Gingerdead Dark Tower

Every few years I get gingerdead amnesia and forget what a colossal mess it is.  Then about two thirds of the way into decorating gingerdead, I wonder why in the world am I doing this to myself again.  

The stages of gingerdeading are:

"Hey we should decorate gingerbread, it'll be fun!"

"Why are these stupid walls not staying together?"

"Why doesn't this stupid icing stick to anything else but me?"

"Let's put a decorative border right...ok let's put a big ugly blob of icing right here."

"That actually looks pretty good...and it just fell off.  Fine just slap on more icing and mash the decorations into."

"This just looks like crap now."

"Ugh, is there any surface that isn't covered in sugar?"

"I'm tired and sticky and I just want to be done."

"Duck it, it's good enough."

Last year I said I'd make a dark tower using the Wilton lighthouse and Oreo candy canes and that's what I did.

The Oreo candy canes taste like Tootsie Rolls.  Imagine sucking on tootsie rolls instead of chewing them.  Yeah, exactly.  Also the quality control is non-existent.  The last few inches weren't even round  and weirdly wavy.  Like the candy cane making machine hiccupped while trying to hold in a fart. Also they started to melt and get sticky in my hands while trying to break them, and I have cold, dry vampire hands.  I won't ever buy them again.  

The lighthouse worked out pretty well as a tower.  A short, pudgy tower, but still a tower that didn't require any real effort on my part.  I used the pieces meant to be an entrance to add a few more inches on top.  The very top piece I sawed a little notch out of it with a serrated knife.  It made a huge mess, but worked really well.  

I used Wilton black color mist to cover the pieces.  I put on two light coats prior to assembly (picture is after one coat) and touched up some areas after.  

The spray is really fine and creates a cloud that smells horrible and coats everything in the blast area.  I made a baking soda and water paste that did a good job scrubbing it off the countertop.  

I wouldn't use this on anything I was actually going to eat, but for gingerdead it's perfect.  

My only regret is toward the end when I got slap happy with the icing and my fingers were smeared with it, I touched a few places and that really shows up against the black.  

The decorations are pretty simple, mostly pasted on molded candy melts.  

The big green skull is one of these gummy skulls I got at the grocery store.  We didn't think they tasted very good, but that doesn't matter for this use.  The bow is a sour patch kid gummy.

The "field of roses" is chopped up red gumdrops tossed in red sugar.  My vision was to surround the dark tower, but my patience in chopping up gumdrops didn't extend that far.  Also I ran out of red icing.  Actually I had a whole other pouch of it. I was sharing the one that came with the kit the kids were using, and hadn't touched the one that came with the lighthouse.  But I was at the "Duck it, I'm done." stage by that point.  

 

The one thing that I really liked in all this was the marshmallow skulls. Or are they ghoul heads? Ooh mini green marshmallows would make even better ghoul heads.  I painted black gel coloring on the marshmallows with a toothpick. It doesn't take much, just a few dots with the point and then angle the toothpick to spread it out.  

I had some black licorice caramels, which I fully intended to roll flat and cut out little "bricks" to add texture to my tower. Until I started and realized what a pain in the Krampus that was going to be.  A few of the head pikes are coated with the licorice and then I realized how long that was going to take, not to mention how sticky it was.  So I colored the toothpicks with food coloring.  

I like black licorice and was hoping these would be tasty, but they had a weird aftertaste.  

And that's all I have to say about adventures in gingerdeading this year.  

Custom Creepy Earrings & My Bestie Niobium

Gone are the days when I could wear safety pins as earrings. My ears or should I say my ear piercings are fickle. I have cheap earrings made of who knows what, that don't give me problems and others with labels like nickel-free, hypoallergenic or surgical steel, that do. Which makes sense, if you actually try to make sense of the little regulation there is concerning costume jewelry. It's not surprising that seeing if my ears start to burn and turn red is a much more exact science then trying to figure out if those labels actually equate to any kind of standard or not.  

