H A double L O W double E N spells Halloween!

Halloween! One of my favorite times of the year - full of candy & desserts, of course! I had quite a field day this year, lots and lots of baking went down this week, and almost all on the same day.

Started off with a spider cheesecake for my mom's quilting friends. A weight watchers recipe, I wasn't expecting amazement, but I received rave reviews from everyone, including Dad and Michael so it must've been good. I don't really like cheesecake, but I didn't even get a chance to refuse a piece because I was at work all day and missed it.

Next I tackled Cakespy's Candy Corn Nanaimo Bars I'd made the traditional Nanaimo bars a few Christmases ago, so I decided to try my hand at these festive little squares. Plus, now that Dad spends most of his time in Canada, maybe he'd have something to talk to them about up there! The bars are a simple (but lengthy) three step process:

A chocolate coconut layer,

Followed by a custard like layer - I made mine banana flavored

And finally the melted candy corn topper

It was kinda fun to melt the candies, though it took a bit longer than I expected

Ended in success, of course - so cute!

On to my third experiment -- Reese's Puffs Cereal Ghost balls also super cute. Basically crushed cereal, cream cheese and peanut butter scooped into balls and covered in white chocolate with little ghost faces, a really big hit, though I don't eat peanut butter so I'll just have to take everyone's word for it. These were very similar to the cake balls I make for mother's day - I'm thinking they would be fun to make again for christmas... trees? santas? elves? candy canes?

Finally, I stuck with my usual Halloween brownie cupcakes - I always seem to throw these in for the holiday, I think because I don't like to make chocolate cupcakes but vanilla isn't right for the day. Also, years ago my mom bought me way too many Halloween cupcake liners, so I always try to use a few when I can. I played around with designs, from simple sprinkles to candy corn colors - using my colored sugars was a fun addition.

I also tried the new Pilsbury Brownie Minis for Madeline (and my mom). I was surprised by how small they actually were, and they weren't really worth the price ($2 something) because the whole box only made 12 mini bites, that were truly bites. They are super simple because they only require an addition of water - no eggs or oil - and they include the pan, but I don't plan on buying them again, I can make my own for much cheaper.

Of course, they still turned out cute!

Hope everyone had a fun and deliciously sweet Halloween!!!!