Hubble Bubble Toil and Trouble... Mood=Frightful

Halloween. Where did it all begin? Apparently a loooong time ago. William Shakespeare wrote about witches, murder, and ghosts in Macbeth, 1606, but that is not going far back enough.

The Gaelic festival of Samhain celebrates the end of the "lighter half" of the year and beginning of the "darker half". They believed that the separation of this world and the next was very thin especially around this period. But through out the ages we have not changed our perception of this dark side. In the 800's they used to put skulls on their doors at this time of year to ward off bad spirits and sometimes dressed as scary characters so that the evil spirits would stay away from them and think they were the same.

So technically things have not changed, and our imagery of this time of year still represents evil, witches, ghosts and trickery. But one thing has become different; the element of fun, baking, carving and dressing up for a laugh. There are no dark undertones to Halloween these days, and it is just an excuse to have a day to let your hair down and get dressed up.

Now to the baking. I have made some fantastic little cookies in the shapes of witches, cats, broom sticks, pumpkins, bats and owls as you can see in the photos.... All representative of the dark side. Still tasty never the less.


I bought this book by Peggy Porschen who is by far the best cake decorator i have come across and from her book she shows some great techniques from icing, to flooding, to cake decorating. If you have the chance and there is a little baker inside of you definitely have a look a her books, you will be inspired, I was.

For the Pumpkin, its very simple, make a stencil drawing of what you want and then outline it on the pumpkin and follow the lines. Then cut off the top and scrape out the filling. Make sure to put a little tea light inside to make maximum effect like i have done, and hey presto....



This is the witches recipe in Macbeth, i assure you mine is better even though they are the professionals....

WITCH 1:
Round about the caldron go;
In the poison’d entrails throw.—
Toad, that under cold stone,
Days and nights has thirty-one;
Swelter’d venom sleeping got,

Boil thou first i’ the charmed pot!
ALL:
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

WITCH 2:
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron boil and bake;

Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting,

Lizard’s leg, and owlet’s wing,—
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
ALL:
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
WITCH 3:
Scale of dragon; tooth of wolf;
Witches’ mummy; maw and gulf
Of the ravin’d salt-sea shark;

Root of hemlock digg’d i the dark;
Liver of blaspheming Jew;
Gall of goat, and slips of yew
Sliver’d in the moon’s eclipse;
Nose of Turk, and Tartar’s lips;
Finger of birth-strangled babe
Ditch-deliver’d by a drab,—
Make the gruel thick and slab:
Add thereto a tiger’s chaudron,
For the ingrediants of our caldron.
ALL:

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

The recipe:

200g unsalted soft butter

200g caster sugar

1 egg

400g plain flour

Method:

• Cream the butter and sugar together. Don't over work.

• Add the egg and mix again till well combined

• Add the flour and mix until a dough forms and then roll it into a ball and put it in clingfilm and refrigerate for at least one hour.

• While this dough is in the fridge, make you icing.

• You can buy Royal icing from any cake shop, and just mix it with droplets of water till you reach the consistency you want .

• When the dough is ready, roll it out and cut out the shapes you want and put in a hot oven 180 degrees for about 6-10 minutes depending on the size you cut the shapes.

• When ready, leave to cool and then decorate with your icing and sprinkles.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!