Well, these Halloween Black Cat Cookies are FAR from perfect but they were definitely a LOT of fun to make!   They are a little time consuming but it’s something that you should plan to spend an entire morning or day doing.  And I recommend that you make a plan, read all the directions first, and lay out all the tips, bags, colors (supplies) you’ll need.  You can all the hot seasonal Wilton items at Walmart and back in the arts & craft section, they have all the Wilton icings and tools.

When buying Wilton products, there are always instructions and tips on the back of the product.  Read them twice.

I bought my sugar cookie dough this round because the week has been hectic but you can make your own dough, which I recommend.  I rolled it out and cut out the cats.

Because these were going to be black cats with orange outline, I made my orange icing first.  I outlined each cat, using orange buttercream icing.  I’m not actually even sure if using regular buttercream was the correct icing to use to be honest but that’s what I did.

(Also, I apologize for the HORRIBLE photos. My camera is in my car and my son took it today so I was stuck with a really crappy one!)

Royal icing is fun.  It’s liquid like and falls into place for the most part.  I’ll include the recipe for that below.  Obviously I used Wilton’s Black dye for the icing.   It’s as simple as confectioners sugar, meringue powder, and water.

I dyed it, thinned it, and poured into a bag.  I snipped the end and let it flow out.  This can be messy so be careful.  My biggest tip for you is to start with a little amount in the middle and spread out using a toothpick, otherwise, you chance it spilling over. I know this ’cause I did this.

After that, I let dry and then I ‘decorated’ the cat by putting eyes and mouth.  I used white icing for eyes, tiny amount of the black royal black icing for center of eyes, and the orange buttercream for the mouth.    It ain’t pretty but I think I did alright and I know Truett will think they are super cool!!!

While I had hoped they’d look a little spookier, they’ll do.  They actually look pretty happy. LOL  I placed in a Wilton treat box and completed the Halloween Black Cat Cookies! If you want more Halloween treat ideas, check out some of my other posts.

ROYAL ICING (from Wilton)

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These don’t have to be only Halloween treats but they does make for a fun one and as you can see, we used Halloween colors and decorations to celebrate the holiday.  They are very fun and vibrant.   Halloween always seems to be about sweets (and no exceptions here) but at least there are fresh apple bites incorporated into this one!  These are much smaller than you probably realize because instead of using whole apples, you’ll be using a melon baller.  I have this cool double-sided melon baller for the 2 size options but any will do.

I recommend letting the kiddos help you with this one. It’s very easy for them to dip them into the sweets and they’ll just love being your helper.  If your kids are helping, I highly recommend you use the tip below to keep the mess to a minimum!

Ingredients/Supplies

• 4-inch lollipop sticks
• Melon baller
• Granny Smith apples (one apple makes about 8 mini apples)
• Wilton Chocolate Chips (I got mine at Walmart), Butterscotch or peanut butter chips
• You could also use Chopped nuts, sprinkles, shredded coconut, or mini m&m’s…whatever you want.
• Small paper candy cups

Instructions

With the melon baller, scoop little balls out of the apple. Each ball should have a section of apple peel. Push half of a lollipop stick into the peel of each ball. Pat the apple pieces dry.  Melt the chips according to the package directions. Dip and swirl the mini apples in the melted chips, then roll the apples in nuts, sprinkles, coconut or whatever your choice is.   Place the mini apples in paper candy cups to set.

TIP: Here’s one of my favorite tips to keeping the mess under control with all the different sprinkles, m&m’s, etc.  Get a muffin pan out and place muffin liners in them.  Pour each topping you plan to use into a separate cup so that all you have to do is dip each covered apple into that topping.  Works great!  I learned that tip from the fine folks at Wilton.

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*

Wilton offers a variety of baking products to help you make the most creative and beautiful cakes.  They also offer themed products and in this case, Halloween themed items!  I’ll be making a few items over the next couple of weeks to get you in the Halloween mood and if you’ve baked something Halloweenish, I’d love to see a photo!

One winner will receive all the items below to help kick start your Halloween baking!

There’s a finger pan, cookie house kit, tons of sprinkles, cupcake stand & stencils, and more!

TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY

Leave a comment on this post with your Halloween stories.  You may enter daily by telling me a different story each day.

ADDITIONAL entries once the required entry has been completed, leaving each one in a separate comment to count:

• –Share the giveaway via Twitter and/or Facebook.  Be sure to follow @WiltonCakes and @ACowboysWife at twitter and ‘Like’ us on Facebook! You may tweet once a day. Just be sure to come back here each day and let me know.
• –Subscribe to My Wooden Spoon via email or by RSS.
• –Visit the Wilton website and tell me what you’d like to have from there or your favorite idea you saw there. Can be done DAILY.

Giveaway ends on October 10th at 6pm CST.

The Witches Brooms were so cute that I just had to make and share these Mummy dogs with you today.  Check out these cute pigs in a blanket, Halloween style!!  Tell me those are not cute, I dare you!  And you could use mustard or ketchup as the eyes.  With all the Halloween sweets I’ve been posting, I thought these would make for a great appetizer/snack!  You’ve seen similar recipes around but I’d love to see your final creation of the mummy dogs!

Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 can (8 oz) Pillsbury refrigerated crescent dinner rolls or 1 can (8 oz) Pillsbury Crescent Recipe Creations refrigerated flaky dough sheet
• 2 ½ slices American cheese, quartered (2.5 oz)
• 10 large hot dogs
• Cooking spray
• Mustard or ketchup, if desired

DIRECTIONS

Heat oven to 375°F.  If using crescent rolls: Unroll dough; separate at perforations, creating 4 rectangles. Press perforations to seal. If using dough sheet: Unroll dough; cut into 4 rectangles.  With knife or kitchen scissors, cut each rectangle lengthwise into 10 pieces, making a total of 40 pieces of dough. Slice cheese slices into quarters (1/2 slice cheese, cut in half).  Wrap 4 pieces of dough around each hot dog and 1/4 slice of cheese to look like “bandages,” stretching dough slightly to completely cover hot dog. About 1/2 inch from one end of each hot dog, separate “bandages” so hot dog shows through for “face.” On ungreased large cookie sheet, place wrapped hot dogs (cheese side down); spray dough lightly with cooking spray. Cut slits for eyes. Or draw features with mustard or ketchup once cooked.  Bake 15 to 19 minutes or until dough is light golden brown and hot dogs are hot.

More Halloween Treats!  Boo babies–Now tell me those aren’t the cutest things ever!  Pretty simple to make too!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 pkg. Nutter Butter Peanut Butter Cookies
• White Chocolate Morsels or
• Vanilla candy coating squares
• Mini Chocolate Chips
• Waxed Paper

DIRECTIONS

Melt the white chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave. Place each cookie in the chocolate and coat both sides. Lift out with a fork and place on waxed paper. Add mini chocolate chips for eyes while white chocolate is still soft.

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.