#8 Jack Skellington Cup Cakes

Ingredients:

Batch of chocolate cupcakes

White buttercream frosting

2 toothpicks

Tube of black decorator's icing

Directions:

-Frost the cupcakes

-For each cupcake, use the tip of a toothpick to lightly etch the outline of two large Jack Skellington eyes in the frosting.

-Slowly pipe black decorator's icing onto the etched lines and then fill in the inner circles. Use another toothpick to spread and smooth the icing.
-Pipe on two short lines for a nose. Next, pipe a long line across the bottom of the cupcake for the mouth. For the finishing spooky touch, randomly top the mouth with a bunch of short icing barbs.

#9 Snack-O'-Lantern
Ingredients:

Navel orange

Canned or fresh fruit salad

Directions:

To make one lantern, use a small knife to slice the top off a navel orange and cut around its interior to hollow it out. Scoop out the orange segments, chop them, and mix them with canned or fresh fruit salad.

Carve small facial features in one side of the orange, then cut a slit in the lid to accommodate the handle of a green plastic spoon. Fill the lantern with fruit salad. Insert the spoon and set the lid in place.

#10 Forked Eye-balls

Ingredients:
2 (11-ounce) bags white chocolate chips
12 doughnut holes
Semisweet chocolate chips
Tube of red decorator frosting

Directions:

-To coat a dozen doughnut holes, melt the white chocolate chips over low heat (and keep the chocolate warm while you work). With a fork, spear each doughnut hole and submerge it in the melted chocolate to coat it, then gently tap off any excess.

-Stick a semisweet chocolate chip with its point cut off onto each doughnut hole, cut end first. Place the forks (handle side down) in a mug and allow the chocolate coating to harden.

-Use a tube of red decorator frosting to add squiggly veins radiating out from the pupils.

#11 Melon Brain
Ingredients:

1 small seedless watermelon

Directions:

-Use a vegetable peeler to remove the entire green rind, exposing the inner white rind.
-Slice off the bottom of the melon to create a flat base that will keep it from rolling. With a toothpick, outline squiggly furrows that resemble the folded surface of a brain.

-Finally, carve narrow channels along the tracings with a sharp paring knife (a parent's job) to expose the pink fruit beneath the rind.

#12 Swamp Juice

Ingredients:

FOR 8 SERVINGS:
1/2 cup small tapioca pearls (found in the baking aisle of most grocery stores)
Food coloring
4 tablespoons sugar
8 gummy fish
Seltzer water
Lemonade
8 gummy worms

Directions:

MAKE THE EGGS: Bring 6 cups of water to a boil and add the tapioca pearls. Reduce the heat slightly and boil the pearls, stirring occasionally, for 20 to 25 minutes

COLOR THE EGGS: Divide the pearls, with the remaining water, between two bowls. Add 4 drops of food coloring (we used 3 drops of yellow and 1 drop of green in one bowl, and 4 drops of blue in the other) and 2 tablespoons of sugar to each bowl. Stir the mixtures, then allow them to sit uncovered for 20 to 25 minutes. Drain and rinse the pearls with cold water.

ASSEMBLE THE DRINK: Spoon 2 tablespoons of pearls into each glass and drop in a gummy fish. Fill the glasses with seltzer water, then add a splash of lemonade. Place a gummy worm around a spoon as shown.

#13 Sweet Monster Cupcakes

Ingredients:

2 dozen cupcakes from your favorite recipe
3.4-ounce box of vanilla-flavored instant pudding
green food coloring
1 cup of green melting candy (we used Wilton Candy Melts)
24 large marshmallows
skewers
waxed-paper-lined baking sheet
M&M's Minis
small serrated knife
chocolate frosting
black gel
2 green Tic Tac mints

Directions:

-Bake and cool 2 dozen cupcakes from your favorite recipe. Prepare a 3.4-ounce box of vanilla-flavored instant pudding. Stir in drops of green food coloring until you have a shade you like, then place it in the refrigerator to chill

-Next, microwave 1 cup of green melting candy (we used Wilton Candy Melts, available at party supply stores) for 1 minute at 50 percent power, then stir. If necessary, heat in 15-second intervals until completely melted. One at a time, spear 24 large marshmallows with a skewer and roll them in the melted candy, coating the sides. Set them on a waxed-paper-lined baking sheet, add M&M's Minis for eyes, and place them in the refrigerator to chill

-With a small serrated knife, remove a 1-inch-wide chunk from the center of each cupcake. Fill each hole with a tablespoon or so of the pudding, then spread chocolate frosting around each pudding hole.

-Cover each pool of pudding with a chilled marshmallow. Add black gel facial features and 2 green Tic Tac mints for bolts

-Finally, top each monster head with a bit of frosting and muss with your finger or a fork. Keep the cupcakes chilled until serving time.