 

That's why niobium is my bestie, it's non-allergenic. I've also never had a problem with my titanium hoops, but then body jewelry standards are more stringent.  For this post I'm only using premade earring wires and those are readily available in niobium. I'm just going to show a few easy earrings you can make, but it's also just as easy to replace earring wires for that pair of earrings that you love, but are allergic to.

For the whys and what's of stainless steel, titanium and niobium this is good info.

I've successfully purchased niobium earring wires and other things from Artbeads.com, Beadaholique.com and Fusionbeads.com. They all carry relatively the same earring wires, at similar prices and they all offer free shipping for purchases over $25. The only factor determining which one I buy from, is who has what I want in stock. And no, there is no incentive for me to push any of these vendors, just stating my experience.

The following earrings all follow the KISS method. Keep It Simple Stupid. And if you do that, you too can have mildly fabulous allergen free earrings with minimal effort. So prepare to be underwhelmed and I say that with all sincerity. These examples are not meant to wow you or make you wonder in awe at the time or talent it must have taken to make them. This is a quick and dirty way to make inexpensive kitschy ghoulish earrings that won't burn your ear holes.

This is the simplest way to create an earring. One earring wire plus one charm equals one delightfully macabre earring. The loop of the earring wire is opened and closed just like a jump ring. To do this you need two small pliers. If you are worried about scratching the earring components smooth pliers are better than ones with teeth or you can cover the tips with painters tape.

You'll see I use this style of earring wire a lot. I like the look of the decorative wire coil. It almost looks like it's a wire wrapped loop, but it is not. The only disappointing thing is I've only seen it available in bronze.

I believe my desire to wear bugs on my ears was influenced by this movie, Bug. I was 3 years old when I saw it at the drive-in, with my parents of questionable judgement, in a double feature that also included the movie The Food of the Gods. In my parents defense I'm sure they thought I was too young to grasp what was going on. Which is partly true, for years I had no idea what movies were responsible for the various horrifying scenes that played through my memories and certainly no context of the storylines.

Even if you don't plan on going crazy making jewelry, having the superpower to open and close a jump ring is priceless. If you have jewelry that's too long, too short, too busy, or has a stupid clasp, a lot of the time you can easily modify it by adding, removing or replacing components via jump rings.

Here we have three tiny charms on three tiny jump rings (3mm) joined to the earring wire with a small jump ring (5mm). Again all you need is two pliers to open and close the jump rings. 

Almost the same as the previous earrings, the difference with these earrings is they used to be part of a necklace and the oval jump ring is a link from a chain. Note, that sometimes chain links are soldered and sometimes that solder can be broken by grasping the link on either side with pliers and wiggling them back and forth. I would not do this with a really expensive chain. 

In fact I wouldn't do any of this with anything expensive. I'm too much of a barbarian to have expensive or dainty things. My husband bought me a wedding ring with the diamonds channel set for durability.  And I still don't wear it, because I'm always do stuff with tools or my hands are covered in messy or gross stuff. I was always taking it off and I figured that would end with me permanently misplacing it. So my ring stays safe in a box and I occasionally bring it out to wear when I know for sure I won't be playing in mud, paint or salmonella. So like once every three years.   

But I digress, the take away from these earrings is you don't necessarily have to buy charms, you can rape and pillage jewelry you might already own. Or clearanced Halloween jewelry, but more on that in my next post.

And same concept again, this time a large decorative chain link shares the same jump ring as the charm. This earring wire came with the bead already on it.

The possibilities are endless, there are charms for every creepy crawly, or Halloween thing you can think of. 

Do keep size in mind when ordering online. Actually get out a ruler, see what 15mm looks like. Draw it on a piece of paper and hold it up to your ear. 

Also think about weight, which is a little harder to gauge online. Back in the old days you could just walk into a store and hold a charm in your hand. A small charm shouldn't be too heavy, but if you start getting more into pendant size, it might be a problem. Unless you like that look where your earring wire is weighted down so far it appears to be only a hairsbreadth away from ripping through your lobe.

Mini Creepmas Frames

This Creepmas I saw a few different references to the lovely ornaments at Me and Annabel Lee.

