October Cake Club: Halloween Skeleton Treats

This month's cake club hands-on project was a cute little skeleton, made of a brownie, some yogurt covered pretzels and a marshmallow.  Easy peasy.  And super kid-friendly. 

 

 
If you're looking for something cute to make for a last-minute Halloween get-together, these are your guys.  If you use store-bought brownies, as we did at cake club, it will literally only take you minutes to put together a good sized batch.

my guy's face got a little beaten up on the drive home ;)

brownies (store-bought or homemade)
sucker sticks (you can purchase these at Bulk Barn) 
yogurt or white-chocolate covered pretzels
large marshmallows
black gel
toothpicks or a fine paintbrush (that you have OBVIOUSLY never actually painted with!!!)

1.  If using homemade brownies, cut them into rectangles.

2.  Place the sucker stick towards the back of the brownie.

3.  Pile the pretzels onto the sucker stick.

4.  Place the marshmallow on top.

5.  Dip the toothpick or paintbrush into the black gel.  Decorate the face on the skeleton, as in the picture below. 

Difficulty level: couldn't be easier if you tried.  I'm pretty sure that even little Logan could do these with his eyes shut.

I also wanted to share a few of the super cute cupcake decorations that they showed us during our meeting:

Happy Halloween everyone!  Let's cross our fingers that the rain holds off for some trick or treating!!

Taken from: Eek, Shriek and be Scary Halloween Party on the Wants and Wishes blog

Green Monster Halloween Banana Avocado Pudding

I was inspired to make this pudding after seeing avocado breakfast pudding on theKitchn awhile back.  This corresponded with our naturopath telling me I needed to get more good fats into my two little picky eaters.  I figured that, other than the chocolate avocado ice cream I've been making and have yet to post, this was probably my best bet.

After tasting the original recipe on theKitchn, I decided to throw a banana into ours.  Though I like avocado, the pudding just tasted a little too avocado-y for my likes.  So I figured that there weren't high hopes that the two kiddos would eat it.

I made it pre-Halloween and called it dinosaur pudding, in the hopes that that would make Logan eat it.  Yeah... he didn't fall for it.  Though he did at least try it.  But he was not a big fan.  Chloé, on the other hand, just gobbled it up.

This is super fast to whip up and is healthy enough that you can really serve it for breakfast.  Or for a nice, healthy dessert, as we did.  And it is perfect to serve as a healthy Halloween treat.  Nothing says Halloween more than monster green pudding :)

1 ripe avocado
1 ripe banana
1/2 C milk (I used coconut milk - from the carton, not the can)
1 tbsp. maple syrup

we go through mountains of bananas in our house these days

 

    
Throw everything in the blender and mix.

Chill for an hour before serving, if you prefer it cold.  

Difficulty level: easy

Chloé's First Birthday Bash

Gosh!  I feel like it was just yesterday that I was writing about Logan's first birthday party.  And here we are, a year and a half later, and I have another one year old.  How is that even possible?

Chloé, it feels like it was only yesterday that you were taking your very first peek at the world.  How can you possibly already be one???

And just yesterday that Logan was meeting his baby sister for the very first time:

And now, you've turned turned into a beautiful one year old.  It takes my breath away on a regular basis just how quickly you have turned into a real little person.  

 
Not a baby anymore.  

But a real little person.  

It all happened right in front of me.  And yet, somehow, I often feel like I've somehow missed the transformation.

But somehow, you're now one. 

Well, one and a day, to be exact.  Which makes Logan two.

And makes me feel old ;)

So, of course, we had to have a big party to celebrate.  I scoured Pinterest to get ideas for decorations.

Heather came over before the party to teach me how to make these beautiful poms.  (You can also use this youtube tutorial here, if you are inspired by these).

I made a collage of photos from Chloé's first year:

And recruited Ash and Eric to make this balloon banner that I had intended to make, but never quite got around to doing.  Who would have ever thought that my Uncle Rob is such a master balloon blower-upper?

  

Maddy particularly loved these:

For lunch, we served some sausages along with orzo salad, a lentil salad that I will post shortly, Willie's guacamole and some delicious sangria.  And Logan got right up there into the chips as quickly as he could:

And of course, what first birthday would be complete without shooters?  Milk shooters, that is.  (Well, I served chocolate milk shots, since we're dairy free).  And Armarula ones for the non-dairy free adults.  Got the idea for these nifty shot glasses here.

 
And clearly, every one year old needs a cake.  Unfortunately, I tested a few gluten-free cakes, and just couldn't find one that would hold up under fondant.  So I decided to make a cake pop cake instead.  I'll post a tutorial on this shortly.

Chloé enjoyed a sunbutter frosted cupcake instead.   

Plus, half of another one.

A huge thanks to all who made it to the party, particularly everyone who traveled down from Toronto.  We're so happy that you could be part of this special day with us.  And Scott, you were with us in spirit. 

Thanks also for all of the wonderful gifts.

I am immensely blessed to have both of my children and all of the joy that they bring to our lives.

We love you babykins.  Happy birthday! 

And on that note, I will leave you with more of my favourite shots from the photos we had done for Chloé's birthday.