Halloween.....scary fun!!!

Chocolate cupcakes with oreo, white chocolate and hazelnut ganache 

So its that time of the year.....Halloween!!! I was first introduced to this festival after moving to the US and to tell you the truth, I was smitten!! I mean, how can moving around with your 3 month old baby in biting cold, screaming "trick or treat" and getting rewarded with bars of 100 Grand, Almond Joy, Twix etc. not be fun? Added to that, I got some pretty cool bunch of kids stopping by at my place with some fairly scary costumes to grab their treats. October 31st was definitely an evening I looked forward to.

Over the years, I have participated in neighborhood Halloween parties, horror walks, fall season bonfires and eating smores, pumpkin carving and so much more. So when I first moved back to India and heard a few people tell me, "Halloween is not our festival.", it left me nonplussed. I mean, how can you choose not to enjoy this superbly cool festival where there is a definite pot of candy at the end of the evening :). Apple bobbing, egg catching, eating popcorn shaped in various horrifying forms, drinking punch which has frozen hands floating inside it, carving a smiling pumpkin and winning the neighborhood carving competition (much to the dismay of all the kids), eating cupcakes full of gummy worms,......wow, the memories are so wonderful that I cannot help but want to share it with my children.

Thankfully, I have found enough like minded mothers of young children that we end up doing a great job making this a celebration for our kids.

It starts with getting the treat bags ready for the children (bags courtesy my most amazingly talented designer friend).....

....and something slightly simpler for the older kids.

Then there is the decorations (courtesy a friend)....

The pumpkin carving....

Pulling together some snacks....here we have some "finger" cookies and ghostly "idlis" (courtesy a friend) and carrot and almond fingers served with a roasted tomato sauce......are you getting scared as yet?

And my favorite...the "hand" popcorn....an eerie red ribbon adds just the right amount of gore :)

Did I mention that the kids need to be prepped in a scary costume? Yep, they do!

This one is from a couple of years ago....included to showcase the very cool life sized skeleton made by yours truly :)

And then we let the kids loose on the streets....with proper supervision of course :).

 

This year, we requested the children to choose two candies from their collections and donate the remainder to children who are unable to afford them. It was a great feeling so see our children be so open to giving.....

 

So what are you waiting for....answer the doorbell and keep your bowl of candy ready for your neighborhood kids and have a lot of fun celebrating a wonderful memory-maker!!