While mine are nothing like those, I rather like theirs better, they were the inspiration for me to finally use these mini frames I picked up at a garage sale years ago.  My frames are approximately 5x7cm, outside dimensions, so perfectly suited for my tiny Creepmas tree.

The frames where already dark in color, highlighted in bronze but they were too shiny and perfect.  It made the metal frames look like plastic.  I covered them with a flat black and randomly highlighted the raised areas.  I also added some rhinestones, clearance purchase of course. Even the black ribbon was bought on clearance, thrifty down to the last.

I went with what I consider to be Creepmas images.  The image of the vintage creepy Santa is all over the internet.  As is the dapper owl, who in my mind looks perfectly attired for Victorian holiday festivities.  The skeleton child with her goat seems very Yuletide to me and this altered image is by Kelloween.

And on the subject of Yule goats, I really love the goats in this video.  

Creepmas Cookies

I said I was going to try making Yeti cookies and I did, but it wasn't quite the effort I put into the Krampus ones. The kids had their cookies to decorate and I had to make some "normal" ones, so there wasn't a lot left for me to play with. To be a honest my Yeti's are kind of a bust, but I have high hopes of doing better next year. I do like the one in the middle, he turned out pretty cute. For him I used an upside-down snowman cookie cutter.

I tried some mouth/tongues similar to the Krampus with rolled out gumdrops and black sugar. The horns are peppermint candy corns. The center Yeti's nose is a piece of Buncha Crunch, which is a nugget of Nestle's Crunch. If you have low expectations for peppermint candy corns, these will meet those expectations. They also infuse the Buncha Crunch with their lackluster peppermint flavor. But boy do they make cute little festive horns.

Here are some of the kid's cookies, upper right is a gingerbread man bleeding from multiple stab wounds, below that is a Death Snowflake, the candy corn being it's death ray and the skulls and tombstone representing the number of planets it has destroyed. At the very bottom with a candy corn tie is a mobster snowman, and above him is a vampire snowbat with candy corn fangs. They might taste like minty crap, but those candy corns sure are versatile.

Next year I plan on making more ghosts, I like how he turned out with the black skulls for facial features. The coffin on the left is my second one, definitely an improvement compared to the one on the right. Word of advice don't try to edge a coffin in one continuous band of frosting, it almost looks like a flipflop.

Second word of advice, less is more when it comes to color. 

I like the Creepmas garland, but I should have made it with fewer colors.

This was going to be a Yeti and somehow it ended up as an angry Yule goat. 

I think I need more of these next year too.

And more unicorn snowbat creatures, with bone arms.

I thought these bats were cute too.

And just to play fair I made holly with a bat cookie.
It would probably look more like holly if I had bothered to make green frosting. 

I used my usual recipe for the cookies and frosting. I don't believe I've ever made buttercream frosting in advance, but time constraints necessitated it this year. I just let it come to room temp and whipped it again before using. It was kind of nice not having the mess of making frosting on top of the mess of decorating cookies, I don't know why I've never done this before.

Another thing I liked this year, and maybe this has been around for a while and I'm just finally noticing, was the little $1 packets of holiday sprinkles at Michaels. It was nice buying a variety of holiday cheer in reasonable amounts that will get used up in the next two years. 

Dark Elegance Upcycled Frame

It's funny, all I did was glue on a few plastic bits, add a smidge of lace and give it a paint job, but I feel accomplished with this project, unlike last time.


The skeleton hands were from a past neighbor, she was cleaning out her Halloween stuff and wanted to know if I could use them.   Of course I could.  And then I didn't, forever.  I get this mental block where I have to save things for the "right" project.  And of course no idea is ever perfect enough, so I have all these interesting items, neatly tucked away, being underutilized. Now you know my dirty little secret.  Well at least one of them.


I did temporarily use the hands as a sand fence in a fairy garden years ago.  Besides the hands, I also used two small plastic spiders and a few leftover bits of lace trim from my textured vases.

