Coconut Chocolate Halloween Squares

As I was whipping up the sweet sauce on Wednesday for a batch of home-made Donairs (which were followed by Donair pizzas the next night, yum!), I accidentally opened a can of 'sweetened condensed milk' instead of 'evaporated milk'.  Oops. Luckily, I noticed before I had added the garlic powder!


Ew, garlic powder and sweetened condensed milk? I just grossed myself out.


So I set aside the sweetened condensed milk, determined to find a use for it so that it didn't go to waste.  After dinner was done I searched around online and saw that there were a ton of super simple bar recipes that involved it.

I realized that many of the recipes involved simply pouring the sweetened condensed milk over a base or crust and then baking it all together. I took a quick inventory of my pantry, and these were born!  I am sure that there are very similar recipes out there, but I managed to create this as I went so I'm pretty proud of them.  I decided to dye the condensed milk with some orange gel food colouring for Halloween, and the colour came out great!


This makes enough to fill a 9 x 13" pan.  These are quite sweet, so you can get a lot of tasty little squares out of this recipe!

Coconut Chocolate Halloween Squares

• 1 1/2 cups oreo crumbs
• 1/2 cup melted margarine
• 2 1/2 cups shredded coconut
• 1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
• orange gel food colouring (optional)
• 1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/3 cup white chocolate chips
• sprinkles 

1. Spray a 9 x 13" pan with cooking spray and pre-heat the oven to 350 F
2. Mix together the oreo crumbs and the melted butter. Press the oreo crumb base firmly into the prepared pan
3. Sprinkle the coconut evenly over the oreo layer
4. Add some orange food colouring to the condensed milk and mix well
5. Pour the sweetened condensed milk over the coconut, and carefully spread it out evenly
6. Place the pan in the oven and bake for about 25 minutes, or until the edges are browned
7. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack
8. Once the pan has been removed from the oven, melt the chocolate chips by microwaving at 30 second intervals, stirring between each, until smooth
9. Pour the melted semi-sweet chocolate over the still-warm coconut layer, and spread evenly
10. Place the white chocolate chips in a sandwich bag, and microwave at 30 second intervals, mixing the chocolate together in the bag between each interval
11. When the white chocolate is melted, snip off a corner of the bag and drizzle it randomly all over the chocolate
12. If you wish, you can drag a toothpick through the chocolate to give it more of a 'swirly' effect. (yes, that's a technical term. swirly)
13. Sprinkle on your favourite Halloween sprinkles
14. Let sit for 20 minutes, and then place in the refrigerator until chocolate has hardened
15. Cut into squares, and Enjoy!

Halloween Cupcakes

Halloween is almost here! And that means it is time for some cute cupcakes.


The idea for these cupcakes came from my mom! I love how simple and yet effective these are.

The cute mummies were made with a flat basket-weave tip for the 'bandages'.  I just piped some random strips all over the cupcakes and finished them off with some eerie red eyes. Spooky, no?

The monsters were made using a Wilton #233 tip (often called a 'grass tip') and I used both purple and green buttercream.  These were given some googly eyes to add some fun character.

The rest of the cupcakes were swirled with a 1M tip and topped with various seasonal sprinkles. I'm particularly partial to the bone sprinkles right now!

I hope everyone has a very happy Halloween!


Some other fun things that I had for our Halloween party were these neat bottles.  The labels are from Martha Stewart Crafts and I placed them on various bottles that I filled up with some bright green punch.

I also saw a really neat candy corn centrepiece while browsing pinterest one day, so I did my best to come up with my own version:

And what would a Halloween party be without costumes for the pups? These pumpkin outfits were courtesy of my sister:

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

Here they are! Now this, this is one tasty cupcake.  Pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes topped with some rich and creamy cream cheese icing, dusted with cinnamon sugar and finished off with some fun fall sprinkles. Cute and delicious!

For the cupcakes I used the vegan pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes that I had made last year, except that I used milk chocolate chips (which negated the 'vegan' aspect. Well, that and the cream cheese icing!).


For the icing I made a classic cream cheese icing by mixing 1/2 cup cream cheese with 1/4 cup butter. After they where whipped together I added 1 tsp of vanilla and about 2 cups of icing sugar. If you want thicker or thinner cream cheese frosting you can just add the icing sugar 1/4 cup at a time until the desired consistency is reached.

After the cupcakes were topped with the icing using a Wilton 1M tip, I sprinkled on some cinnamon sugar (1 tsp cinnamon with 1/2 cup sugar) using a fine-mesh sieve, and then sprinkled on some fall themed sprinkles.  And done!

Sun-dried Tomato Hummus

While I am excited to post the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing, I figured that some people might need a bit of a break from this pumpkin madness.


I absolutely love hummus. It is so easy to whip up, perfect for a snack or to bring as an appetizer, and it is incredibly versatile when it comes to what flavours you can add to it.  I have made the Chipotle Hummus a few times now so I wanted to try some other variations. Sun-dried tomatoes are a wonderful way to add some variety to your hummus!


I based this recipe off of this one that I found at allrecipes.com. That site has not disappointed me yet!

Sun-dried Tomato Hummus

• 1 large clove of garlic, chopped
• 1 can (15 oz) garbanzo beans (aka chickpeas) drained
• 1/4 cup tahini
• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• 1 jar sun-dried tomatoes (210 mL jar, drained)
• 1/4 tsp dried basil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 - 3 tbsp olive oil

1. In your food processor add the garlic, chickpeas, tahini, and lemon juice
2. Pulse the mixture until it is fairly smooth
3. Add the sun-dried tomatoes and the dried basil and pulse until the tomatoes are coarsely chopped
4. Season to taste with salt and pepper
5. Add olive oil until your desired consistency is reached (I usually add about 1 - 2 tbsps)
6. Store in the refrigerator until ready to serve
7. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Oatmeal Muffins with Streusel Topping

The pumpkin affair continues, and there is no end in sight! So far this Fall I have whipped up Pumpkin Pie with Pecan Streusel Topping, Pumpkin Spice Latte's, Pumpkin Spice Latte Cheesecake, and now these Pumpkin Oatmeal Muffins with Streusel Topping.  I also have Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting coming this week, and so many more recipes bookmarked to try. I hope you aren't pumpkin'd out yet, because I'm sure not :)

If you are as pro-pumpkin as I am, I have also made Vegan Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with a cinnamon glaze, Pumpkin Bread, Chocolate and Pumpkin Whoopie Pies, and Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins. Whew!

This is another amazing pumpkin recipe from the beautiful Tracy of Sugarcrafter.net, I think she understand the pumpkin love!


This recipe makes 12 muffins.


Pumpkin Oatmeal Muffins with Streusel Topping

• 1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp cloves
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 egg
• 1 cup pureed pumpkin
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• Streusel Topping
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/3 cup cold butter

1. Preheat your oven to 375 F and line a muffin pan with liners
2. Whisk together the whole wheat flour, salt, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, spices, and rolled oats in a large bowl
3. In a second large bowl, whisk together the egg, pureed pumpkin, milk, and sour cream until smooth
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix well
5. Divide the batter between the 12 prepared muffin cups
6. In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, oats, brown sugar, and cinnamon
7. Add the cold butter and cut it into the streusel mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs (you can use a pastry cutter, two knives, or even your fingers to do this!)
8. Sprinkle the streusel topping on top of the filled muffin cups
9. Bake for 18 - 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the centre of a muffin
10. Enjoy!