1
cute little spooks Be the ghostess with the mostess and go all out this Halloween.Get creative with decorations and treats and host the perfect party for kids, friends and family. Halloween can feel like a pain sometimes, whether it’s the annoying trick or treater’s or the spending stupid amounts of money on sweets for little kids you don’t even know. I have a solution for you - if your kid’s birthday conveniently lands in October or you just feel like having a party then why don’t you host one this Halloween. It’s such a common thing for teenagers/adults to get all dressed in their school girl and sexy cat uniforms every year but it’s not a very common thing for kids to have a Hallow- een themed party, just because. We’re always going to parties for no reason, so why not treat the little ones to something spooky this year and make a day of it. Recently I was in South Africa for a little cousins 9th birthday where we went all out to create the perfect day with a little Halloween twist, I made the cake and cupcakes with a spooky theme in mind and I’m about to show you how simple it is to do. I made 75 cupcakes in one day, all iced and decorated in a specific way and with the help of my little cousin, it turned it into something fun. I know a lot of mum’s these days just want things to be easy so they buy the cupcakes and buy the cake already decorated, but getting the child involved in his or her party means they’re involved in making something happen - plus it means they can boast to all their friends about how they made that pumpkin for the cake or how they iced the scary eyes on the cupcakes. Whatever the process is, kids absolutely love getting in- volved, especially if it’s messy. And for the cake, go all out, push yourself to making some- thing you’ve always dreamed of doing - like a three tiered cake with icing pumpkins and spiders! You really don’t need to stress over making every single sweet look scary, kids will just eat them anyway, so buy anything and everything you think they’ll enjoy and just display them in little buck- ets like witches cauldrons or display them on black trays with spooky confetti.. It re- ally doesn’t have to be com- plicated. We simply went out and bought most of the decorations from the pound shop, Sainsbury’s and Mor- rison’s, all inexpensive and reusable. Another little trick to making your own decora- tions is buying bags of glow in the dark skeletons and spiders which you can simply tie with fishing line and hang from the ceiling using tape or whatever you want. This way you the end of the party you simply just take them down and can use them again maybe next year. By the end of the day, the majority of my spooky cupcakes were gone and throughout the day you could hear the kids saying “I want the scary eye” or “I want the green mon- ster” and it really didn’t cost more than £15 to decorate. I used a box of icing sugar and made my own buttercream icing and just added different food colourings and edable eyes to make those cute little spooks. All these decorations and cakes can be made for adult parties too, they don’t all have to be just for chil- dren, there are hundreds of websites that give you step by step guides in how to make cupcakes and cakes for any occassion! I have to admit, I actually really did enjoy spending a whole day baking and decorating with my fam- ily and thats something I think everyone should enjoy so don’t just leave all the family time to Christmas. Games are important in child- rens parties, whether it’s inside games or outside I think that keeping the kids entertained is another important element of a party. For my cousin’s party we bought a hollow pumpkin shaped pinata which we filled with hundreds of little cheap sweeties that the kids went ab- solutely crazy over!! You would assume from their behaviour when the sweets fell that they have never seen sweets before in their lives and it made for good entertainment to watch them scrable as many sweets as they could. If the weathers too cold for a party outside then in- door games like pass the pacel and musical chairs will always keep them entertained and you can throw in sweets as a prize to keep them focused on the game without getting bored straight away. As ever, because it’s hallow- een, send invites out that have a spooky feel to them, get the kids to decorate them with stickers and glitter and ask all the children to come dressed up - you could have different halloween themes like things that begin with a certain letter or just anything scary! That way every kid can have fun dressing up and pretending to be anything they want just for a day. So if it is a childrens party you were thinking of, don’t change your mind just because you think it’s too much hassle because I promise the smile on all of their faces is completely worth it in the end. I asked a few of the parent’s at the pary what they thought about everything and they all mentioned how good the cup- cakes and decorations looked which always makes you feel better, if people take notice of how much effort you put in. Halloween will become some- thing for you and the kids to look forward to and on a more positive note, that left over cake and all those little sweets you don’t want can go to trick-or- treaters! Perfect! r SPOOKY CUPCAKES DO THE TRICK CREEPY CRAWLIES GET CREATIVE WITH YOUR DECORATIONS CARVE YOURSELF A SCARY PUMPKIN TREAT THAT SWEET TOOTH OF YOURS MORE CANDY!
