Sinister Saturday – Haunted Manor Pumpkin Bread (cake fail?)

Happy Sinister Saturday! Today, we attempted to bake pumpkin bread using a Nordic Ware Haunted Manor pan.

Nordic Ware pans are amazing. The Haunted Skull cakelet pan is my favorite.

The Haunted Manor pan will set you back $25-30, depending where you buy it and when.

This might be a purchase to save for after Halloween or a Black Friday sale for a nice discount. Highly encourage everyone to buy Skull pan. It’s super useful for a ton of different recipes.

I started with a box of Libby’s Pumpkin Bread.

As I said before, I’m not into baking. I mean, I’d love it if I wasnt so damn bad at it!😅

I’ve been successfully using Libby’s Pumpkin bread for years. The recipe is super easy, four eggs, a cup of water, half cup of oil and mix well.

So fast, so easy, a child could do this. After baking for an hour, it looked like I might pull it off.

30 mins later, reality crushed my weekend dream of making Haunted Manor pumpkin bread. The cake broke into several pieces with the top half not all agreeing to come out of the pan.

But my dreams of great baking are often nightmares.

I eventually gave up and dug it out, resulting in the above picture. It seems a Haunted Manor pan may be too advanced for my baking skills!🤣

While the Haunted Manor cake visual was complete failure, it tasted fantastic! Just like always. That’s why I love this pumpkin bread mix from Libby’s.

I used some leftover batter to make pumpkin muffins instead.

Pumpkin muffins save the day!

Happy Halloween! Be safe out there!

Addendum:

This cake pan is NIGHTMARE to clean!

Friday Fright Nightcaps – Spooky Cosmo

Happy Friday! Tonight’s Friday Fright Nightcaps is the Spooky Cosmo. It’s a Cosmopolitan, but spooky, cuz I said so.🤣

Ingredients:
3 oz. cranberry juice
2 oz. vodka
1 oz. Cointreau
.5 oz lime juice
.5 oz grenadine
1-2 drops of red food coloring

Garnish: Fresh fruit, hibiscus flower, orange rind, tiny umbrellas

Pour ingredients in a glass and mix well. Garnish with fresh fruit or flowers (hibiscus 🌺 would be nice)

Can be served chilled or unchilled.

Cosmos sneak up on you. They taste mild, but remember, vodka! Please don’t drink and drive.

I drank a little too much off the top *hiccup*

Stay safe out there!

Timeless Thursday – Bobby ‘Boris’ Pickett’s Other Monster Hits

Timeless Thursday, Throwback Thursday, it’s all the same, it means, we’re going back in time!

Did you know that Bobby ‘Boris’ Pickett had a couple of lesser known monster hits after the chart topping smash hit Monster Mash in 1962? The original Monster Mash album had 16 tracks altogether, including this one:

Title: Monster’s Holiday
Singer/Band: Bobby Pickett
Date: 1962

Well, actually, comedian Pickett was probably the only person who ever continually parodied his own music, but the success of Monster Mash was never duplicated. He sure looked like he was having fun anyway.

Title: Monster Swim
Singer/Band: Bobby Pickett
Date: 1964

I suppose, if it aint broke, don’t fix it!😄

Title: Monster Rap
Singer/Band: Bobby Pickett
Date: 1984

About that Monster Mash, it was spoof on popular dance craze songs at the time. The song was co-written with Leonard Capizzi in May 1962 and hit the top US Billboard 100 by October the same year. By 1973, it had re-charted five other times and eventually earned gold status, making it the greatest novelty song in history.

Hit up Wikipedia to learn more about Bobby Boris Pickett. By the way, did you know Monster Mash still generates $1 million dollars annually in royalties?! <grunts> Mash goooood!

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Wicked Art Wednesdays 2025 – James Crouch

From rock stars to sports icons, custom jobs to landscapes, and Hollywood Murals to Disneyland Halls, chances are if you live in the USA, you’ve probably already seen SoCal artist James Crouch’s vibrant stunning art murals somewhere in person.

Disney’s Haunted Mansion Bride by James Crouch

Artist: James Crouch
Company/Studio: https://croucharts.com/

Where to Purchase Goods: https://croucharts.com/collections/vintage-monsters

Headless Horseman by James Crouch from Vintage Monsters Collection

Why we love it:

James Crouch is an Imagineer working with Walt Disney Company for over 30 years. Some of us just grew up seeing this guy’s iconic work our whole lives.

Social Media: https://www.instagram.com/crouch_arts/

Haunted Organist by James Crouch from Vintage Monsters Collection

Trick or Treat Tuesdays – Haunted Trivia Game

Happy Trick or Treat Tuesday! Be the first person to answer all five questions correctly in the Comments Section and win some spooky stickers as a treat!

