Are you brave enough to try these Halloween delights?

Halloween fingers...would you eat these?

“We are still busy decorating at home, but I made time to bake a Cadbury’s chocolate fudge cake for the carpet fitter and helpers,” says Le-Anne. “And an impromptu visit to a friend’s house meant a quick batch of shortbread had to be baked – I couldn’t go round for a cup of tea without bringing anything!

“Our neighbour’s daughter was having a girly night in, so I supplied them with a large tin full of triple chocolate cookies, which went down very well.

“I’ve also made a smoked haddock and cider pie, some ciabatta rolls and plain white rolls.

“Charlotte and I have gone a bit spooky this week in time for Halloween. I’ve made some easy and fun cupcakes for you to make with your kids. Use the basic recipe and you can decorate with your own designs.”

Halloween Snack (Image: Archant)

“We’ve gone into decorating mode in our house too,” adds Charlotte. “Currently our kitchen resembles a building site as my husband sets to put in a new one. He has left me with no worksurfaces at all, which has made any kind of cooking difficult – particularly as I am currently developing chocolate and sweet recipes for the Christmas issue of Suffolk Magazine! For Halloween, how about making my witches’ fingers? They look so spooky before they’re cooked, many of my friends can barely look at them! And they’re ultra simple as well. When my kitchen is back in order I’ll be working on chocolate-based recipes using products from Suffolk-based Hadleigh Maid… watch this space.”

Charlotte’s offering - Witches’ fingers

Ingredients

Halloween cupcake (Image: Archant)

1 pack of shortcrust pastry (or 500g homemade) l 24 chipolata sausages l A pack of flaked almonds l Ketchup l A little beaten egg

Method

These are so simple. Preheat the oven to 190C.

Roll out the pastry thinly and cut out squares that will roughly cover just under a half of each chipolata.

Wrap each sausage in the pastry, tuck underneath and trim to neaten, then use a sharp knife to make indents (knuckles).

Make a small incision 1cm from the end at the top of each sausage, dab with beaten egg then insert a flaked almond to look like a nail.

Place on baking trays and cook for around 15 minutes until golden (they won’t look so gross then).

Serve with lashings of ketchup.

Le-Anne’s offering - Halloween cupcakes

For the decoration

Look out for green, black and orange colourings and spooky cake toppers. Carousel in Ipswich should have a good selection.

For the cakes

125g unsalted butter l 125g caster sugar l 2 eggs l 125g plain flour l 1/2tsp bicarbonate of soda l 2tsp baking powder l 2tp vanilla extract l 2tbsp milk

Filling/topping

250g icing sugar l 50g soft unsalted butter l 25ml milk l (add cocoa for chocolate icing) l Strawberry jam (optional) l 1/2tsp vanilla extract

Method

Preheat the oven to 165C.

Place all the ingredients for the cake mix, apart from the milk, into a food processor and blitz until it looks smooth. Add the milk a little at a time and divide into baking cases, baking for around 20 minutes until they are lightly browned. Cool in the tin a little, then transfer to a cooling rack.

While the cakes are cooling, make the buttercream filling.

Beat the icing sugar and softened butter together using an electric mixer or whisk. Add the vanilla extract and milk to the butter and sugar a little at a time. Beat until the mixture looks fluffy.

Decorate as you like.

For more Halloween food idea, see our food and drink section here