spooky sugar skulls & a halloween tea party

Oct 27, 2017

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Autumnal weather, costumes, candy, and all things spooky...it is practically impossible to resist feeling festive for Halloween! But how to make this neon-orange-and-black holiday tea party appropriate? Now there is the real magic!

Conjure your coven, gather your crystals, and cuddle your black cats, because we have teamed up with Pie Love You (the witchy side project of princess dress maker Breeyn McCarney and her bestie Jennifer Wigg) to bring you a easy peasy recipe for mini sugar skulls! Paired with a blush pink spider web teacup, faux spiders, Blood Orange tea, a mauve-y palate from Coriander Girl, and a little hocus pocus, all of the elements come together for a truly spooky Halloween tea party.

From Breeyn:

Pie Love You is a fun side project between my bestie Jennifer Wigg and I. My day job is a LOT of pink and sparkles and I truly love that, but I need place to get my goth out. Pie Love You is that place. She and I work together (separated by 3000km) to create delicious (often-but-not-exclusively pie-based) recipes that lean toward the darker side of things.

Equipment:

skull shaped candy mold

mixing spoon

small bowl

Ingredients:

Caster sugar

Water

Flavouring of choice (We used Kinsip Hibiscus Rosehip bitters from Cocktail Emporium for pink skulls, and a touch of activated charcoal powder for the black variety)

Method:

These are really simple to make. The key is to get the right consistency to the sugar mixture. Put some sugar in a small bowl - maybe half a cup. Leave room in the bowl to add extra sugar, in case you add too much water. Add the water just a drop or two at a time. The consistency you're going for is that of the perfect sand castle. When your sand is too dry, the castle won't stand up. When it's too wet, you can't get it cleanly out of the pail. Same principle here, so air on the drier side - you really just want it damp enough that it holds its shape. If you add too much water, just add more sugar a bit at a time to get a drier consistency. When you run your spoon over it, it should leave those little cracks in the trail like scooping really cold ice cream. If adding liquid flavours, just substitute them for the water - I did that with the hibiscus bitters, which added colour and flavour. For powder flavours/colours, such as the activated charcoal, add to the caster sugar before I added the water.

Spoon sugar dollops into the mold and pack it down. You want to make sure there is no air in the bottom so that your cubes have the best detail. Once you've pushed in your sugar to the moulds, leave them in a clean dry space overnight. A good twelve hours should be enough to dry them well enough to get them out of the molds. It might take a bit of practice to pry them out well. Just be careful not to touch the "fronts" - in the case of the skulls, I had to be careful not to touch the faces, as they may still be a bit soft. Pry all your cubes out, and set them carefully on a plate or tea towel, back side down. Leave them for another hour for the faces to harden.

And that's it! Turn your fave tea creepy grey for halloween with a black skull sugar cube!

(Vintage Blush Pink Spider Web Tea Cup is available for purchase here, Kinsip cocktail bitters available through BYOB Cocktail Emporium, and mini skull molds through Michaels)

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