Monday 3 November 2014

Week 44: Halloween

Well it's been a busy week! But it's also been a lovely week, filled with fun family activities, meetings with friends and everything themed halloween. Here's a little overview of everything that's been going on...

Our daughter is at that magical age where she can get involved with stuff and best of all, she wants to be involved. So we started the halloween festivities by turning pumpkin carving into a family activity. She had lots of fun spooning all the seeds out of the pumpkin and who knew, it makes for pretty good sensory play. Meanwhile, hubby tried his hand at carving for the first time. I think they both did and extraordinary job!

Nimue emptying the pumpkin

Hubby's handiwork

Lit up!

Lit up!
With two halloween parties to attend as well as a mummy and baby gathering, I made two big batches of cake pops, one vanilla (ghosts) and one chocolate (pumpkins). The ghosts didn't really turn out as well as I'd hoped, it's not clear whether they looked like ghosts or skulls or mummies but hey, they tasted alright and were well received by the kids, that's what matters right? In any case, there were none left by the end of the second party.



I also whipped up some quick healthy snacks for party number 2 as there were lots of kiddos there with health conscious parents. Thank you Pinterest for the idea!

Banana ghosts and satsuma pumpkins

Nimue, who loves dressing up, got to wear not one but two halloween outfits. I wish I could say I made them but the witch was a second-hand find and the monkey I bought new for just £6, there was no way something handmade could beat that price so... She did look gorgeous in both outfits though :-)

From witch...

... to monkey!
Finally, I just couldn't waste all the pumpkin flesh we'd scooped out when carving but, as neither my daughter nor my husband are particularly keen on pumpkin soup, I had to find something else to make with it. I really wanted to attempt a pumpkin pie but with very little time and no experience of making it or even knowledge of what it's meant to taste like, I gave up on the idea and opted for pumpkin bread instead. I went with the first recipe I found online and it worked out great, it was easy to make and tastes lovely and moist and spicy. I decided to top it with a cream cheese and orange icing and Nimue had lots of fun spreading it on.

Applying the icing. Pardon my very messy kitchen, it's been a busy week!
The finished product
After I'd ascertained the recipe was a winner, I made a couple more loafs and put them in the freezer for future consumption. That pretty much used up all of the leftover pumpkin flesh and any energy I had left after the week's activities!

I hope you enjoyed the halloween festivities too x

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