Halloween!

My friend Stephanie Gerla and I have been planning to put on a fabulous Halloween party for a little while now. In preparation for the party I baked a cake, made cheese balls, made mini-bones, and made pina coladas.  I loved all the varied things I got to make for the party.

The Cake: I don't normally like cake, however I love the moist, rich, dark chocolate of this cake. Since I don't have an electric mixer, the following was done using bicep power.

2 cups of flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt, whisk together and set aside

Boil 1 cup water and whisk in 1 cup + 3 TBSP cocoa powder, set aside

Whisk together 3 eggs

Add 2 cups of sugar to eggs and whisk together

Mix in the boiled cocoa water to the egg mixture, one whiskful at a time. This tempers the eggs so they don't curdle and cook.

Cut 1.5 sticks of butter into small cubes and whisk into the warm cocoa egg mixture.

Prepare two 9" pans by spraying them with one of my favorite products. Pam for Baking,

Whisk in the flour mixture a little at a time alternating with 1 cup of buttermilk

Split the batter between the two pans you prepared and bake in the center of a 350 F oven for 25-30 minutes

I cooled the cake over night and then took it to Stephanie's house to frost and decorate the cake.

I am not a good cake froster, but this worked out pretty well

Frosted, but not yet decorated!

The Cheese ball(s): These are an old time appetizer, I made three flavors that were slight variations of one another. All the more fun to decorate, my dear.

Add 2 softened blocks of cream cheese

add 1/4 cup chopped green onion

add 3/4 cup grated Monterrey Jack cheese

add 1 TBSP Worcestershire sauce

Add 1 cup grated cheddar cheese. Mix well and wrap in saran wrap and refrigerate at least one hour.

As with the cake, I allowed the cheese ball to sit over night and finished them at Stephanie's house the morning of the party.

From left to right there is a Ghoul, a Ghost, and the cutest Jack O'Lantern - EVER!

Another view of the cuteness, I might die from all the cuteness

Mini Bones: A Halloween treat table will only look cute when these little bones grace it.

Make the bone form by impaling a mini marshmallow at each end of a thin pretzel stick

Once you have quite a few ready to go you can begin to temper some white chocolate to dip them in. Note I made way more than I was able to actually dip.

Melt over hot water in the top pan of a double boiler, if you don't have one you can improvise with a metal mixing bowl over a pan of water.

Once melted and smooth the pretzel sticks can be dipped

dip the sticks into the white chocolate, remove and allow to cool on plastic wrap until firm.

Once Stephanie and I both had finished our preparations it was time to put together the treat table.

The setup of the table

The cute green brownie pops were a delicious treat made by Stephanie, one of the most talented cooks I know!

Another view of the lovely treats, see the adorable Halloween Sugar Biscuits?

Bones

In addition to making the most cute and delicious food, Stephanie spent much time and energy decorating her home so beautifully for the party.

Stephanie's beautiful front room

I love, love, love this table! Steph is so good at decorating with enough, but not too much!

Now for the best part of the night, the Guests!

Dillon and Bethany Hobos extraordinaire!

Amber Taylor, what a cute Minnie Mouse. Reed Taylor, an amazing tube of toothpaste, I wish I had gotten a picture of him standing up!

Amalie Kurzer as a cute bunny with her Carrot Kendon Kurzer

Wesley as a green crayon with Rebecca Doty as an Orange crayon - what a great idea!

Lauren Potter as a "Cereal Killer" (she had to explain her costume to me) Jon Potter the APX salesman.

Elissa as Russell from "UP", Heather Burt as Mario, and Jessica Vandermark as a Hawaiian.

Brookly and Seth as a white trash couple

Shea and Anna Daines as Mimes, they were so funny!

Alise as herself and Ally as a Zombie

Kate Hoffmire in her onsie already for bed

Paul Gerla as Steve Jobs discussing intently the pros of the new I Pad

Annie Henry as bubble girl with Pedro

A crab and Clark Bateman as a Double Rainbow

 Of course I can't forget the most wonderful and gracious host and hostess. 

Andy a Smurf and Stephanie Gerla Smurfette

Me, well I went as a rockstar, no one in particular just a rockstar.

Yay for pleather, too much makeup, and hair product.

I had so much fun seeing so many of my friends dressed, if not their best, in wonderful and fun outfits.

Yay for friends!

Hurrah for fun roomies!

Stephanie and I feel that our party was a great success and are excited for doing another party together!

We had so much fun!