You should know that just because I am taking Wilton Decorating classes, that it doesn’t mean I’m any good at it still.  I’m definitely learning much more but I still have such a long ways to go.  With this Hair Raising Cake, I wanted to do three things; incorporate Halloween of course, try not to completely ruin it, and pay tribute to those fighting breast cancer like my Aunt and Grandmother since October is also Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Now one of my biggest problems is that I do things spur of the moment and when making cakes like this, it’s really important to read all the directions to see what supplies you’ll need and try to estimate how much time you’ll need. I did neither. And it’s obvious.  I guess you should see how the original looks like first before I get to mine.

She’s cute huh?  Mine does NOT look like her, sadly.  I did want to incorporate pink though so I switched up her hair a bit. See below……

GETTING STARTED

I was missing a couple of tips and had no clue how to make certain colors of icing but I just went with the flow. I mean, why get all crazy cause you don’t have the exact things right? While it would be nice, I was simply having fun more than anything.  I started with the Long Loaf Pan that uses 8-9 cups of Duncan Hines cake batter.  To give you an idea, one box of cake mix is about 4-5 cups of batter so I used two boxes but didn’t  use it all. I also made a couple of different batters for something else I was making which is why you see two different color batters below.

I prepared my icing first while cake was baking (which took about 80 minutes at 325′), starting with the green.  Now Wilton tells you to combine Lemon Yellow Icing color and Leaf Green Icing color to get the green but I had neither so I used Buttercup Yellow and Teal.  It’s not near as lime green as shown in the photo but I thought it was a nice compliment to the light pink hair.   I also just added a tiny bit of Christmas Red Icing color to white to get the light pink.  Since I didn’t really want to use black on the cake, I went with a mustard color for the pupils, lashes, mouth, and plug things in the sides of her neck.

The cake cooled for over an hour and I set out to decorate. I was missing an important tip, 4B to be exact so I had to make due with what I had.  I think I used 21 or something….not as easy to use ad 4B I’m sure.  Anyways, I iced about 6 inches of the cake with the green color for Halloween and alternated pink and white for the hair in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

I did not take my time..it was getting late and I was tired. I had no idea how long it actually takes from start to finish to do this. I’ll know next time though.   Overall, she’s not just real pretty but I love her.  I made her and feel like she’s a fighter……

So Happy Halloween and don’t forget to get a mammogram and support the women fighting breast cancer like cooking for the cure baby!

P.S. If you don’t have a hobby store that sells Wilton products, you can always order online or check out Walmart’s selection of Wilton goods!  You know what I’d love to see?  Classes taught at our local Walmart!  You know how they have them at Michaels?  Well ours is over an hour away so I’d love if they’d bring the Wilton classes to Walmart!!  *HINT*

One last Halloween treat for you guys!   These Witches Brooms are cute and tasty!  One recommendation would be to use your own peanut butter cookie dough recipe or even the store bought roll.  This one was okay but I’ve had better.  And of course you can make your own orange icing or you can buy ones like Wilton’s Squeeze bottle icing. Let me know if you guys try them for yourself.  And if you enjoy the Halloween Season, have a spooooky and safe time!

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 10 pretzel rods, about 8 1/2 inches long, cut crosswise in half
• 2 teaspoons shortening
• 2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• Butterscotch-flavored chips, melted

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F (180 C). Mix brown sugar, butter, water and vanilla in medium bowl. Stir in flour and salt. Shape dough into twenty 1 1/4-inch balls.
2. Place pretzel rod halves on ungreased cookie sheet. Press ball of dough onto cut end of each pretzel rod. Press dough with fork to resemble “bristles” of broom.
3. Bake about 12 minutes or until set but not brown. Remove from cookie sheet. Cool completely on wire rack, about 30 minutes.
4. Cover cookie sheet with waxed paper. Place brooms on waxed paper. Heat shortening and chocolate chips over low heat, stirring occasionally, until melted and smooth; remove from heat. Spoon melted chocolate over brooms, leaving about 1 inch at top of pretzel handle and bottom halves of cookie bristles uncovered. Drizzle with melted butterscotch chips. Let stand until chocolate is set.

Makes 20 snacks.

Halloween is right around the corner and I always enjoy seeing the fun and spooky food recipes for this theme!  I thought it would be fun to round up a few that I found and share them with you.

If you need a lot of ideas for Halloween Treats, you should consider purchasing 35 Fun Easy Halloween Recipes.  It’s a $7 ebook (money goes to moms) that has some CUTE ideas like these Fruity Ghosts!  ADORABLE and it’s fruit! Great for the school party.

I’m totally gonna try these Witch Cupcakes from Martha Stewart too.  These look like so much fun! (photo from MarthaStewart.com)

And if you’re looking for more of a challenge, give these Ghosts in the Graveyard a try!

MEOW!  Chocolate Cat Cookies from Jill that look easy and fun!  Be sure and check out Jill’s other recipes too…she has some GREAT ones!

And finally, I HAVE to share with you these cute pumpkins from Bakerella. Do you know that I’m obessed with her site and envious of her talent in a stalkerish sort of way?  She’s amazing and she must have an enormous amount of patience to do what she does!  I actually plan on making bigger versions of these because *I* don’t have patience.  Pumpkin Pie Bites from Bakerella (photo is hers too, hope she doesn’t mind me sharing it with y’all and if she does, then I guess you’ll see the photo disappear)  I know she works hard on her photos so PLEASE GO VISIT HER AT BAKERELLA.COM SO THAT SHE DOESN’T MIND ME BORROWING THE PHOTO SO MUCH!

If you have a Halloween recipe, I’d love for you to share with us! You can leave your link in the comment or tell us your idea and how to make it!

P.S. Thursdays are now called ‘Lori’s Pantry’. It’s basically a link roundup of great food chatter and recipes.  Next week’s theme is Party Food so if you have something to share with the web about party food, email your link, idea, or recipe to me by Wednesday at pantry (at) mywoodenspoon (dot) com and I’ll do my best to showcase it.