2017 Halloween Party (Ideas, Vegan Recipes, Costume, Decorations, Games)

We have this annual costume party at home and this year was our 6th; we had such a tremendous fun time last Saturday, the 28th.

Each year I always try to set up a photo booth (shown on the picture above), have a game or two, but certainly spoiling the kids with tons of sweets and Halloween toys (of course we always make sure to let the parents know I will be sending their kids home fat, sugar high, and with rotten teeth, so come at their own risks *joking*).

This was our 2nd year of having vegan party table and also our 2nd year having a Halloween tree up (yes, originally for Christmas tree).

Come check out some pictures and the super easy instructables. If you are a follower, you'd know by now I only post easy ibles :D

PS: I am entering this ibles to 2 contests of Halloween and Baking. Am so crossing fingers I would take home the mixer as mine died during baking of one of the sweets! *LOL*

Step 1: Halloween Tree

Basically you would need:

fake Christmas tree
Halloween decorations of your choice

Aaaaand, go mad decorating!

Step 2: Shark Hat - Halloween Costume

You will need:

a used hat from a jacket, that is easy to remove (from the jacket)
double side sticky tape
craft carton, white
scissor
googly eyes
pen if needed

Instructions:

I cut freely a long strip from craft carton, and then cut triangles forming the strip into sharp teeth (if needed, you can draw first and cut, to make it easier)
Stick these teeth on the inside of the hat with double side sticky tape
Stick two googly eyes and you got your hat!

My oldest always have this party at school, he loves it but always has a hard time to dress up himself (he is only 7) should he wants to dress up with something more elaborate. So this year we opted by getting him this Shark costume that is so easy to put on, I think it's more for a toddler :P So I only had to make the hat :D

Step 3: Porch Decoration

So for porch decoration, you would need:

hay bales
carved Jack O Lantern
Halloween decorations (Dollarstore is my friend ;-)

Have fun in decorating! We did big time, and waaaaay to early. We carved our pumpkins like almost 2 weeks before the actual Halloween, so yep, you guessed right, rotten a couple of days before D day *lol*

So I added a new pumpkin decoration of Crazy Cat Lady!

To make this pumpkin bowl/basket filled with pumpkin cats, you will need:

mini pumpkins
scissor
craft carton
glue gun
googly eyes
unused black cable
washi tape
black gorilla tape

Instructions:

With the craft carton, cut triangles. Attach washi tape (I had black stripe tape) on the two sides, then bend a little of bottom side of the triangles, and cut as shown on picture
With glue gun, attach these triangles as ears and glue googly eyes too
Cut a little triangle of black gorilla tape and attach it on the pumpkin upside down
Glue gun black cable as whiskers and voila. cats are ready!
To make the basket, all you need to do is cut a big pumpkin, clean the inside and place the cats and decorate a little

See, easy :D

Step 4: Photo Booth Fun

Here is a picture of the kids posing on the photo booth :))

All I used for the photo booth:

pumpkins
inflatables
foam grave stones from Dollarstore
spider webs, from Dollarstore, attached to the wall with double side sticky tape
Halloween colors of black and orange paper frills, also from Dollarstore
and a round table sheet, from Dollarstore too

Table sheet, frills, and autumn leaves (they were gotten last year from Dollarstore) were all attached to the wall either with double side sticky tape or push pins

Step 5: Sugar Skull for Dessert Table

My first time making (vegan) sugar skull! So much fun and my two littles loved it sooooo much

At our party, the kids who came asked me to slice it, thinking it was some sort of cake, in other words, they have never seen a sugar skull before :D

To make this vegan sugar skull:

Mix 3 c sugar with 4 1/2 tsp cornstarch
Stir in 5 tbsp water
Mold sugar and let it dry for 5 H
Unmold, and let skull dry overnight (12 H)

Start decorating!

Beat 1 c vegetable shortening until fluffy
Beat in 3 1/2 c icing sugar until combined
Beat in 2 tbsp water, at 1 tbsp at a time
Color your cream (Wilton is vegan friendly)
Decorate and have fun!

Step 6: Games Ideas

This year we had 3 entertainments for the kids to do, they really had a blast.

I drew a witch on a hard craft carton and we did pin the witches nose. A HUGE hit with the older kids (7-12 years old). They could not wait for the turn and there were might have been tears from a couple of the kids, fighting of whose turn it was *grins*. Yep, this game was THAT fun for them apparently :D
I baked vegan gingerbread cookies in the form of ghost and bats. The kids get to decorate them! Totally fun for me to watch as they had to deal with stickiness.
While the girls mostly decorate the cookies, the boys had fun carving the pumpkins with my husband, which later on we had them up as our new decoration for the porch as our previous Jack O Lantern went to the bins

With only 3 games (and plus chasing, screaming, war games between them), our party went on from 3.30 PM lasted until 8 PM, and some went home at 8.20 PM even *lol*

PS: sorry I forgot to rotate the witch picture :P

Step 7: Health(ier) Goodies Bags

We actually prepared 2 goodies-bags, each kids got to get home with 2 each. One bag was filled with store-bought sweets and toys, and the other "bag" was this AppleStein!

