Bowers - Ghoulish goodies: Monster Eyeballs, Fudge Fingers, Spidery Cupcakes, and Other Frightful Treats

For Hugh and Pearse, my bright-eyed kitchen helpers, always happy to lick beaters and taste cupcakes.

Many, many thanks to my editor, Margaret Sutherland, unfailingly delightful to work with and eagle-eyed to boot; to creative director Alethea Morrison, who oversaw the fabulous design; to food stylist Norma Miller and photographer Kevin Kennefick, who made and shot picture-perfect versions of the recipes; to Michael Slack, for the fantastic illustrations and also to the whole dream team at Storey, including Pam Art, Deborah Balmuth, and the ever-encouraging Amy Greeman.

Particular thanks to my agent, Jennifer Griffin, for finding me a good home there, then gently but firmly making sure I got the manuscript finished on time, and to Angela Miller for her humor and constant support. I couldnt have done it without both of them.

Most of all, thanks and love to my husband, David Bowers, for his willingness to undertake and refine the messiest projects, make endless trips to the store to buy yet more sugar and butter and, mostly, just for making life fun.

On a dark, windy night, dry leaves skitter down the empty pavement with a sound like chattering teeth. A blood-red moon hangs low in the sky and the weak pools of light cast by the streetlamps strain against the velvety blackness. What mischief lurks abroad? Why, its nothing but a bunch of riotous ghosts, goblins, pirates, witches, and superheroes, laden with swinging bags of candy and heading to a party featuring fresh-baked jack-o-lantern cookies and spidery cupcakes, not to mention candy apples, homemade caramel corn, and chocolate mice! Theyve been waiting for this night for weeks on end, and theyre not going home until their bags and their bellies are full of goodies.

My kids adore Halloween and its all my fault Ive encouraged it since they were born. When the autumn afternoons turn dark and cool, I think theres nothing cozier for a family to do together than turn on the kitchen lights, heat the oven, and bake. Throughout October, my boys clamber on the counter and help me make webs on sugar cookies, shape scary monster cupcakes, and stir up pumpkin fudge thats redolent of warm spices. We make wacky chocolate bat cookies and pick the seeds from the pumpkins innards to make fabulous sweet and spicy toasted pumpkin seeds. They love it; I love it.

Because, of course, adults adore Halloween, too. And why not? Halloween is a good reason to decorate our homes and have a party, which in fact isnt so very far from the original purpose of the holiday. The long-ago festival of Samhain in the Celtic tradition, despite its oft-mentioned association with spirits of the dead, was largely a good excuse to enjoy harvest bounty and visit with neighbors before the cold winter settled in. So America is really following the example of our various ancestors in making Halloween the third-largest party day in the United States, trailing only New Years Eve and Superbowl Sunday.

Retailers and journalists continue to marvel at the stunning commercial growth of Halloween in America (we spent nearly $6 billion on it in 2008), but every American child knows from the time he can walk, talk, and chew candy corn that Halloween is the event of the year. Thanksgiving and Christmas arrive with the attendant stresses of family gatherings and enormous meals, but Halloween is nothing but joy. Its the first fun holiday that comes along after the kids go back to school, and they throw themselves into it wholeheartedly.

As pumpkins and scarecrows begin to appear on front steps and porches, theres the thrilling anticipation: preparing the costume, wearing it for weeks, even sleeping in it if Mom allows. Then theres the party at school with cupcakes and gift bags of candy corn. And then, on the night itself, theres the unbearable delay of gobbling down a Halloween supper, the dispute over whether you have to wear a coat over your costume or not, then the wild run to the first house to ring the doorbell and shout as shrilly as possible, Trick or TREAT!

With luck, you then get to lug your huge bag of candy onward to an after-party with more sweets. Add frenzied candy-sorting in front of the TV before bed (doesnt everyone do this? It was the favorite part of the evening in my childhood), the trade-offs with your siblings (one chocolate bar for three packs of Smarties; the next-door neighbors homemade caramel corn for a full-size Snickers), and a final piece of candy before sleep and you have a holiday thats pure childhood bliss.

Parents today remember those joyous and innocent nights and we want to recreate the carefree Halloweens of our youth, with a lot of gently scary fun, delicious food, and the creation of special memories for our own kids. Im a busy mom and I dont have time to decorate my suburban lawn like the front of a department store. Instead, I like recipes and ideas that are fun for my family and me to make together, and that can help similarly busy parents bring the holiday home again.

Fun, fabulous food helps to set the mood as much as anything. In the same length of time it would take to load up the minivan and make a trip to a box store to buy a lighted display or a costume, you could make a batch of Wormy Cupcakes or some spooky Witches Fingers its cheaper, and its much more of a kick for your kids.

Much of the thrill for children comes from the hands-on process of helping to make these goodies, and so these recipes are formulated to leave lots of leeway for little hands to help. Rather than trying to make picture-perfect cookies, Id rather see my kids have fun making their lopsided versions of each item.

True to that end, everything in this book is good to eat, kid-friendly, and manageable for busy cooks the gross-out factor is at a minimum, there is no complicated styling and sculpting, and deliciousness is at the max. Flavor and visual appeal, ease and child-friendliness always trump creepiness, so these dishes will remain spellbindingly addictive for parents and kids, with recipes that families will turn to again and again every Halloween.

With that in mind, here are some thoughts for success.

If you only have the regular 4-pack (red, blue, yellow, green) of liquid food coloring in your cupboard, go to a specialty baking shop and get paste coloring for the deepest colors. To get really intense colors out of liquid, you have to use so much that you may in fact taste a bitter edge and may also end up with too much liquid in your dough, altering the outcome. Liquid colors are great to add a mild orange glow to a sugar-cookie dough, for example, but if you want to make something really black or deeply orange without materially affecting the quality of the dough, go for paste. A very small amount goes a long way, and the little jars keep indefinitely. Even better, stores such as Wal-Mart and Target are starting to carry Halloween paste colors in their holiday sections.