Archives for October 2013

Frankenstein Pudding Cups and Halloween Traditions

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays – I love decorating and doing activities with friends!


Every Family has their holiday traditions, and I especially love mine. Homemade Easter Bread, Feast of the Seven Fishes for Christmas, and cookies on almost every holiday. We always made my Grandmother’s recipe. Mom would make them a few days ahead and freeze them so we would be all set to decorate.

As little girls, KB and I had to have a plethora of frosting colors and sprinkles to adorn our cookies. This year for Halloween, I asked my girlfriends, Thelma and Lolo to bring their kids over so we could do cookies. I love keeping the holiday cookie tradition alive – especially since my Grandmother is no longer with us and my Mom lives a few hundred miles away. It is definitely one tradition I will be doing with Baby L&C when she is old enough… almost 6 weeks until due date by the way!
Thelma’s daughter, Little E, is almost 5 and Lolo’s son is almost 3. We had such a good time making cookies, even though our attention span was very short. They loved all the frosting colors and the special sprinkles I bought for the occasion. I haven’t seen that many eyeballs on one cookie in a while!
After cookie decorating, we made Frankenstein Pudding Cups. I saw the idea on Pinterest a while back and thought it would be fun for them to make – and eat. It was really simple and took only a few minutes to do. The kids loved getting their fingers in the Oreo crumbs. 

Frankenstein Pudding Cups
inspired by Pinterest
Frankenstein Pudding Cups Ingredients:
 – 4-5 decorated clear plastic cups
 – 1 box Instant Vanilla Pudding
 – 3 cups cold Milk
 – Neon Green Food Coloring, 20-25 drops
 – Neon Blue Food Coloring, 2-3 drops
 – 20 Oreos or other cream filled chocolate cookies, made into crumbs in food processor
Frankenstein Pudding Cups Directions:
 – Using a permanent marker, draw faces on the outside of the plastic cups
 – In a large mixing bowl, mix the Instant Pudding, cold Milk and Food Coloring for 2 minutes.
 – Pour pudding into cups and top with Oreo Crumbs. Refrigerate 20 minutes
Until next time,
LOVE & CONFECTIONS!

Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice

I am wishing for Fall weather here in Florida and to hopefully speed it along, I created my own Pumpkin Pie Spice. With Fall baking, that little spice container in the grocery store never seems to be enough and always runs out right when I need it. Pumpkin Pie Spice is quick and easy to make and you probably have all the spice ingredients already in your pantry or spice drawer.

The internet has been blowing up with Pumpkin Spice this and Pumpkin Spice that since early September. I love all those delicious creations that I see on Pinterest and FoodGawker. Hopefully I will not be too busy with Baby prep in the next few weeks to add to all the gloriousness (yes, that’s my made-up word) of Pumpkin Spice baking.



Pumpkin Pie Spice
a Love & Confections original recipe

Pumpkin Pie Spice Ingredients:
 – 1/4 cup ground Cinnamon
 – 1 tablespoon ground Nutmeg, freshly grated if you have it
 – 1 tablespoon ground Ginger
 – 2 teaspoons ground Allspice
 – 1 teaspoon ground Clove*
*some people like Clove in their spice mix, but I personally do not care for it, so it it up to you if you wish to add it in.

Pumpkin Pie Spice Directions:
 – Add all spices in a jar, with a tight-fitting lid, and shake to combine. Any type of mason or canning jar would be perfect.

Until next time,
LOVE & CONFECTIONS!