Haunted with the thought of a ho-hum Halloween? Never fear — trick-or-treaters will want more than just candy once they see your party table. Throw a fabulous Halloween party fit for little goblins or grown-up monsters with some devilishly good sweets.

Try these easy party ideas from Wilton to make your Halloween spook-tacular:

• Add some “pop” to popcorn: Trick out ordinary popcorn into a sweet-and-salty party pleaser. Drizzle on Candy Melts® candy for festive flavors, and then capture the Halloween spirit by adding fun sprinkle mixes.
• Masquerade cookies: Who says you can’t play with your food? Create edible masks with decorated shaped cookies and attach them to cookie sticks with melted Candy Melts candy. Set up a photo station at your party, so guests can take pictures with their cookie mask creations before eating them.
• Jack-o’-lantern cakes: It wouldn’t be Halloween without carved pumpkins. Make yours edible by baking a delicious pumpkin spice pound cake shaped like a pumpkin. Increase the fun by adding silly icing facial features.
• Midnight potions: Spice up the night with candy corn drinks served in containers guests can devour, making cleanup easy and delicious. Or, toast the night with the Witch’s Brew Mocktail.

For more Halloween ideas and inspiration, visit wilton.com.

Masquerade Cookies

Servings: 2 dozen cookies

• 2 -3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 -1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 -1/2 teaspoons Imitation Clear Vanilla Extract
• 1/2 teaspoon Imitation Almond Extract
• Royal icing
• Orange, Black, Green, Lemon Yellow, Brown and Violet Icing Colors, as desired
• Orange, Yellow, Orange, Lavender and Black Colored Sugars, as desired
• Halloween Jimmies, Nonpareils and Icing Decorations, as desired
• Candy Melts candy
• Cookie sticks

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In large bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt. In second large bowl, beat butter and sugar with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and extracts. Add flour mixture to butter mixture 1 cup at a time, mixing after each addition. Do not chill dough. Divide dough into 2 balls.

On floured surface, roll each ball into a circle approximately 12 inches in diameter by 1/8 inch thick. Dip eye and glasses cookie cutters in flour before each use. Arrange cookies on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 8–11 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned. Cool completely on cooling grid. Decorate as desired using tinted royal icing, colored sugars and Halloween icing decorations. Use melted candy to attach sticks to backs of cookies; chill until set.

Pumpkin Spice Popcorn

Servings: 6 cups

• 6 cups popped kettle corn
• 2 cups mini pretzel twists
• 1 package (10 ounces) Pumpkin Spice Candy Melts candy
• 1 bottle (2.5 ounces) Pumpkin Mix Sprinkles

Spread popcorn and pretzels on parchment paper-lined cookie sheet.

In disposable decorating bag, melt candy in microwave at 50 percent power for 1 minute; remove bag and knead. Continue melting candy for 30-second intervals at 50 percent power until completely melted. Snip off end of bag and drizzle melted candy over popcorn mixture; immediately add sprinkles. Let stand until candy has hardened, about 20 minutes. Break into pieces to serve.

Caramel Apple Popcorn

Servings: 6 cups

• 6 cups popped popcorn, buttered and salted
• 3/4 cup roasted salted peanuts
• 1 package (10 ounces) Caramel Apple Candy Melts candy
• 1 bottle (2.5 ounces) Spider Mix Sprinkles

Spread popcorn and peanuts on parchment paper-lined cookie sheet.

In disposable decorating bag, melt candy in microwave at 50 percent power for 1 minute; remove bag and knead. Continue melting candy for 30-second intervals at 50 percent power until completely melted. Snip off end of bag and drizzle melted candy over popcorn. Immediately top with sprinkles. Let stand until candy has hardened, about 20 minutes. Break into pieces to serve.

Pumpkin Pound Cake

Servings: 16

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 -1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 -1/4 cups canned 100 percent pumpkin (not pie filling)

Preheat oven to 325°F. Prepare Dimensions Large Pumpkin Pan lightly with vegetable pan spray with flour. Place on baking sheet.

In medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg. In large bowl, beat butter and sugar with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition; beat in vanilla. Add flour mixture alternately with pumpkin; mix well. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake 70–80 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes in pan. Turn onto cooling rack. Cool completely before serving.