To make AppleStein, you will need:

green apples, such as Washington
individual clear plastic bag
something to tie the plastic bag, like ribbon or what I used - which I don't even know what they are called, they are bendy with wire inside
black marker

Instructions:

place a clean apple inside the plastic bag, secure with ribbon or the wire on the picture
start drawing with black marker

Voila :D

Step 8: Vegan Candy Corn Brownies

The kids loved these brownies. I went nuts with the topping of almond icing, it was so perfect for the brownies. Kids thought they were fudge as yes, these brownies are on the fudgy side :D

Brownies:

1 whole can black beans (545 ml)
1/4 c room temperature (soft) coconut oil
1/4 c packed dark brown sugar
15 pitted dates
1/4 c cocoa
1/4 c dairy free chocolate chips
1/4 c dairy free chocolate chips, melt
1 tbsp ground flax seeds
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 c flour

Instructions:

In food processor, process black beans with its brine water, coconut oil, brown sugar dates, until smooth and combined
Process in chocolate chips, just to chop-up a bit
Pour mixture into a bowl, mix in cocoa and melted chocolate chips, and stir in flax meal, followed with mixture of flour and corn starch
Pour batter into a round pan (9 inch) and baked on preheated 350 for 35-40 mins or until knife inserted in center comes out clean

Almond Icing:

Enough icing sugar dissolved in generous amount of almond essence

Colored Sugar:

Wilton food coloring and granulated sugar

Step 9: Vegan Chocolate Peppermint Oreo Cake and Cupcakes!

Yes! Oreos are vegan friendly (just in case you were wondering!)

This is my go to chocolate cake recipe which I use many times on Instructables, for example on the following ible:

https://www.instructables.com/id/Chocolate-Pepperm...

Cake:

2 1/2 c flour
2 c sugar
2 tsp Bsoda
a pinch or two salt
6 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 c vegetable oil
1 tsp peppermint extract
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
2 tbsp vinegar
2 c water

Instructions:

In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder In a separate bowl, mix oil, essence and extract, plus water. Pour oil mixture into flour mixture and add in vinegar. Mix to combine well. Pour batter into greased and lined with parchment paper baking pan, bake for 30-35 mins at preheated 350 F. Cool on rack

As this is a tall cake, you need to make the above cake twice!

Vegan Oreo Buttercream:

I followed the recipe I found here. In addition, I crushed Oreo cookies (without the middle filling) and beat it with the buttercream

This cake had vegan hazelnut spread (like Nutella but more to NOTella :D), to make that all I did was process roasted hazelnut that I got from grocery store with enough maple syrup and cocoa powder. Again, easy peasy!

Assembling the cake:

From two cakes, slice each and make 4 layers of cake
Place one layer on serving board, spread enough NOTella, top with another layer of cake. Spread Oreo buttercream and top with another cake. Spread NOTella again and top with another cake. Cover the whole cake with buttercream
Decorate with Oreo halves with piped white and black buttercream as eyes and spiderweb
Tada!

As this cake per cake was baked on 6 inch pan, I had left over batter which I turned them into cupcakes! My 3 yo helped me in decorating them :D For the buttercream was plain vanilla tho, not Oreo!

Step 10: Vegan Gingerbread Cookies

As I mentioned on the front page that this was our 2nd vegan party, I used the same gingerbread cookies recipe that I have posted on Instructables before, which you can see here:

https://www.instructables.com/id/Vegan-Gingerbread...

Cookies:

2 flax eggs
3 1/4 c flour
1/2 c molasses (divide)
1 1/2 tsp ginger powder
1/2 tsp allspice powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon powder
1 tsp BSoda
A pinch of salt (The spices is depending how strong of flavor you'd like your cookies to be. You may add clove and nutmeg too)
1/2 c brown sugar (light or dark will result in lighter or darker cookies)
8 tbsp shortening

Instructions:

Mix dry
Cream shortening and brown sugar
Beat in 1/4 c molasses
Add in dry mix a little at a time
Beat in the other
1/4 c molasses
Roll flat and cut as you like (either with cookie cutter or template)
Bake on preheated 350 F for 12-14 mins (10 for softer)
Cool on rack completely before decorating.

Step 11: Vegan Marbled Lemon Cupcakes

As I mentioned earlier that I had left over chocolate batter, I mixed it with lemon cake batter and the result was amazeballs! These cupcakes were also a hit among the attendees (kids and adults).

Lemon Cake

1 1/2 c + 3 tbsp flour
1 cup white sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
Grated zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp. white vinegar
Juice of 1 lemon
5 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 cup water
a drop or two of orange oil (such as Lorann)

Instructions:

Mix dry
Mix wet
Mix both to combine
Pour in paper cups, mix in some chocolate batter and swirl to create marble!
Bake on preheated 350 F for 25-30 mins

The buttercream was also plain vanilla!

Step 12: Vegan Sugar Cookies

I love living as vegan but sometimes it gets tricky in veganizing non vegan recipes such as in making cookies! This following recipe is my go to recipe when I was not vegan yet, but for veganizing it, I needed to do something different so I would be able to produce nice cookies.

Ingredients:

1 1/4 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 t. baking soda
1/2 c. shortening
1-2 T. water
1 t. vanilla essence

Instructions:

mix dry
beat in the rest (1 tbsp water should be enough, but if needed, like you think its too dry, add 1 more tbsp)
place soft dough on parchment paper, top dough with another parchment paper, so dough is in between two papers. Roll flat, then freeze for 1 H at least
preheat oven to 350 F bake the whole cookie slab for 7-10 minutes
take out of oven, while still hot, cut with your cookie cutter, let cool completely to room temperature
remove cut cookies from the slab

Works well :D