Catacomb Crumble Coffin Cake

 

For own Halloween Deadsert I made us Catacomb Crumble Coffin Cake based after a recipe/idea from 

master macabre culinary cook Ghoul at Heart.

Mine that your see is not quite her recipe.  The original calls for making these adorable skulls that are baked onto the base bread/cake/pie along with a streusel crumble.  It's comprised of brown sugar, flour, and butter.  I followed the exact recipe for the skulls, froze them, and baked at 350 degrees...and just as I was kinda thinking would happen....all of it melted and disintegrated right into the cake, like it was swallowed up by a black hole.

So, to get the look of the dessert, after the cake was baked and cooled, I used a fork and crumbled up the top of the cake and then nested the extra unbaked skulls I had formed within the "crumble".  I think there's something about not eating raw flour or you'll go to hell so I guess the skulls are just for looks on my cake.  I'm sure I did something wrong to cause the skulls to decompose because Ghoul at Heart is a far better baker than I.  I'll have to 'test kitchen' this some more to get it right.

Kitsch-o-Ween 2023

Welcome to our 2023 Kitsch-O-Ween living room tour!

I have been mixing up my decor a lot over the last few years.  Last year for the first time I did a Halloween theme in the living room that didn't involve any of the vintage Halloween stuff that I called the Tiki Voodoo Swamp Hut.  That year in the dining room I put up all the kitschy stuff, but since the space is smaller a lot of the collection stayed packed up.

This year I flipped it, decorating the dining room in a theme (smaller space so less stuff to make and pull together) and the living room (lots of shelves and wall space) getting all of the Halloween hoard.

👻BEHOLD!👻

Every year I think it's the best I've done.  It can't be improved upon.  Then the next year I love it more than the previous!  Both the 2022 and 2023 decor are just perfection in my not so humble opinion.

But I also keep in mind it's only taken me decades of collecting and decorating to get to this point!

Happy Halloween everyone!

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The Mystical Oracle Knows Your Halloween Fate!

Greetings my friends. 

 You are interested in the unknown, the mysterious, the unexplainable, that is why you are here.  

Step into the parlor and let us gaze into the crystal ball....  I see....  I see.... Crumbs!  No, Cookies!   This could mean your future holds something sweet.... or something crummy. You be the judge!

Check out our 2023 Halloween Dining Room Decor: Fortune Teller's Atelier

and decide for yourself!

  

 For our dining room Halloween decor this year I decided to do a theme again (last year was Tiki Voodoo Halloween Swamp Hut.).  It's been a fun challenge the last two years coming up with a theme and pulling it together in the most thriftiest way that I can.  This year I only bought a few things at 1.25 Tree and the Crystal Ball Cookie Jar at Target.  Everything else we had on hand or I made. 

The colorful gold vase on the dining table belonged to my Great Grandmother (same one that owned the Lighted Pineapple Centerpieces) and I inherited it when my mom passed away.   PB collects rocks, gems, and crystals so he supplied those.  The dried pumpkin stems near the "alter" area are from PB's little baby pumpkins through the years.  The book covers, cards, and the vintage Talking Boards are all prints.  The crystal skull was once a bottle of hot sauce.  Our house is like prop storage for hoarders.

Frito Kid Halloween Party

Frito Kid Party 1954 is back with October's offering...A Halloween Party! 

The menu includes:

Glazed apples on sticks rolled in crushed Fritos

Popcorn balls

Punch

I decided to not do "glazed" apples as I think they mean "candied".  Anytime I can avoid using a candy thermometer I will.  I decided to do caramel apples but even there I took a short cut.  I found these inexpensive caramel 'tortillas'  that you wrap on your apples called 'Wrapples'.  After you wrap the apples you place them in a low temp oven and the caramel will ooze down making none the wiser that you didn't hand dip these babies.  The instructions also have a short cut for this...Put them in the microwave instead.  With all the busyness of the season I need all the short cuts I can get.  Take it from me...Do Not Microwave your Apples.  I only did one to test it out so luckily the whole batch wasn't ruined.  The microwave heat rotted the apple from within and didn't do much for melting the caramel.  I decided to take the short, short cut and just wrapped my apples, not heating at all and call it done.  I thought about trying out using a hair dryer to get the caramel soft enough to pick up the crushed chips but it wasn't necessary.  The caramel is plenty sticky.

The apples are really good with having the tartness of the Granny Smith, the sweetness of the caramel, and then topped with the salty crunch of the Fritos.

 For the popcorn balls I make more of a rice crispy treat recipe idea.  It's pre-popped Brimm's Butter popcorn, marshmallows, and a bit of butter.  You could add in some crushed Fritos but the buttered popcorn already supplies a good amount of salty.

For the punch we had Cinnamon Apple Cider, premade from the grocery store.

Here are all the additional deets if you are wanting to go all out for your own Frito Kid Halloween Party!

For the past Frito Party Goodness check out the below posts:

Frito Kid August Back Yard Barbeque

Frito Kid July 4th Party

Frito Kid June Cowboy Party

Frito Kid May Flowers and Fairies Party.

