Happy Halloween

It's all hallows eve!  Are you planning fun and frolics?

To me it’s such a beautiful time of year when autumn hits the peak of its glorious beauty. I adore the colour of the season and it looks like the evening will be a nice one with autumn sunshine.

It is as if nature is giving us a last technicolour golden treat before we hit the monochrome of winter. I’m not much enamoured with the cold it brings - in fact that is an understatement, but, wrapped up in a warm coat and hat, kicking piles of fallen leaves I become a daft eight year old again. (Some of my friends would doubt that I’ve ever matured from being a daft eight year old!)

When I was a kid Halloween wasn't such a big event, more of a warm up act for the thrill of Bonfire night, now it’s a huge event in itself for kids and adults.

This year rather than buy bags of sweets for the Trick or Treaters why not bake a few cakes? Here’s my recipe for easy gory looking fairy cakes. Great fun for baking with the kids!

Easy Peasy Dripping ‘Blood’ Halloween Fairy Cake Recipe This recipe makes 24 cakes and takes less than 30 minutes

Ingredients 110g/4oz butter  softened at room temperature 110g/4oz caster sugar
2 free-range eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
110g/4oz self raising flour
1-2 tbsp milk

For the icing
300g/10½oz icing sugar
2-3 tbsp water or lemon juice 2-3 drops red food colouring

Instructions Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees and line 2 x 12 hole muffin tins with paper cases.

Cream together the butter and sugar until combined and pale.

Beat in the eggs a little at a time with the vanilla extract. Add a teaspoon of the flour with each addition of the eggs to stop them splitting. 

Fold in the flour with a large metal spoon or spatula.

Add a little milk until the mixture is at a soft dropping consistency and spoon the mixture into the cases until they are half full (Tip: an ice-cream scoop will be better than a spoon if you have one)

Bake in the oven for 8 -10 minutes until golden brown on top and when you insert a skewer it comes out clean

Put the tins with the cakes to one side for about 10 minutes then remove the cakes from the tin and allow the cakes to cool on a cooling rack.

To make the icing, sift the icing sugar into a large bowl and stir in just enough water (or lemon juice to give it a zing of flavour) to make a smooth paste (add a teaspoon at a time!). Stir in the food colouring, go steady, you just need enough to make the icing blood red!

To ice the fairy cakes, drizzle the icing over the top. Allowing it to dribble over the sides and leave to harden.
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