I gave everything a couple of coats of black gesso, and dry brushed on some Champagne Gold.  I've never been a fan of gold.  It's too yellow and I dislike yellow with it's sunny disposition. Give me a dreary gray or a moody mauve.  But Champagne Gold I'm utterly in love with, willing to look past it's rather festive name.  It's like a warm silver.

The picture of the darling little boy is from this awesome collection of altered photos by Kelloween.  I was torn between using that picture and this owl.  I can't find the original source for the owl, but I'm hoping by the way its strewn across the internet that it's public domain, just search for top hat owl.

Thrift Store Finds or Barely Crafting

I decided to take pictures of some of my thrift store finds from last years adventure as I was reorganizing after Halloween.  The first couple I barely did anything to enhance them, in fact it could be argued they would have looked just fine without my interference.  The latter two I left alone, not trusting myself to not muck them up merely for the sake of feeling I had to do something to them.  

I love this owl lantern, especially with the red tea light.  As you can see below it was fabulous all on its own before I came along.  It was nicely aged with dirt and rust, giving it a suitably eerie look.  I might have done it a disservice by cleaning it up, but I can't abide by having other people's dust and crud, preferring to start fresh and build up my own.  I painted on a faux patina with acrylics. I fear I might have made it a bit brighter and cheery looking.  Thankfully nothing can diminish it's evil scowl.  

Next are these metal candle holders ranging from 5 to 7 inches tall.  Nothing special, but these sort of things are always handy for displaying not only candles, but pumpkins, skulls or severed heads.  Again I could have left them as is, black is always stylish and they would have functioned just the same.  

Instead I added little skull danglies made from chain, which was procured during the aforementioned thrifting spree and some after Halloween clearance beads I've had forever.  I toned down the black with a few Gunmetal Gray highlights, to match the beads and chain.  

Seriously I scored all this chain for about $5. When it comes to making jewelry I like to know exactly what metals I'm dealing with, but for art projects it matters not. 

The following stand I didn't change one bit and maybe it looks a little too shiny and nice.  And that might have to change, but it looked nice with a severed head this fall. 

I have a cosmetology head from the days when my daughter was all about practicing fancy braids which was nothing short of frustrating on one of those stupid Barbie heads.  Later I came across this tutorial for turning it into one of the undead, but I can't bring myself to cut it up.  Instead I have a handful of simple masks, so she can change up her look from year to year.  It's the best of both worlds, princess by day, ghoul by night.  I rather like the pretty eyes behind the mask, it reminds me of Eyes Without A Face.

I haven't done a thing to this one either, but it calls to me.  I like it plain, in a merely supportive role, but the urge to add textures is strong.  I just don't want to overdo it and have it competing with whatever it's displaying.   

Frozen Boozie Maggots & Undead Pops

Boozie Maggots with black raspberries.

As promised, Boozie Maggots. I did try making alcoholic zombie popsicles, but because the alcohol results in a softer freeze it was difficult to unmold them. The act of peeling back the molds erased some of the finer details and they all lost their heads, which just looked like balls by the time I worked them out of the mold. Note that any simple popsicle mold would work, I just like maggots. 

I supposed I could have played around with less alcohol to find a suitable ratio that would result in perfect zombies, but it's easier this way, everyone knows the zombies are kid friendly and the maggots have rum. Also I don't get any sideways glances from friends by saying crazy things like "less rum".  [Honestly, and I could be completely talking out my rear, I do not have what one might call a sophisticated palate.  But I feel the rum enhances the other flavors and just a smidge as a flavor enhancer would ok in my book.]

This article on How To Turn Any Alcohol You Like Into Tasty Frozen Pops is what I used to figure out ratios using rum that's 40% alc/vol (ABV). You can substitute with any alcohol with a 40% ABV, but anything else and you'll have to refer to the article and do your own math. These quantities are also based on the maximum amount of alcohol you can use and still have your popsicle freeze properly. By all means use less if you like. Wherever I've rounded numbers to simplify, I've always rounded down on the amount of alcohol to ensure adequate freezage.

The short answer is if you are using 40% ABV, it comes out to 4 parts cucumber mix to 1 part alcohol.

