Festive treats to get you in the mood for Halloween
Halloween popcorn balls
Ingredients:
Roughly ⅔ cup unpopped popcorn kernels, popped.
1 cup of coconut oil (can replace for butter or margarine)
1 cup of granulated sugar
⅓ cup light corn syrup
10 oz bag of marshmallows
Directions:
Pop popcorn kernels in an air popper or over the stove. Set the popped popcorn aside on a baking tray.
In a saucepan, melt the coconut oil at medium heat. Once the oil has melted, add in the granulated sugar and stir it into the oil. To make sure the sugar doesn’t burn, stir constantly. Once well combined, add in the light corn syrup and continue stirring.
After 2 minutes of stirring, pour the entire bag of marshmallows into the saucepan. Stir them into the mixture as they melt. There will be some separation between the coconut oil and the melted marshmallow at first, but if you keep stirring the mixture together everything will combine into one sugary mixture. If you want to color your popcorn balls, add the food coloring to the marshmallow mixture.
This is the fun part. Scoop up some of the marshmallow mixture (I found it helpful to use a measuring cup), and pour it over top of the popped popcorn. Mix the marshmallow mixture together with your hands (Pro tip: spray nonstick spray on your hands so the marshmallows don’t stick to your fingers too much). Work the marshmallow mixture into the popcorn gently and form into popcorn balls.
The popcorn balls are ready to eat within 10 minutes of being formed, so it’s important to get decorations on quickly. I used candy eyes on my popcorn balls, but sprinkles would be a fun decoration too.
Halloween Cake
Ingredients:
Chocolate cake mix (my go-to is King Arthur’s gluten-free mix)
Depending on the cake mix: ⅔ cups of vegetable oil
1 ⅓ water
4 eggs
Instructions: Bake the cake per instructions on the box, easy peasy. I used two 8×8 square cake tins.
3 T shortening
3 T coconut oil
½ cup of cocoa powder
2 and ⅔ cups of powdered sugar
⅓ cup oat or almond milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
Marshmallows for decorating
Instructions: Combine oil and shortening in a bowl until smooth. Add in the cocoa powder and sift in half of the powdered sugar. Once smooth, add in the oat milk and vanilla extract. After everything is well combined, sift in the rest of the powdered sugar. The frosting’s consistency should be fairly thick. Feel free to add more powdered sugar to get the right consistency.
To create marshmallow spiderwebs, melt marshmallows in a saucepan at medium heat. Stir the marshmallows consistently to make sure they don’t burn to the bottom of the pan. Once the marshmallows are melted down, remove the saucepan from height and stir until they’ve cooled down. Once the marshmallows aren’t ridiculously hot, pinch some of the marshmallow goodness into both hands and lift it up. Keep your hands together as you hold the marshmallow, and when you’re ready to make a spiderweb, spread your fingers apart over the cake. Repeat that process until you are satisfied with the webbing.
Emily White is a junior studying English and broadcast journalism. She is currently serving as the senior writer for the Lifestyles section of the Statesman.
—emily.white@usu.edu