Are You Sugar, Spice, or Everything Nice?

October 16, 2014

The season of grotesque masks and cheap scares is upon us. Understandably, a lot of the festivities related to Halloween pander more to children: Colourful costumes, sweet snacks, and trick-o-treating. But that doesn't mean kids should have all the fun this season! So, we decided to try our hand at some more adult-friendly snacks. Using simple ingredients like pesto, pepper and sesame powder, we came up with 3 alterations that were suitable for different palettes: Sugar Bunny, Spiced Owl and Everything Mice. Their looks will be a hit at any party, too, so why not try out the simple recipe below? :)

Ingredients:
1 (4 oz.) package cream cheese, softened
pitted olives, sliced
peppercorns (2 per ball)
purple vegetable chips
1/8 cup pesto (Spiced Owl)
2 tablespoons coarsely ground black pepper (Spiced Owl)
2 tbsp black sesame powder (Everything Mice)
2 tbsp chocolate rice (Sugar Bunny)

---

Sugar Bunny

---
Spiced Owl

---
Everything Mice

Taste Verdict:

Sugar Bunny
Mmm. No complaints here. I'd happily guzzle them all.This deranged bunny is the sweetest of the lot, as it's the closest to a classical Halloween snack. (The 'eyes' are mostly for decoration.) Might want to avoid this if you can't take the sugar rush.

Spiced Owl
This may look the most like your standard cheese ball, but the taste is hardly anything like it. Pesto and cheese on their own make a great dip, and combined with the added kick of pepper, they taste like a particularly spicy carbonara. It definitely has the most refined taste out of the 3.

Everything Mice
If you like mochi, you'll enjoy this. The flavour wasn't too strong so it balanced out the strong taste of the other two. It was an unexpected hit with everyone, though they tended to lose their shape easily. As with all 3, they need to be refrigerated till serving time for optimised tastiness.

Alternatives:
These aren't the only possible recipes, of course. Experiment! There were some ideas we didn't get to try out, such as crushed nuts with black food dye, or using Oreos for wings. If you try them out, be sure to send in your pictures to our Facebook for a chance to get featured :) Stay tuned for more recipes!

We served them on Royal White New Bone plates for lunch as they made a great contrast. Nuts and cheese can be grated using the Hand Cheese Grater (hard to find in stores!), but if you're looking for something more classical, we offer ghost/witch stencils for cakes too.

inspired by allrecipes.com bat bites