Witch’s Brew Mocktail

Servings: 6

• 3 cups ginger ale, chilled
• 1 -1/2 cups pineapple juice, chilled
• 1/3 cup sweetened lime juice, chilled
• Green gel food color or green icing color (optional)
• Black Colored Sugar
• Gummy Eyeball Skewers

In large pitcher, combine ginger ale, pineapple juice, sweetened lime juice and, if using, gel food color.

To prepare glasses, dip rims of martini glasses in water, then in black sugar. Fill with drink mixture; add eyeball skewers.

Candy Corn Drinks

Servings: 8

• 1 cup (half of 12-ounce package) Bright White Candy Melts Candy, melted according to package directions
• 1 cup (half of 12-ounce package) Orange Candy Melts Candy, melted according to package directions
• 1 package (12 ounces) Yellow Candy Melts Candy, melted according to package directions
• Orange flavored fruit drink, orange, peach or mango juice or other favorite drink

Fill disposable decorating bag with melted bright white candy. Divide evenly among cavities of 8-cavity silicone shot glass mold, taking care to not get any candy on sides of mold. Repeat process with orange and yellow candy. Refrigerate until candy is set, about 30 minutes. Carefully remove candy glasses from mold and set aside. Fill with orange drink.

Family Features; Source: Wilton

The post Brew Up a Frightfully Fun Halloween Party appeared first on AKAMom Magazine.

My favorite part of the 4^th of July is the big cookout that we host every year!  I am always looking for new, festive recipes to impress all of our friends and family.  This year I got a little help from our friends over at allrecipes.com who sent over their most popular recipes for Independence Day!  Read on to hopefully gain some inspiration, I think this might be our best cookout yet!

I always like to have two choices for the main dish, each featuring a different kind of meat.  This year we will be making (Actually) Delicious Turkey Burgers and Rosemary Ranch Chicken Kabobs.  These are slightly healthier options than typical backyard barbecue food.  As impressive as they sound, they are both surprisingly quick, easy and perfect for entertaining!

Actually Delicious Turkey Burgers

Ingredients

• 3 pounds ground turkey
• 1/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup finely diced onion
• 2 egg whites, lightly beaten
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions

1. In a large bowl, mix ground turkey, seasoned bread crumbs, onion, egg whites, parsley, garlic, salt, and pepper. Form into 12 patties.
2. Cook the patties in a medium skillet over medium heat, turning once, to an internal temperature of 180 degrees F (85 degrees C).

Serve with your favorite toppings, I also like to toast the buns with a little butter to make them extra yummy!

Rosemary Ranch Chicken Kabobs

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup ranch dressing
• 3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper, or to taste
• 1 tablespoon white sugar, or to taste (optional)
• 5 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves – cut into 1 inch cubes

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, stir together the olive oil, ranch dressing, Worcestershire sauce, rosemary, salt, lemon juice, white vinegar, pepper, and sugar. Let stand for 5 minutes. Place chicken in the bowl, and stir to coat with the marinade. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
2. Preheat the grill for medium-high heat. Thread chicken onto skewers and discard marinade.
3. Lightly oil the grill grate. Grill skewers for 8 to 12 minutes, or until the chicken is no longer pink in the center, and the juices run clear.

For side dishes I always do bowls of fruit and chips, but this year I will also be adding the Sweet Restaurant Slaw!

Sweet Restaurant Slaw

Ingredients

• 1 (16 ounce) bag coleslaw mix
• 2 tablespoons diced onion
• 2/3 cup creamy salad dressing (such as Miracle Whip™)
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt  
• 1/2 teaspoon poppy seeds

Directions

1. Combine the coleslaw mix and onion in a large bowl.
2. Whisk together the salad dressing, vegetable oil, sugar, vinegar, salt, and poppy seeds in a medium bowl; blend thoroughly. Pour dressing mixture over coleslaw mix and toss to coat. Chill at least 2 hours before serving.

This recipe is as easy as it gets, but note that it needs time to chill!  This is definitely going to be the first thing I make early in the day.

My favorite part of the meal is absolutely dessert!  I always have too many ideas about what to make and end up making it all, but is too much dessert really a bad thing?  Not in my house!  The first dessert that we are going to make is about as traditional as it gets, Southern Peach Cobbler. 

