourite times of the year! I love it as we buy loads of sweets, decorate the house, carve the pumpkins and get dressed up to go trick or treating.  "Trick or Treat" inspired my miniatures this year as I made lots of Halloween themed treats, sweets and candy. There were lollipops, candy canes, boiled sweets with Jack O'Lantern, ghost, skull, bat and "Boo!" designs as well as liquorice allsorts and dolly mixtures.

 

 

I made a Frankenstein's monster style trick or treat candy bowl.  This was really fun to make as it looked like it was made from green zombie skin all sewn up and stitched together!

 

 

 

I also made three different trick or treat candy buckets/mini cauldrons which each had a Jack O'Lantern, Frankenstein's Monster and spooky ghost design.  Like the candy bowl these too were filled with Halloween sweets and candy.

 

 

 

 

 

I made a tray of homemade style candy apples.  This item consisted of a metal tray with six Golden Delicious apples dipped in milk chocolate and covered in rainbow coloured sprinkles.  There is a wooden stick through the centre of each apple ready for the trick or treaters to hold.

 

 

I made two sets of Halloween themed doughnuts.  The first set of doughnuts were coloured purple, orange and white; the second set were coloured green, orange and black.

 

 

 

 

I made a red velvet layer cake which was decorated in white fondant icing with a knife sticking out through the centre of the cake, with lots of fake blood trickling down the sides as if the cake has been 'stabbed'!

 

 

I made three plates of Halloween themed gingerbread biscuits.  Amongst the designs were gingerbread man skeletons and Frankenstein's monster, spooky ghosts, bats, spiders, tombstones and pumpkin lanterns.

 



 

 

 

Last but not least I made two spooky gingerbread houses.

 

 

My Christmas project

I'm doing something a little different for this year's Christmas project; I'm going to transform this 1:12 scale market stall into a German Lebkuchen Christmas market stall. This is what it looks like to begin with...

Afternoon tea cake stand

Whenever I think of a tea party or afternoon tea I always think of those tiered cake stands laden with pastries, cakes and mini sandwiches.  I found this beautiful glass cake stand on ebay and the food sort of made itself! I researched some ideas of different foods to include then came up with this  selection of afternoon tea party treats: pastel coloured macarons, fruit scones, chocolate eclairs, strawberry cream tarts and tuna finger sandwiches.  I wanted to create something typically 'English tea party' and  refined in my table packed full of quaint and whimsical food and this is what I came up with!

 

 



 

 

 

 

"Eat Me" biscuits

"Soon her eye fell upon a little glass box lying underneath the table. She opened it and found in it a very small cake, on which the words "EAT ME" were beautifully marked in currants"                                                                     - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Scene from Disney's Alice in Wonderland (1951)    Alice discovered the 'Eat Me' biscuits when trying to grow again in size after drinking the 'Drink Me' potion.  These are an important plot device and memorable food item within the book so I have included them here on my Mad Hatter's tea party table just in case anyone drinks too much of the shrinking potion!   I designed these biscuits to match the pastel colours I used in Alice's 'Merry Un-birthday' cake and gave them a pretty vintage floral design.  There are fourteen biscuits (or cookies) in total, eight heart shaped and six circular, each with a separate design and colour scheme.  The look I wanted to achieve here is a fondant topped biscuit with finely piped lettering and designs.  This is my own Dinky Diner version of the 'Eat Me' biscuits!   The biscuits are fixed to a large pink ceramic serving plate.

 

 

 

"Drink Me" potion

When I began planning my tea party table and was thinking of all the things I associated with Alice in Wonderland, the 'drink me' potion was right up there on the list! Although Alice did not find the magical shrinking potion at the tea party she did remark that it had a wonderful flavour which was a mixture of cherry tart, custard, pineapple, roast turkey, toffee and hot buttered toast! How yummy!  

 

 

 

 

Alice first found the potion after falling down the rabbit hole when she chased after the White Rabbit and found herself in a room with no way out apart from through a tiny little door.  When Alice drank the strange potion she shrunk to ten inches high and was able to go into the beautiful garden which was on the other side of the door.

 

The potion bottle is made of fine artisan made glass with a blue liquid inside and a tiny "drink me" label tied around the neck.