Halloween decorations at home with my pumpkin pie!
I am a huge fan of Halloween, always have been. A great excuse to dress up and carve pumpkins, Mr. Mew and I decorated our little cottage with Halloween decoration ranging from paper lanterns to a little bubbling couldron!
On Friday we went to my friend HP Saucy’s Halloween party. We only knew a few people there, but the place looked great! Amazing what you can do with a role of black bin bags! Most had gone as witches and the like, one guy had not even bothered (so I took him into HP’s bedroom, eyebrow pencilled an eye on his palm and transformed him into David Blane…) and Mr. Mew and I went as the Phantom of the Opera and a 1930’s Pierrot clown!
My Pierrot clown Halloween costume
Mr. Mew at HP's party dressed as Erik
Kitten von Mew and Helen Wright at HP's Halloween party
You may have spotted a severed finger in my hand above…This is in fact a Witches Finger that I made a large batch of for the party! Simply look up a shortbread biscuit mix (use plain flour and no baking powder or raising agent), create finger sized sausages after letting it cool in the fridge for an hour and press down lightly on 2 points to form a knuckle. Press an almond flake in the top as a nail and pop into a hot over for 20 minutes. Once cooled, carefully remove the almond and re-attach it with red icing. I also dipped the ends to make them more gorey and scored 3 lines on the knuckles!
Wiches Fingers made by Kitten!
HP being strangled by her partner Dai
On Halloween itself we invited our best friends Candee and Jocob over to watch a horror film (The Cottage). The front room looked an absolute picture and I had layed out marshmallows in the shape of pumpkins in a little black couldron on the table, a hand shapes jelly and a new pumpkin pie with witches fingers bursting out of the top! How good does that look! (see image below).
I made up the recipe as I had lost the original and it ended up being far nicer. It is a mixture of meringue and pumpkin, hence the name ‘Kitten’s Merkin Pie’ which is fitting for a burlesque dancer 😉
3 x egg whites whisked until peaked
3/4 cup of brown or light brown sugar
Savoury pastry case to save time
1/2 tsp of mixed spice
1 tsp of cinammon
1/2 tsp of nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
1 x Large squeeze of lemon (add a little ornage rind if you like too! Yummy!)
flesh from 1 medium pumpkin
A pot of single cream for pouring
Cover the pumpkin flesh with water and boil for an hour. Sieve it and squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Leave to cool whilst you go and carve your pumpkin!
Mix all the dry ingredients together and then fold in the meringue and pumpkin flesh being careful not to loose the air bubbles. Squeeze in the lemon, pop into the pastry case and bake for 20minutes (or until a knife comes out clean from the centre). Serve warm with single cream. I also stuck in 5 Witches Finger biscuits for shock factor!
Kitten von Mew with Sugar Skull makeup, pumpkin pie and jelly!
Like the makeup? I was going to do it for HP’s party, but decided on the pierrot which was a good job as my friend Helen did it! This was my first attempt at sugar skull makeup (think Day of the Dead, which incidentally was yesterday!). I used the white makeup I buoght for the clown costume, my liquid eye liner and eyeshadow palette to colour it in. I also painted Mr. Mew too!
Mr. Mew and Kitten's Halloween makeup!
Candee and Jacob arrived at the door and we whipped open the curtain to shock them. They looked fantastic and we all laughed at each other through the glass before letting them in!
Candee and Jacob, Halloween 2011
How amazing do they look?! Funnily enough, this is the talented lady that took the large photo of Mr. Mew and I behind her!
They brought with them a murder of fake crows and about 4 or 5 carved pumpkins that we dotted around the room with our own. I was thrilled to learn that this was their first tast of pumpkin pie that they seem to enjoy (or graciously chewed!) and were impressed by the finger biscuits too!
We had such a great time and next year we will all be together again for Halloween in Budapest and Transylvania on a steam train journey!
1940's Pin-Up Entertainer Kitten von Mew 