Southern Peach Cobbler

Ingredients

• 8 fresh peaches – peeled, pitted and sliced into thin wedges
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
• 1/4 cup boiling water
• Cinnamon Sugar (Mix: 3 tablespoons sugar  and 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, combine peaches, 1/4 cup white sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon juice, and cornstarch. Toss to coat evenly, and pour into a 2 quart baking dish. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine flour, 1/4 cup white sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar, baking powder, and salt. Blend in butter with your fingertips, or a pastry blender, until mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in water until just combined.
4. Remove peaches from oven, and drop spoonfuls of topping over them. Sprinkle entire cobbler with the sugar and cinnamon mixture. Bake until topping is golden, about 30 minutes.

I love serving warm cobbler with ice cream, it gets melt-y and delicious!

Finally I love baking cakes for special occasions.  This year I will be making two; one that is impressive on the outside, and one that is impressive on the inside!

Red, White and Blue Strawberry Shortcake

Ingredients

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
• 1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
• 1 pint blueberries, rinsed and drained   
• 2 pints fresh strawberries, rinsed and sliced

Directions

1. Prepare cake according to package directions and bake in a 9×13 inch pan. Cool completely.
2. Frost cake with whipped topping. Place blueberries in a square in the corner, and arrange sliced strawberries as stripes to make an American flag. Chill until serving.

This cake could be made using whatever cake recipe or mix is your favorite.  I am thinking about red velvet cake to make it even festive!

American Flag Cake

Ingredients

• 3 (10.25 ounce) packages white cake mix
• 9 egg whites
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 3 3/4 cups whole milk
• 2 tablespoons clear vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons red food coloring
• 1 tablespoon blue food coloring
• 1 cup white chocolate chips
• 10 cups fluffy white frosting
• 1 tablespoon white chocolate chips, or as needed
• 2 tablespoons white sugar, or as needed
• 1 4-inch round paper or cardboard stencil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and line 4 8-inch round cake pans with parchment paper.
2. Combine white cake mix, egg whites, vegetable oil, milk, and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl. Beat for 30 seconds using an electric mixer on low speed. Increase mixer speed to medium and beat for 2 more minutes. The batter will still be slightly lumpy.
3. To make the red cakes, measure half the batter into a separate bowl and whisk in red food coloring. Evenly transfer the red batter into 2 of the 8-inch prepared cake pans; smooth tops of batter with a spatula. Transfer half of the remaining uncolored batter into a 3rd prepared cake pan; smooth top as before. This will be the white cake portion.
4. Add blue food coloring to the remaining uncolored batter in the large mixing bowl; fold 1 cup white chocolate chips into blue batter until combined. Transfer batter to remaining prepared 8-inch cake pan; smooth top of batter with a spatula.
5. Bake all 4 cakes in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of each cake comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Remove the cakes from oven and place onto cooling racks until cooled completely.
6. Run a knife around edge of each cooled cake. Invert cakes, remove pans, and peel off parchment paper. Use a sharp knife to trim tops of cakes flat and even.
7. Cut both of the red cake layers and the white cake layer in half horizontally. You will have 4 thin red cake layers and 2 thin white cake layers.
8. Place a 4-inch round stencil on top of 1 thin red cake layer; cut out a 4-inch red cake round. Repeat, placing stencil on 1 thin white cake layer to make 1 4-inch white cake round. Center the 4-inch round stencil on the blue cake; cut out and remove center portion covered by the stencil to make a blue cake ring.
9. To assemble the cake, you will need 2 thin 8-inch red cake layers, 1 thin 8-inch white cake layer, 1 4-inch thin red cake circle, 1 4-inch thin white cake circle, and 1 blue 8-inch cake ring. Reserve the leftover thin red cake layer and other cake pieces for making crumbs for decorating.
10. To assemble cake, place 1 8-inch thin red cake layer on a cake pan and frost the top generously with white frosting. Place the thin 8-inch white cake layer on top of the red one, and frost the top. Place remaining 8-inch thin red cake layer atop the white one. Frost the red layer.
11. Place the blue ring cake on top of the 2nd red cake layer and carefully frost the inside of the blue cake ring. Gently fit the 4-inch white cake layer into the blue cake ring. Frost the top of the 4-inch white center. Place the 4-inch red cake layer on top of the white one. Gently press small cake circles flush with the top of the blue ring.
12. Frost the entire outside of the cake generously with the remaining frosting.
13. Crumble red and blue pieces of leftover cake into 2 separate bowls. Score lines into the top of the cake’s frosting with a kitchen knife to make a flag design on top of the cake. It should have a 2-inch square at the upper left for blue field and white stars, and 7 thick horizontal stripes about 1 inch wide.
14. Fill the square field at the upper left with blue crumbs and press 1 tablespoon white chocolate chips upside-down into the blue crumbs to make ‘stars.’ Fill the bottom stripe and every other stripe with red crumbs to make red stripes. Sprinkle white sugar generously into the white stripes to make them stand out.
15. To serve, cut cake into wedges. The inside of the cake will reveal its layers of red and white stripes and blue field with white chocolate chip stars in every slice.