Frito Kid April Easter Party

Frito Kid March St. Patrick's Party

Frito Kid February Valentine Party

Frito Kid January Circus Party.html

Little Leon

For my Halloween costume this year I dressed up as Little Leon from The Andy Griffith show.

He never spoke and was always roaming around Mayberry unattended carrying and offering his PB&J sandwich to the townsfolk.  He was played by Clint Howard, little brother to Ron Howard. 

Here he and I are in his most iconic poses:

Holding up the wall...

And eating a PB&J.....

This costume came from stuff we already had around the house.  I made the PB&J sandwich from some old foam mattress padding, felt, and paint.  The foam was from a queen size pad that I got from my grandmother back in 2008 and she had owned it for a decade before that.  I have used it for all sorts of crafts including my Hamburglar Costume from 2016 and padding for my dining room chairs when I reupholstered them.  I have about a twin bed sized piece still left for lots of future swishy projects.

The key costume piece is the cowboy leather jacket.  This jacket belonged to my uncle in the early 1970s.  My mom somehow finagled it away from him when she was a teenager.  I used to wear it myself while I was in high school.  When she passed away I inherited it.

If we ever make it up to Mount Airy for Mayberry Days I have my costume all set!

 

Ghost Dot Tree

Here's a fun way to use a gum drop tree for Halloween!

Fill it with Ghost Dots and other gum drops of Halloween colors!

I also attached some plastic black spiders here and there using glue dots.

Ghost Dots are one of our favorite Halloween treats. 

 

Painted Pumpkins

 

Instead of carving a pumpkin this year I decided to try out painting.

I painted both pumpkins inspired by images of a couple of vintage blow molds.

 Above inspired by below:

🎃  🕷  🎃  🕷  🎃  🕷  🎃  🕷  🎃

Above inspired by below:

My reasoning for painting is based in my being a thrifty gal.

I am hoping that after Halloween I can wash off the paint leaving me with a perfect fresh pumpkin for my Fall front stoop!

Halloween Front Stoop 2023

 Here is the front stoop decorated for Halloween 2023!

All of the black metal spider stuff is year round decor but I threw in a few pumpkiny, ghosty bits. 

Pretty much every year the stoop looks the same but I apparently never show it on here as I scoured the deep freezer (aka past posts) and only found one measly post from 2016 and it's prime point was to show off the wreath.

 

 Truthfully the stoop is not over the top typically. We have to keep our outside fairly tame as to not advertise our house as the place to be Halloween night to score full size Snickers bars.  We don't do Trick or Treaters anymore because we have a firm belief in "No Costume- No Candy".  We only would get people that looked like they just rolled off the couch carrying several walmart bags each to load up.  So on Halloween Night we keep the lights out and move around the house like there could be Jehovah Witnesses lurking beyond the threshold!

Speaking of Witnesses, here is a cute non Halloween song that reminds me of being a kid:

Witch Kneehugger~ Boo It Yourself!

Ending out this week of Halloween crafts is my favorite!

I made a vintage inspired knee hugger witch from a 1.25 Tree ghoul and fabric from my scraps bin!

Here she is with her dangly legs down so you can see her pretty skirt!

I am not very good at doing tutorials.  Whenever I am crafting I just do it and figure it out as I go.  I like it that way.  Stopping to take photos and all that is a hinderance and causes my crafting momentum to stall.  But I made myself do a few process photos with this because I knew I would not be able to explain how I did it.  I also really appreciate when others do it so I am taking my turn here.

So, first photo is what the witch ghoul looks like from 1.25 Tree all boring like:

Here she is stripped and I painted some features with black paint:

Next I covered the arms in some old long sleeve t-shirt material from when PB was probably 5 years old.  I rolled it on the arms and hot glued it:

For her body I again used some scrap material from a long sleeve tee, using the cuff as a turtle neck:

For the long legs I repurposed the cheap black material from her shroud.  I folded it over, rolled it and hot glued into place:

Next I covered the legs by hot gluing old t-shirt material in place, sewed it to the body and stuffed that.

I cut arm holes below the turtle neck and put the arms through.

At this point this is what you have:

I think if you wanted to be real evil you should stop there.  Make about ten of these menacing looking gremlins and put them out this holiday season in lieu of the Elf on the Shelf.  Tell the kids Santa has had it with being forgiving of their bad behavior and has sent his 'Thump your skull' posse instead.

Or you can continue with turning her into a cutie witch!

To finish her out I cut some scraps of Halloween fabric to make her cape, skirt, and hat.  I hot glued some parts and sewed some.  Embellish with rick rack, ribbon, and plastic spiders.  I also finished out her eyes with a dab of white paint.

Other things I did but didn't make it as a photo were I did shortened the arms as they were too long.  I also had to shove pipe cleaners up the legs to give them more structure.  If you make one you could roll the pipe cleaners in with the legs or use something firmer for the legs.  Another thing to remember to do is add back a replacement ziptie at the neck for stability or she'll have her head always falling back like she just heard a great joke. 

I am pretty happy with how she turned out.  I have wanted to try making my own Halloween knee-hugger for quite sometime just didn't know what to use for the noggin until I came across the witch ghoul at 1.25 Tree.  She has the perfect vintage-inspired type face!