Spooky Family Food and Baking Recipes for Halloween: Spiders, Owls and Mashed Spuds with a Twist!

Pre-heat oven to 350ºF/180ºC.
Boil the potatoes, carrots, turnip and parsnip together until soft. Mash them thoroughly with a potato masher or hand held immersion blender, and then season with salt and pepper to taste.
Meanwhile, gently poach the leeks in a little water until they just lose their crispness, for about 5 minutes.

Add the poached leeks to the potato, carrot, turnip and parsnips, and mix in the cream.
Season well to taste, and then stir in the grated cheese, reserving some for the top; don't forget to add the ring before you transfer the entire mixture into a greased oven-proof dish. (If you want to make this in the full traditional manner!).

Scatter the reserved cheese on top and bake until golden-brown, about 30 to 45 minutes. Serve piping hot with sausages/bangers or with salad.

P.S. Warn your guests about the ring!

Pre-heat the oven to 180C/360°F.

This is a VERY easy all in one mix; simply put the softened butter into a large mixing bowl with the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, beaten eggs and vanilla extract. Mix on slow with a hand mixer, incorporating all the dry ingredients gradually into the butter and eggs. Increase the speed to medium and then to high. Stop and add the milk, tablespoon-by-tablespoon, whisking in between each spoon until you have a smooth, silky mixture with no lumps. Add the chocolate chips or chocolate pieces and mix well.

Spoon the mixture into well-greased muffin tins, or tins lined with muffin cases – I do not use cases as a rule.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until well risen – check with a wooden cocktail stick by pushing it in the middle of the cake, if it comes out clean, the cakes are ready.

Leave to cool for 5 minutes and then gently run a knife around the sides to release the cakes – or take the cakes out if they are in muffin cases. Put them on a wire rack and allow to cool completely before decorating.

Whilst the cakes are cooling, make the butter cream icing. Put the softened butter and icing sugar into a mixing bowl and mix thoroughly by hand with a fork. Add the vanilla extract and mix again before adding the cocoa powder – mix all the ingredients together and then add the milk if you need to loosen the mixture for spreading. The butter cream icing should be soft and silky – but should still hold its shape.

When you are ready to decorate the spider cakes, cut the liquorice Catherine wheels into “legs” that just dangle over the edge of the cake – mine were about 2″ in length. Take the liquorice allsorts sweets/candy that have a white inside and a liquorice exterior – see photos – gently make a hole in the centre with a cocktail stick and push in a small sliver of liquorice to make the eyes. Choose a red or orange liquorice allsorts sweet/candy, which is layered – see photo – and cut each sweet/candy into 4 pieces for the mouth.

Gently push the legs into the top of the cake at intervals – the icing will go over the top to keep them in place later, so do not worry how they look! You need 8 legs per spider – of course! Spoon on some chocolate butter cream icing to cover the legs and come within 1/2″ of the edge – make it look “hairy” by stippling with a fork. Then place two eyes in the top, finishing off with a mouth! Continue to decorate all the cakes in this way, place them all on a plate with some extra sweets/candy scattered around them, and watch the looks of delight on the children’s faces when they see them!

Heat oven to 190C/380F/gas 5. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with brown muffin cases. Beat the first 5 ingredients to a smooth batter and spoon between the cases, almost filling them to the top. You may have a little left over. (Alternatively, use a fairy cake or cup cake tin for smaller ones – again, try to find some brown paper cases. You should be able to make 24 “owls” if you make them in the smaller cake tin.) Bake for 20-25 minutes until risen and spongy. Cool on a rack.

Decorating the Owls:
Beat the butter and icing sugar until smooth, and then add the cocoa powder, mixing well. Slice off the very tops of the cakes and cut each piece in to half. Spread a generous layer of icing over each cake.

Working on one cake at a time, take a pair of the large round liquorice all sorts sweets that are yellow or pink with black centres, see photos. Sit the eyes on top of the cake; then add the two pieces of cake cut from the top (curved edge up) behind the eyes but slightly slanted towards the eyes – to make the eyebrows or owl’s ears. Finish by adding a piece of orange or pink sweet, in between the eyes to the front, for the beak.

Watch the owls “fly” off the table when the children see them!