Video: Halloween Campy Cakes - Chocolate Spider Cakes, Ghoulish Ghost Cakes

From Denny: Chef Annabel Karmel keeps us laughing and baking fun cakes for campy Halloween. I had more fun finding these crazy Halloween videos for you on all my blogs... :)

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Ghoulish ghost cakes

From: Annabel Karmel

Makes: 10 cakes

INGREDIENTS

• 1 3/4 sticks unsalted butter plus extra for greasing
• 3 quarters cup plus 1 tablespoon superfine sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
• Cornstarch for dusting
• 1 1/3 pounds white rolled fondant icing
• 1 tube of black writing icing

DIRECTIONS

Beat together the butter, sugar and vanilla essence until light and fluffy. Add one egg at a time, adding a tablespoon of flour with each egg. Beat well and fold in the remaining flour.

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Spoon the batter into 10 greased and floured dariole moulds till just over half full. Place on a baking tray and bake for 20 minutes.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool. Allow to cool, cut off the top of the cakes to form a flat surface, then turn out onto a board or plate. Allow to cool completely.

Dust your work surface with cornstarch and roll out the icing.

Cut out 8x6'' circles. You can use a saucer as a guide.

Drape these over the sponge cakes to form ghosts. From the trimmings either use a mini cutter to cut out some tiny white oval shapes or roll out some tiny balls of white icing into oval shapes.

Dampen them with a little water and stick them onto the front of the ghost.

Use a blob of black writing icing for the pupils of the eyes.



Chocolate spider cakes

From: Annabel Karmel

Makes: 16 cakes

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 sticks butter, cut into 2cm cubes and softened
• 1 cup packed plus 2 tablespoons soft light brown sugar
• 3 eggs, at room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp sour cream
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons self-rising flour
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• Pinch salt
• 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips (optional)

Decoration

• 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
• Licorice laces
• 16 mallowmars
• Licorice allsorts
• Mini candy-coated chocolates (mini M&Ms)
• 1 tube writing icing

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line 2 muffin pans with 16 paper liners.

Put the chocolate, butter and sugar in a heatproof bowl and melt, stirring frequently. You can melt the chocolate in the microwave (about 3 minutes, stirring after each minute) or over a pan of warm water (make sure the base of the bowl doesn't touch the water). Leave to cool slightly.

Whisk together the eggs, vanilla and sour cream. Stir this into the cooled chocolate.

Put the flour, cocoa powder, and salt in a strainer or sifter and sift over the chocolate mixture, then fold in, along with the milk chocolate (if using). Spoon into the paper liners, filling to around 2/3 full (an ice-cream scoop is good for this).

Bake in the preheated oven for 18-20 minutes, until the muffins are risen and just firm to the touch. Let cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.

Now for the decoration: Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water.

Using a palette knife or flexible spatula, cover each cake with some of the melted chocolate.

Arrange eight licorice strips for the spider's legs and stick a mallowmar in the center of each. finish with licorice allsorts and chocolate candy eyes. You can use a blob of writing icing to stick the candy on the licorice allsort.

*** Thanks for visiting, everyone!

*** For more Halloween recipes and funny Halloween videos:

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*** Handmade Unique - lists posts from several blogs around the blogosphere with Halloween posts. Pay her a visit!

Beautiful Angel Photo, Quote, Healing Poem Link

Psalm 91:11 - And He will give His Angels charge over you to guard you in all your ways.

Yesterday I wrote:

From Denny: Since this particular poem was a hard write, and I'm a bit emotionally tired and saturated to say the least, here's the link to my latest poem over at The Social Poets, called Rock, My Children. Found some awesome art photos over at flickr to illustrate it!

Rock, My Children is about how to deal with loss. Never planned on writing about these experiences but lately there has been so much news about people encountering terrible loss in their lives. And, here it is the 911 anniversary, a tough day for so many folks all over the world.

When I was fishing around for inspiration I found Robin's blog Naked in Eden and some of those word phrases sprinkled throughout one of her posts just struck me right (like "abyss of emotion") and before I knew it the poem was forming in my head. Went to flickr first before writing it down as the poem was still a lot of raw emotions swirling and I needed some visual anchors.

Rock, My Children deals with loss, disappointment, and looking to the future for understanding Life's Plan. When you ask the question, you receive the answer though it may take fifteen years like it did in my case.

Received an incredibly awesome comment from fellow spiritual blogger Robin from Naked in Eden after I sent her the link to show her how she had inspired me to write the poem. Just skip on past the poem to read what she has to say it's that great! I've been grinning silly all day - and behind in my posting - since she posted that loving comment...

Rock, My Children, go here.