You can use my Cucumber, Mint & Lime Mix, either as is, because the alcohol will cut the sweetness or with added extras, plus alcohol. The following blend is our current family favorite. The coconut milk adds a nice flavor and the avocado really gives the popsicles a smooth, creamy texture. Here I'm using part of the recipe for non-alcoholic zombies and part with rum to make frozen maggots. You could make as much as you want with rum just stick to the 4 to 1 ratio.

 

Refreshingly Undead Pops
Makes 24 oz

One batch (18 oz) Cucumber, Mint and Lime Mix (for more details see previous post):
2 cups peeled, diced and seeded cucumber
1/2 cup lime juice with zest
1/2 cup mint infused simple syrup

4 oz (1/2 cup) coconut milk (Note 1)
2 oz (1/4 cup) avocado (Note 2)

frozen raspberries (garnish)

It works best to use room temperature ingredients or the coconut fat solidifies. Blend all ingredients except raspberries. 16 oz of this delicious nectar will fill two sets of zombie molds. Poke a few pieces of frozen raspberry into the molds, not only for a touch of color, but it tastes awesome too. Reserve the remaining 8 oz for Boozie Maggots.


Note 1: If you're making frozen treats because it's hot out and you have the air conditioning on, the coconut milk fats are probably solid. If you are starting with an unopened can of coconut milk I suggest putting it in a bowl of hot tap water for a few minutes. Otherwise gently heat the coconut milk in the microwave just until it becomes completely liquid. Slowly pouring the coconut milk in while the blender is running will help it evenly incorporate too. Worse case scenario if it does solidify, you wind up with a slightly grainy texture to your popsicle.

Extra coconut milk can be frozen by the tablespoon in an ice cube tray to easily measure out for recipes or smoothies.

Note 2: This is for my daughter's friends after hearing about their avocado woes. California Avocado has lots of good info. Avocado's won't ripen in the fridge, but once they are ripe pop them in the fridge and they'll keep longer.

If you really aren't going to use them anytime soon, freeze them. I will finely dice or puree them with a little lime juice and freeze in single serving sized mounds on freezer paper before transferring to a freezer bag.

You don't have to use an avocado up all at once. Cut it in half lengthwise and give a twist. Whichever half the pit remains attached to cover in plastic and store in the fridge. The pit doesn't have any magical qualities, but air isn't going to get to the surface it's covering. When you finally get to cutting pieces off that half try to keep the pit in place for as long as possible.

Cut whatever you want off the remaining half, skin and all and again plastic wrap and refrigerate the remaining part. Peel the skin off the piece you want and slice, dice or puree and enjoy. Notice I didn't tell you to rub lemon or lime on anything that's being stored. In my experience citrus only delays the inevitable. Even the plastic wrap doesn't create an air tight seal. After a day all cut surfaces brown, no matter what. Just accept that, scrape the brown off and eat the creamy greenness underneath.

In summary a perfectly ripe avocado can last a long time around here, though it might pray for a quick and merciful death.

Finally getting to Boozie Maggots. Remember my Thanksgiving Maggots and Creepmas Maggots? I love the molds I got at Michaels last year and I'm glad I had the foresight to buy four of them. I am hopeful they will bring them back this fall. The maggot shape makes them super easy to fill and unmold, no matter what food stuffs you are using and who doesn't like maggots? The only downside is they need some sort of support when moving the filled molds prior to baking/freezing. They also smell faintly like mint now. Scrubbing with a paste of baking soda and dish soap seems to work the best, but I guess silicone really absorbs odors.

Boozie Maggots with red raspberries.

Boozie Maggots

8 oz Refreshingly Undead Concoction
2 oz of 40% rum
frozen raspberries

Combine and fill molds. The maggots hold one tablespoon each, but you need to allot for expansion as they freeze. 10 oz should be enough to fill 24 maggots. Garnish with frozen raspberries.