I am so excited about this cake, I think I am going to make the extra cake pieces in to cake pops for the kids!

Hopefully this will give you some ideas for your own celebration!  Happy 4^th of July!

Recipes courtesy of Allrecipes.com

The post Make it a delicious 4th of July! appeared first on AKAMom Magazine.

To tell you the truth, as much as I love crafty things, I am not the most artistic person in the world.  The good news is that I have learned tricks over the years to compensate for my lack of artistic ability and my crowning jewel is my Easter Bunny cake!  This is the easiest cake and the kids love to help decorate it. *The pictures are from the bunny cake that I made with my family made last year.  We are big chocolate fans so we chose to do a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and sacrifice a little on the looks!  The cake looks more like a traditional Easter Bunny when it is vanilla.

What you will need-

Ingredients:

• One recipe of your favorite cake batter
• Two recipes of your favorite frosting
• 2 bags of shredded coconut
• Green and red food coloring
• Jellybeans
• One piece of licorice

Supplies:

• One 9-inch round cake pan
• Two 4-inch round pans (or oven safe dishes)
• A cupcake tray
• One small piece of cardstock or cardboard (aprox. 8 x 5 inches)
• Flat serving tray or cookie sheet
• Wax paper

Step One Mix up your favorite cake batter and divide it between the 9-inch, the 2 4-inch pans and 3 cupcakes (these 3 only need to be about half full).  Don’t forget to grease the pans, put wax paper in the bottom of the 9-inch pan and cupcake wrappers in the 3 used spaces in the tray.  Bake the cakes according to the recipe but be sure to keep a close eye on them, the various sizes will take different lengths of time.  Use a toothpick to test if they are done!  

Step Two Once the cakes are cooled it’s time to assemble the bunny.  First cover the center of the try with a thin layer of frosting.  Next cut the round cake in half and frost the surface of one of the halves.  Now, form the bunny’s body by lining up the 2 halves next to each other, flat sides down and frosting side on the inside to connect the 2 halves.  Now that the body is assembled, frost the whole thing. 

Step Three Now its time to make the cake actually look like a bunny.  Attach all of the pieces with frosting.  Take one of the 2 small round cakes and cut it in half, these are the back legs.  Place them on either side of the body, flat side down, about an inch from the back edge of the cake.  The other small round cake is the head, prop it on the opposite end as the hind legs.  Next we have the cupcakes.  The first one is going to be the tail.  Position it opposite the head, in between the two hind legs.  The other two cupcakes make the front paws.  These go on either side of the body, about an inch back from the head.  Now the bunny is completely assembled, cover everything in frosting and make it look pretty.

Step Four All bunnies need to be fluffy, so it is time to add the fur.  Gently press the coconut in to the frosting to cover the whole cake until it looks like it looks nice and furry.  Next make some grass by mixing a few drops of green food dye with enough coconut to cover the tray.  Add frosting to the tray until it is all covered, then press the green coconut into the frosting on the tray.

Step Five The details really make this cake come to life.  First cut ears out of the cardstock/cardboard.  They should be about an inch wide at the bottom and 3 inches tall.  Cover them in frosting.  If you are really feeling crafty, dye a little bit of coconut pink (using a tiny bit of red food dye) and use the pink coconut in the middle of the ears.  Next take the licorice and cut 4 thin strips for whiskers and stick them on the face.  Find a pink jellybean for the nose and 2 blue, green or brown ones for the eyes.  Scatter the rest of the jellybeans in the “grass” to look like Easter eggs.

And just like that you have a super simple, adorable Eater Bunny cake that is sure to impress!

The post Easy Easter Bunny Cake appeared first on AKAMom Magazine.