What 1959 novel made The Atlantic’s Greatest American Novels top 100 list?

Horror icon Vincent Price deliberately turned in a campy over-the-top performance in which fun spooky film?

Celebrities share their real life encounters with the paranormal in which Apple TV series?

Paranormal investigative couple Ed and Lorraine Warren were heavily involved in the real life haunted funeral parlor case that inspired which “Haunting of” movie?

Haunted is the fifth track on the debut album for which 90s rock band?

Rules: First person to answer ALL five questions correctly in the Comment Section of this WordPress post, will win some spooky stickers.

Monday Macabre, Week One 2025

Posting a special Halloween haiku every week for Monday Macabre.

scary, spooky fun
what’s in your heart is the truth
Halloween season

Sinister Saturdays – Graveyard Brownies

Every year, I see recipes for decadent desserts for Halloween and it makes me so jealous. One, I can’t bake for beans, and two, apt living means tiny kitchen, but I thought I’d give it another go this year.

I’ll be honest, I’m picking the laziest, no fuss recipes I can find. For me that means box mixes and pre-made shit. This is a judgement free zone when it comes to cooking and baking. If you have time to make from scratch, knock yourself out. I don’t. End of story.

Besides, work smarter, not harder!🎃

For this first Sinister Saturday, I made GRAVEYARD BROWNIES.

Inspired by the recipe for Graveyard Halloween Brownies over at Dish ‘n in the Kitchen, I too used Giarardelli’s Double Chocolate Brownie mix. This box mix is to die for. You only need to mix in an egg, 1/4 cup water and 1/3 oil, and 40 minutes later, so much deliciousness, you’ll think it’s a sin.

After waiting for the Brownies to cool down, I cut them into squares and added my other pre-made ingredients crushed Oreos for Graveyard dirt, and Milano cookies for tombstones. I didn’t have any black icing, so I just used some chocolate syrup and wrote RIP on the Milano cookies.

The results are delicious, even if my pictures don’t pass the smell test. 🤣

Happy Halloween! Be safe out there!

Friday Fright Nightcaps – Ghastly Spritzer

Happy Friday! It’s the return of Friday Fright Nightcaps! In honor of this month’s theme Haunted Halloween, I present the Ghastly Spritzer. Who doesn’t love a nice smooth fizzy cocktail!

Ingredients:
1 oz. Malibu coconut rum
2 oz. vodka
1.5 oz. pineapple juice
3 oz. sparkling water
ice

This drink wildly interchangeable. Too weak, add more vodka. Too strong, add more pineapple juice. Too sweet, add more sparkling water, I used a flavored La Croix but honestly the Malibu drowned out the flavor in sparkling water.

Also, I missed Random Acts of Poetry Day on October 1st, so I’m sliding in a suggestion to check out this great book from Everyman’s Library and edited by John Hollander entitled “Poems Bewitched and Haunted” a collection of classic spooky poems and short stories.

Gothic scares from literary greats like Dickinson, Goethe, Horace, and Poe. Must read for Halloween!

Timeless Thursday – Earliest Spooky Tunes

Happy October! It’s Throwback Thursday and today we’re listening to the earliest spooky tunes ever recorded.

Title: The Skeleton Rag
Composer: Unknown
Singer/Band: American Quartet
Date: circa 1912

The Skeleton Rag circa 1912 is the earliest known recorded spooky song. Not much is known about the song, but Wikipedia has a whole page dedicated to American Quartet, a widely known vocal group that made music from 1899-1925.

Title: At the Devil’s Ball
Composer: Irving Berlin
Singer/Band: Maurice Burkhart
Date: circa 1912/1913

According to Wikipedia, At the Devil’s Ball was first composed by Irving Berlin, with the earliest copyright registered on November 14, 1912. It was recorded a few times by different groups throughout 1912, but Maurice Burkhart’s 1913 version is best known.

Title: That Syncopated Boogie-Boo
Composer: American Quartet
Singer/Band: American Quartet
Date: circa 1913

Boogie woogie is a popular type of blues music from early teens and 1920s. Wikipedia reports that the first use of the word “Boogie” in a recording title appears to be a “blue cylinder” recording made by Edison of the “American Quartet” performing “That Syncopated Boogie Boo” in 1913.

Anything created before 1923 is considered a Public Domain work and free to use or reproduce. That said, the owners of these YouTube Channels control the content they posted, so these videos could be removed at anytime. Please email me at Halloweenkristy@gmail.com to report broken links.