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From Denny: There's nothing like putting your parents up for sale to get the conversation started like this guy did! This news story sounds like a tutorial on how to do it. What started as a fun idea snowballed into a sensation. I can only imagine what his parents told their son off camera ... :)

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From Denny: This is a wonderful story full of love to heal abused and abandoned boys in California. A retired professional baseball player turned non-denominational minister took his life savings to begin this endeavor. Heart-warming story from another person who chose to "make a difference" in the lives of others!

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

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Image by dontdothisathome via Flickr

From Denny: I was looking around Digg today in the Science section for my science blog, The Soul Calendar,where I park all things science that interest me. Blogs really are like a long version of a social site of things you want to share with others.

Remembering our trip to Greece a few years back and how awesome the grilled octupus and calamari tasted because it was so fresh, I guess I just had octupus on the brain. It's wonderful protein and no bones.

These videos are fascinating to watch. One is about a 600 pound octupus who can squeeze into a small space the size of a mere tiny quarter. The second one is a contest in an aquarium between a hungry shark and a giant octupus who were well matched. The third is about a BBC crew going down deep after a giant octupus to film it and saw a huge monster of an octupus wrap itself around one of the divers while filming!

You have to see these creatures. Unbelievable. Sure gives you new respect for the fishermen who go after these scary animals just to serve it up in restaurants. Fishing octupi must be an extreme sport.

To get you over to The Soul Calendar for the 3 video post, go here.

Thanks for visiting!

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From Denny: Good quotes always get me going on a short essay whether it's to impart new information or a passion of opinion! When I was writing about this quote for my quotes blog, Beautiful Illustrated Quotations, it just seemed like a good idea to share on some of my other blogs. Happiness chemicals are offered up by a good piece of chocolate and it just seemed like a good fit to discuss the subject here from a quote. This quote comes out of the literary past of famed German writer, Goethe.

One of the beauties of coming from a family of very long-lived people is that you don't lose the institutional memory of historical events. Another plus is that you don't lose what former generations taught in the way of good character. What is in fashion in one generation is often out of fashion in the next and, so, we lose the cultural continuity of good values.

Like in any family there were those in mine who were, well, slugs, when it came to good character. To a person they lived miserable anti-social lives, unhappy the majority of the time because they focused too much upon themselves. In my book there is nothing wrong with being good to your self. Just try to make the same good faith effort for others as you would yourself and your life is enriched!

For instance, I enjoy writing all these many blogs. It gives me a creative outlet for color, design and writing about anything and everything that interests me in this world of awesome wonders. Writing these blogs also gives me a chance to share with others as if these blogs were the ultimate social site of sharing! By sharing with others a person can enrich the lives of others while they enrich their own.

Then comes the Joy as was taught in previous generations. This kind of Joy has lain dormant for the past 25 years or so, drowned out by business greed and the drive to unbalanced excessive and financial only success. There are a lot of facets to the concept of success. Monetary wealth and accumulation is only a small part of the equation. This much power and large wealth requires the learning of real wisdom in order to not be destroyed by such power. I could get into what the ancient Kabbalists have to say about the power inherent in money and how to prepare for basically trying to grab a tiger by the tail but that would be another very long post! :)

Perhaps it's time for global society to rediscover some of the ancient wisdom of past societies, learning to appreciate the success of others as well as their own. Happiness can be an elusive creature to those who are calculating and refuse to dig deep into their hearts and offer up greater generosity to those around them. Generosity of spirit goes a long way to creating a much happier life!

Funny Dog Photo by Phil Romans @ flickr

Goethe at age 69 Image via Wikipedia

Quote

“Who is the happiest of men? He who values the merits of others, and in their pleasure takes joy, even as though t'were his own.” - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German Playwright, Poet, Novelist and Dramatist. 1749-1832)

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From Denny: This is well worth the watching! While I knew most of the dry facts - what I didn't know were some of the ancedotal stories that went along with those historical facts that spoke a lot to the personalities and conflicts of that time.


Watch CBS Videos Online

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From our friends over at the high-toned The New Yorker magazine come funny chocolate cartoons! They don't have embedding enabled and use links to go to their site. These are just 20 second shorts and very amusing!

Lover's Leap, go here.

Chocolate Easter Bunnies, go here.


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Image via Wikipedia

Common Edible Wild Plants - Part I: "Sitting at nature's dinner table, most would be surprised at the goodness and variety of the bounty. By learning about just a few wild edible plants, you'll soon be able to recognize them, and never have to be worried about being hungry worldwide, as many wild edible plants are commonly found around the world.

Don't try to learn them all in a short time, learn a few well, and add to your list of nature's wild dinner table from time to time." 4 videos.

By Jerilee Wei