Halloween is fast approaching, so why not give these ghoulish treat a try?

Eyeball pops

You’ll need:
100g/4oz Madeira cake
100g Oreo cookies
100g bar milk chocolate, melted
200g bar white chocolate, melted
few Smarties and icing pens, to decorate
10 wooden skewers
½ small pumpkin or butternut squash, deseeded, to stand pops in

Method:
Break the Madeira cake and cookies into a food processor, then pour in the melted milk chocolate and whizz to combine.

Pour the mixture into a bowl and use your hands to roll into about 10 walnut-sized balls. Chill for 2 hrs until really firm.

Push a skewer into each cake ball, then carefully spoon the white chocolate over the cake balls to completely cover. Stand the cake pops in the pumpkin and press a Smartie onto the surface while wet. Chill again until the chocolate has set. Before serving, using the icing pens to add a pupil to each Smartie and squiggle red veins to the eyeballs.

—

Horrific jelly

You’ll need:
2 x 135g packs strawberry or raspberry jelly
425g can lychees in syrup
12-14 small seedless green grapes
12-14 dark coloured jelly beans
80g white marzipan
6-8 whole blanched almonds
red piping gel or red icing in a tube

Method:
Cut the jelly into cubes and place into a bowl. Add 400ml boiling water and stir continuously until dissolved.

Drain the lychees, keeping the juice. Put the juice in a measuring jug and make up to 400ml with cold water. Add to the dissolved jelly.

Pour about a quarter of the jelly into a clear glass dish and pop in the fridge to set.

Take a grape and gently push a jelly bean into the centre, using the hole where the stalk has been. Then gently push the grape into a lychee. Repeat with the remaining grapes and lychees to make eyeballs.

To make the spooky fingers, divide the marzipan into 6 and shape into sausages the size of a finger. Pipe a little red gel at one end and attach an almond to represent a fingernail. Using a small knife mark three or four lines half way down the finger to make a knuckle.

When the jelly is set, arrange half the eyeballs over the surface, add more jelly and return to the fridge.

When this has set, arrange the remaining eyeballs over the jelly. Place the spooky fingers against the side of the bowl. Pour over the remaining jelly and place in the fridge to set. Serve in the bowl.

—