Scary and Sweet Treats

We were invited to a friend's home the other night for dinner, and I brought dessert. I wanted something a little more interesting than regular old brownies or cupcakes, and I wanted it to feel "fall-y" too! I found this cookie recipe at Land 'O Lakes website, and it seemed really easy-and I also had all the ingredients. A couple of tips: I lined my baking sheets with parchment paper. The cookies slid off like a dream-I am sold on that stuff! Next, I did not make my own frosting, I simple tinted a can of store bought stuff with a couple of drops of red and yellow food coloring. Last, I made my cookies much bigger than the recipe recommended. It saved me from rolling and cutting out 72 cookies! Doing the sandwich cookie with the cut-out top made it look festive without having to go to the trouble of icing shaped cookies. The cookies turned out perfectly, I was very pleased. Besides, no one thinks that I can cook. I can, I just don't usually like to!

This one was just for me- eyeballs! I don't know why, but I think the eyeballs everywhere this time of year are hilarious. I found this recipe for "Edible Eyeballs" and I really wanted to try it!

They also turned out perfectly (for the most part, I will explain later). Even the little kids knew exactly what they were, and it was so funny to hear them ask for an eyeball!

A couple of tips: I did not have an empty egg carton, so I simply stuck all my eggs in a bowl in the fridge so I could use mine. Second, many eggs these days have two tiny holes in the bottom for ventilation, in case a child puts them over his mouth. I found that sort of messed them up. The ones I did in the old eggs (without holes) turned out perfectly, where as the ones that had the holes in them had jelly bean goop on them (the black stuff you can see on some of them in the photo). Someone online said they used a camping egg container instead of the plastic eggs and I bet that would work really well, and you could skip worrying over the holes. I wanted to show you both the "good" eyeballs and the "bad" ones so you could see what I was talking about!

I was thinking these might be fun to make with mini eggs and use regular hard Lifesavers and mini jelly beans! It was super simple to do: you mix pudding, put a black jelly bean in a Lifesaver gummy and put it in the egg half. Then you fill them with pudding and freeze for 3+ hours. Then you pop them out by pushing with the back of a fork.

So cute! Well, for eyeballs... Anyway, I would definitely make these for a party-they are a little tricky to eat, but they look so cool. You could probably use green pudding and make monster eyeballs, too. This would be a great project for an 8-10 year old. They wouldn't even need any help from mom!

-In case you were wondering where I got the cute little pumpkin plates from, they are $0.50 each at Walgreens right now. I couldn't resist, and they are the perfect size for the kids!