It's very important they be frozen. Frozen berries break down faster and give better color. The very first picture with black raspberries, I was impatient and didn't wait for them to freeze all the way. The above picture has red raspberries that were completely frozen, and have a better color spread. Below I used fresh blue berries and the skulls have fresh red raspberries and they just don't look as good.

To serve: I filled small dixie cups with a few maggots and kept them in the freezer until it was time to serve.

Boozie Maggots with fresh blueberries.

Boozie Skulls with fresh raspberries.

Orange Cranberry Skull Truffles

Seems I had one more Creepmas recipe in me.  It also helped that the Creepmas Monster didn't make it's rounds until earlier this week, so I had more time.

I think I've hit my Creepmas creativity wall because for the life of me, I can't think of anything clever to call these.  They are based on yet another cranberry truffle recipe that I wanted to try.  All these recipes that I want to try and then I never can just follow the directions. The original recipe is here. I've left out the spices and added a lot more orange.

I really like the combination of cranberry and orange in everything from sweet to savory, but I feel bad that orange is always treated like a side-kick.  So I went full on Super Orange with a slightly less intense cranberry riding shotgun.

This is a two part recipe because it requires candied orange peel. That may seem like a lot of work for the some truffles.  But here's the deal, it's not just for the truffles.  What you do is make a batch of candied orange peel in October.  It's a beautiful orange color, which is very fall/Halloween.  It's also a beautiful orange flavor which pairs very well with other fall/winter foods.  Cranberries of course, but also pumpkin and sweet potatoes.  It adds a nice flavor to breads, cookies and chocolates.  In fact just dipping it in chocolate is a lovely treat, not to mention a very classic orange and black color scheme.  Even just tossed into a bowl along mixed nuts or Chex mix, it adds a little extra excitement for your mouth.  Oh and you can eat it plain, like candy.

I used this recipe for candied orange peel from tiphero.com.  The only change I make is to surpreme the orange, you might remember this from my Krampus Clusters.


Orange Cranberry Truffles

8 ounces white chocolate, chopped
5 Tablespoons unsalted butter
3 Tablespoon heavy whipping cream
½ teaspoon orange extract
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons finely diced candied orange peel

3 tablespoons finely diced dried cranberries

8 ounces of chocolate, white or dark and/or candy melts (All depends on the look you want) to coat molds

In a microwave safe bowl combine chocolate, butter, and heavy cream.  Microwave for one minute at 50% power. Let stand one minute, then stir until melted and smooth. If needed microwave at 50% power for an additional 20 seconds. 

Add orange and vanilla extracts, orange peel and diced cranberries, and stir to combine.

Let cool at room temperature. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm.

Melt 4oz of chocolate to coat the molds. Start with microwaving for one minute at 50% power and add 20 second increments as needed.

You may or may not need that much chocolate, it really depends on the size and shape of your molds.  I used some lovely silicone skull molds that I got from Michaels with the maggot molds which of course are no longer available.

If you use straight up chocolate you will have to temper it, you can refer to my method or find a more reliable source.  If you mix the chocolate with candy melts or use plain candy melts, tempering isn't so much an issue.  As I've mentioned before they are infused with voodoo magic.

Chill after coating your molds, fill with truffle mixture.  Chill again, melt more chocolate, coat the backs and Bob's your uncle.  Last truffle recipe I went into more detail if you need it.

Creepmas Coloring Books

I got this coloring book in my stocking for St. Nick.  It's smaller (~7x7) than I'm used to for a coloring book, but it's a good size to stick in a stocking, if you angle it a bit and don't mind it sticking out the top. 

It has metallic shiny red and gold on the front and back cover.  

There's a poem in the beginning, another at the end and hidden items to find throughout.  But of course the best part is the coloring pages.  Even the copyright page has creepy colorable artwork, but there are 27 straight up coloring pages.  Here are a few of my favorites:

I have this Creepy Creepmas coloring book by Rick St. Dennis on my wishlist.

And also this one by Scotty Richard.  From what I can tell from the examples, it has a nice Dr. Seuss style story.  The artwork looks great and it's more like the coloring books I had as a kid, just with lots of cool zombies.