Halloweeeen!

Halloween... Not something that we 'celebrate' in our family (or Australia even - I'm not sure why it's become such a popular event in the past couple of years), but having children who go to school, they come home excited about Halloween, and even counting down until the night, when they bargain to go out with their friends 'trick-or-treating'.

To them, Halloween isn't associated with witchcraft, zombies, harvesting festivals, undead spirits, and paganism...

It's about free lollies, free chocolates, and dressing up!

It's a fun thing for them to do and be involved in with their friends, and a hard thing to exclude them from when it is splattered everywhere in the shops and at school... Well, since it's Halloween (so I've been told), I thought I would share some creative foods that I made for a Halloween themed evening at church last year (for fun, and as an opportunity to invite people who wouldn't normally come to church - we had a dress-up night; listened to a sermon about angels, demons, and spirits -good and bad- in the Bible; and walked through the graveyard).

Spider cupcakes:

My spider cupcakes were basic cupcakes with different coloured buttercream icing. The spiders were made out of Malteasers, crispy M 'n' Ms, and licorice straps. I don't particularly like licorice (in fact, I think it is disgusting - but some people love it), and couldn't think of anything else that I could use for spider legs!

"Scream" ghost face biscuits:

I used an egg shaped cookie cutter to make these fout of shortbread, then used white royal icing and chocolate fudge writing frosting for the 'face'. Using letter cutters, I spelled 'Halloween', purely for presentation purposes :)

Last year, I attached John 3:16 to Freddo Frogs (or was it Milky Ways) that I popped into kids' buckets and bags when they knocked on my door dressed up in their costumes... This year, Ropes Crossing Church has provided 'Trick or Treat' leaflets, explaining in simple language the best free treat of all - everlasting life through Jesus.

"A day of playing dress-up and getting free candy is every child's dream. But children need to know that while trick or treating on Halloween is fun, the best treat of all has been given to us by God through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ."

(Read more at Gospel-Centred Publishing)

Though we don't make a big deal of it, Halloween is a great opportunity
to be a Christian influence in a world that desperately needs saving...

Aaaaand, because I really like baking, and melting chocolate...
Aaaaand because I just couldn't help myself...

I made some mini spider cupcakes :)