Happy Halloween!

Halloween; A day you get to dress up and pretend to be someone else....fun. A day you can roam around the neighborhood and knock on them doors and yell "Trick or Treat!". A day you have all the excuse to stay up late. And of course a day you and your kids get to load up tons of candy and forget about cavity for once. So seriously speaking, what's not fun about Halloween?! None! I sure miss Halloween. It's never the same when I came back to Singapore....simply because its not a tradition to celebrate it here. The way the Americans celebrate this day, you will see how serious they are about it. And I simply love the enthusiasm they have!

And not wanting to loose "touch" with it completely, I made something fun today. Something that will cheer up any young or old. :) A pumpkin bread "monster". (^_^) *heehee*

It took me awhile to come up with what I wanted to make. The initial plan was to bake some decorated cupcakes like what I did a couple years back. But since I made cupcakes for my kids a few days ago, I forgo the idea. Then I thought of baking a nice decorative Swiss Roll, but again that was way too much work! Then I happen to stumble upon this Chinese blog and fell in love with the idea of baking a pumpkin shaped bread!

So I went ahead and used my 4 cup mini bundt pan for this instead of the usual 12 cup version....will be way too big if used the latter. For the recipe, I opted for the all trusty 17hr pre-fermentation method Pumpkin bread. And since I only have one mini bundt pan that is closely shaped like a pumpkin, I had to do the top and bottom baking separately. :P Good thing the color turned out the same...*phew*

As always, the bread turned out soft and delicious. And if you wonder why the bread appears much more orange in colour, that's because I added some edible orange food coloring to enhance the pumpkin look. ;)

Since with just the bread itself, it looked kind of plain...not too Halloween if you ask me. So I decided to pull out my fondant stuff and add a little creativity and fun to it, heehee! It was fun! Just like the past occasion Halloween bakes! ;) My kids were amused too and kept asking if they can eat the fondant with the bread, lol!

I'm happy to submit this to Halloween Party Event hosted by Hankerie

The night is still young guys....hope you all will get in the Halloween mood and have some "scary" fun tonight! Happy Halloween Everyone!

Halloween Fun

Have been looking forward to Halloween for a month now. Not that I am looking forward to pigging out on candy or dressing up, just that my friends and I have been planning to have a potluck party for this event. ;) Sounds really unconventional I know, suppose to be doing door to door trick or treat stuff. But honestly in Malaysia....little to no one celebrates this holiday. I remember it so well, as if it was just last year, when we were in California...it was such an "extravagant" event for some people there. Their homes would be transformed into haunted houses and the people themselves would dressed up into anyone/anything possible! Presidents, celebrities and of course monsters. And kids around the blocks would all dress up, and come knocking at our door carrying buckets of candies and asking for treats. And I remember spending quite an amount of money on candies for this particular day which all would vanish within hours! I wish I have those Halloween photos to show you, but unfortunately I have left them in California. Anyway back to present time, me and my family still had a super fun time with our friends here and wished time had not past so soon.

For this potluck party, I decided to make some scary, creepy cupcakes to boost the Halloween mood. Made both Devil's Food and Butter Cupcakes yesterday. Was so rush for time that I forgot to take a "group photo" of our cupcakes. :-P So let me give it to you one at a time. First is my Bulgy-Eyed Monster with tentacles:
The tongue and tentacles are tinted fondant and the eyes are marshmallow and chocolate chips. The first thing the kids attacked when they eat these cupcakes were the eyes, hahaha!
All packed in boxes to be transported over to the party.Love the color combo in this cupcake. ;) Next up is my Spiders on Web cupcakes:
This spider idea just pop right up while I was preparing for the decoration. It was so fun doing the decorations and I almost forgotten I was pressing for time!!
I used chocolate fondant to mould the spiders, dark chocolate to pipe the web. It actually took me quite a bit of time to place the legs on the spiders! When my girls saw these...they were "shocked" and said there's a big black bug on the cupcake. Guess I need more practice moulding the spiders. :-P Next design is Skeleton Face Cupcakes:
Those eyes & noses are licorice candy that I found in Cold Storage. I just wished my cream cheese butter cream is whiter for this cupcakes...some how it still looks off white to me. :-P
Again boxed and ready to go for the kids & adults young at heart to devour. ;) My last cupcake design is : Witches!
Dressed up the witches with sour strip candies as hair, licorice for eyes and candy for noses. And of course the hats are ice cream cones. ;) Somehow I was not too satisfied with this witch design..,wish I had more time then.

Overall there was loads of delicious food in the party, Laksa, fried bee hoon, curry chicken, pandan chicken, Glutinous Rice (糯米饭), fruits and of course deserts, ice cream and candies for the kids! Here's a snap shot of just the deserts me and my friend ReeseKitchen came up with. A fun filled (and tummy filled) gathering indeed...and the 6 girls played princesses non stopped the whole night. I guess none of the little girls wants to be a scary character after all, hahaha!

I was really glad I got to celebrate Halloweern with my friends here...Malaysia style! Hahaha! Anyway, hope you had a both scary but fun Halloween yesterday...do drop by and tell me about your Halloween if you have a chance. Have a great day!