The best and worst bites of Halloween
7 Comments
Tiny Bites Consulting
October 31, 2008
November 1, 2006: Treats!, originally uploaded by Matt McGee (Creative Commons)
Having a birthday that neighbours Halloween has its drawbacks. Every dance club invariably replaces its normal DJ mix for The Monster Mash and Thriller on endless repeat, and friends are often doubled booked for costume parties.
My one small comfort was trick or treating. It has gotten better with time; now I get to choose what junk food to “distribute” to “children” in my building that does not allow soliciting. Any leftovers become the property of my husband and I. Oh darn.
Like eating smartly at a buffet, there is always a right way and a wrong way to score the best eats. It helps to have younger siblings that can be conned encouraged into bartering for favourites. And if you were anything like me, you knew which establishments on your block to hit up early lest you miss out on the best candy grabs in the neighbourhood. Let me dig into my past and share my Top 5 and Bottom 5 Halloween yums with you…and I hope this prompts you to reply with yours.
My top 5 Halloween candy picks
- The Nestle collection. You know what I’m talking about…Smarties. Aero. Coffee Crisp. Kit Kat. Nestle Crunch. Drool.
- The Mars collection. Similar to #1, you can’t go wrong with mini (or better yet, full) sizes of Mars, Snickers, M&Ms, and the like.
- Rockets. These slightly sour and crunchy candies are less fun than candy necklaces but great as a savouring suck.
- Tootsie Rolls. Lollipops or those chewy chocolatey sticks; I’m not that picky. Bonus: catchy jingle.
- Hershey Kisses. I only got to eat these when my family handed them out to us themselves. An anticipated event.
My bottom 5 Halloween candy picks
- Candy corn. The sight of those tri-striped candies were what I dreaded most in my Halloween bucket. Way too sweet. Not a recognizable brand. Didn’t really understand why they were likened to corn.
- Soap candies. Did you ever pop one of those fruit candies into your mouth and realize that these were the ones that always have at least one soap-flavoured dud in your bucket? Ruined all candy eating for the rest of the evening. And I never learned which brand was the culprit, even after all this time.
- Sun-Maid Raisins. I like raisins. I especially enjoyed those little boxes of Sun-Maid raisins as a post-school snack. But people–trick or treating is not a healthy excursion. Go big or go home. Don’t go fruit and nuts on the kids.
- Sunflower or pumpkin seeds. See #3.
- Homemade goodies. I can vividly recall a few times when I was given the most fantastic homemade cookie or caramel apples that were generously dipped in sprinkles or yummy bits. Do you think my parents let me eat that? Hell, no! They were snatched away from my greedy hands in terror. The find coupled with the immediate separation was agony. Those things better have had razors or poison in them like my family suggested or I’ll be quite off-put.
Your turn. What did you love? What did you hate?
Categories: Events, Food, Food Fun Facts, Miscellany
Happy birthday to me…
8 Comments Karen HamiltonOctober 28, 2008
…and since the night is still young on this day where I turn 29, this will be the extent of my blogging today. But I just had to share the outcome of Operation “Operation” with you now.
Special thanks to Hayley, Lawrence, Jason, and Leanne for all the ideas and effort you put forth to make this fantastic cake.
Categories: Food, Miscellany
A sneak peek at Operation “Operation” (Red Velvet Cake)
4 Comments Tiny Bites ConsultingOctober 19, 2008
I never thought that people would feel anything but disgust at the kind of cakes I tend to get on my birthday, but it turns out that the proximity of Halloween and the macabre senses of humour amongst my set of friends work in my favour. This year’s birthday cake project is dubbed Operation Operation: an edible version of that what-were-they-thinking surgical board game.
Photo by Cyndie@smilebig! (Creative Commons)
Tonight was a trial run of the recipe that we are thinking of using for the cake layers. The sifting of ingredients was a giant pain; prep from start to bake took nearly 2 hours. I’ll have to figure out how to do 4 layers in time for the birthday party on October 25th. Can probably make 2 on Friday and another 2 on Saturday morning (with lots of help from the Operation crew).
The cream cheese frosting was so-so. If you know of something that might taste better with this type of cake, I’d love to hear it.
Below is my variation of the recipe I found on Epicurious (based on suggestions by people who’ve made this recipe before, and with ingredients grouped a little more logically than in the original).
Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Dry Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour (sifted, then measured)
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Buttermilk Mixture
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 2 tablespoons red food coloring
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
In the Mixer
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 large eggs
Baking Soda Mixture
- 1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
Frosting
- 2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, cubed
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cubed
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
Making the cake
Each batch makes 1 layer using a 9×13 pan or 2 layers using two 9″ round cake pans (with 1.5 inch high sides).
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour pan(s).
- Sift dry ingredients into a large bowl.
- Whisk all ingredients for the buttermilk mixture in a small bowl.
- Beat sugar and butter in a large bowl until well blended (speed 2 for stand mixers).
- Add eggs in one at a time, beating until well blended after each addition.
- Beat in dry ingredients in 4 additions alternately with buttermilk mixture in 3 additions. (So that’s four ~2/3 cup portions of dry and three ~1/3 cup portions of wet, in dry / wet / dry / wet / dry / wet / dry order.)
- Mix the baking soda mixture together in a small bowl and blend. Fold into batter.
- Place batter into pans, taking care not to fill each pan more than halfway up.
- Bake until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 25 minutes.
- Cool in pan(s) on racks for 10 minutes. Turn out onto racks; cool completely.
Making the frosting and final touches
- Beat cream cheese and butter in large bowl until smooth.
- Beat in vanilla.
- Add powdered sugar and beat until smooth.
- Place one cake layer, flat side up, on platter. Spread 1 cup frosting over top of cake.
- Top with second cake layer, flat side down. Spread remaining frosting over top and sides of cake.
Cake layers can be made 1 day in advance. If you do so:
- Cover cake in saran wrap before refrigerating.
- Make frosting the day of assembly.
- Let assembled cake stand at room temperature at least 1 hour before serving.
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