I must admit I have never celebrated Halloween before moving to Australia. When I was a child, we did not have Halloween in Italy. We used to celebrate the 2nd of November which is “All Souls Day” (or “il giorno dei morti” as we call it). That’s the day we remember our loved ones who have passed away and visit their graves at the cemetery. Halloween is not a traditional feast in Italy, it is something we “imported” from the USA. It started to become more popular around the time I went to high school, but by then I was already too old to get really interested into the trick or treat thing. Last year though, things changed. We had a Halloween party for the kids of the area at the local park, followed by some trick or treating and the children had a blast. I must admit that it was a lot of fun. This is the only occasion that kids get to “dress up” here. In Italy we have Carnevale and that is when we all dress up and play tricks on people and it has always been one of my favourite times of the year. I really miss it here. So I guess Halloween is the closest my kids will ever get to Carnevale.
This year I thought of preparing some treats for the event. I had lots of ideas but they all involved a lot of work and I really did not have much free time, as after coming back from New Caledonia things got pretty hectic around here. So, I settled for something quick and easy that will still impress all your Halloween guests.
While searching for inspiration I found these marshmallow monsters from The Decorated Cookie and I thought they looked great! They are so easy to make… just insert a lollypop stick into a marshmallow and draw a face with an edible ink pen. That’s all. Don’t they look cute?
I really like the ghost theme… so I decided to make some ghosts using strawberries. I dipped them in white chocolate and decorated them with some with icing (I used Queen Writing Icing and Gels).
Last, but not least, I made marzipan pumpkins. I have made some marzipan because it is traditionally gifted and eaten in Sicily for All Souls Day and I wanted to keep the tradition alive. I have used the recipe for Martorana and I added some yellow and red food colouring to get the orange for the pumpkin. Then I made some small balls (the size of a golf ball) and made some indentations using a clay tool (but a toothpick works just as well). Then I gently pressed them down from the top with my index finger and inserted a clove to make the pumpkin stem.
Let them dry for 1 hour and then decorate them with icing.
Enjoy!!!
So… what are your plans for Halloween?? Any special treat (or trick)?? Have fun!
Love travelling as much as cooking?
Many of the recipes I share are inspired by places I’ve visited around the world. On Travel with Manu you’ll find destination guides, itineraries and travel inspiration to help you plan your next adventure.
Congratulations! We wanted to inform you that this post has been selected as a Featured Archive Post during the month of October.
Manu, your halloween treats are SO adorable! I love the pumpkins!! Your daughters are too precious, hope they enjoyed their halloween!
Happy Halloween, especially to your adorable daughters. Your treats are very cute.
Adorable! Such a great treat i like ur little pumpkins .Happy Halloween Manu.
Manu, everything looks super cute, thanks for sharing:)
Happy Halloween:)
http://mywanderingspoon.wordpress.com/2011/10/31/happy-halloween-chocolate-tangerine-boo-cupcakes/
I am not into other social networking so I have bookmarked your site so that I can come again for lovely recipes. Your simple Halloween treats look very cute.
hahaha what a cute and scary post:))) Everything looks awesome, Manu, but those pumpkins are killer..Awesome, Awesome post!!!
Oh, these are just too cute and the strawberries with white chocolate look delicious. How creative you are.
What cute little treats – I love the pumpkins! Crazy to me, having grown up in the states that you never had Halloween growing up. Even stranger to me is that they started to celebrate it. Hope you and your kids have fun!
OMG these are adorable Manu! Great job- your kiddies look adorable too. =)
These treats are adorable! I love the idea of using strawberries too to have something a little healthy in the mix! The marzipan pumpkin balls came out awesome too!
Gorgeous little Halloween treats. No tricks, just treats! 🙂
Simple and darling.
What lovely and easy ideas Manu. We always decorate the exterior of our house with pumpkin lights, caution tape (like it’s a crime scene) and torches. On Halloween night, I usually have some really scary music playing in a loop so the kiddies can hear it coming and going.
Lovely candies…I like the ghosts…!!!
I don’t remember when we start to celebrate Halloween in Peru, but I was at school, I think that as we are “close” to the US it’s very easy to copy that tradition.
What I remember we always had is “All Saints Day” (Día de todos los Santos) on November 1st, which is a holiday, followed by “All Dead People Day” (Día de todos los Muertos) on November 2nd, like your “All Souls Day”, but it is a working day.
Actually, as my kids are on a Catholic school we suppose not to celebrate it, well, not at school, but we like to go door by door for a “trick or treat”.
I love how artistic you are! I am an not quite as creative, actually I am not at all…. Great ideas and great results!
These are amazing! And they really are super easy and super fun. I adore those strawberry ghosts. Fantastic! I’m gonna host a party next year and these are totally on the menu 🙂
Buzzed!
Very cute! And your kids are adorable!!!!!
Thank you Cristy! <3
Oh how cute these treats are! Though I’m also not used to celebrating Halloween 🙂
Manu, this post is so adorable! Love the kids’ costumes, and the Halloween treats are so cute 🙂
Have a wonderful weekend!
These are too cute!! I love them all. And your kids are adorable! What will they be this year?? I am going to include this in my Friday Round-Up 🙂 Today’s theme is Halloween!
You did such a wonderful job with these little treats! It is surprising what you can do with so few ingredients. Also I am sure you had fun making these. These are so cute, these little gems will definitely be a hit with the kids. Great post.
Really cute decorations. I especially loved the strawberry ghosts. Always use dark chocolate, never thought of using white. Thanks for your ideas. The kids are cute as well. Happy Halloween 🙂
My 1st time here & I’m impressed. These are simply amazing! Saw your recipe @ Food Frenzy & dropped by to say “Hi!”
I’m the winner of this Halloween Recipe Challenge with my Creepy Halloween Pumpkin Treats In Just 3 Steps! You could’ve easily beaten mine with your cute little treats.
Wow! I saw your two winning titles @ Food Frenzy too. Looking fwd to more sharing, not just on our cooking! Let’s follow each other 🙂 Have a lovely weekend!
This year I’ll skip the usual Halloween party (all dressed up) and I’ll celebrate it with a friend… I think with an all-pumpkin dinner 😀
Those ghosties and punkin’s are the cutest things ever! As are the marshmallows! Who ever receives these will be very, very lucky 🙂
Adorable! Just adorable!
Those treats are incredibly! I had never thought of using strawberries as ghosts before – thats something I’ll have to try for our Halloween party this weekend. Thanks so much for sharing!
Such cute treats Manu 🙂 Happy Halloween !
My mama never did anything near this fun for Halloween! 🙂 I can see you and the girls all smiles while you were making these. I’m sure you all won’t have any problem eating them. 🙂
I love all of these treats, everyone is cuter than the last! But the kids really take the cake on cuteness!!!!!
These are all so adorable! I especially love the little pumpkins. So cute.