Happy Friday! Tonight’s Friday Fright Nightcap is The Bride’s Nightcap, a Midori and pear vodka cocktail in celebration of Frankenstein Friday.
Ingredients:
2 oz. Midori 2 oz. pear vodka .5 oz. Malibu (or white rum) .5 oz. Key West lime juice (or lime juice) 4 oz. lemonade
Mix ingredients well. Garnish with Maraschino cherries or fresh fruit. Serve chilled.
I got a little exotic using Malibu and Key West lime juice. Honestly, regular white rum and lime juice will work too. It’s a little sweet if you don’t add the lime juice and Isuppose regular vodka is fine too. F*** it, use what you got. Midori is the star of the show no matter how you dice it.
This is my last post in October. Such a bittersweet moment. I thank everyone who stopped by all 31 days this Halloween season!
Sinister Saturdays are turning out to be a showcase for my failed baking attempts.
And, this Saturday is no different!😄
Overbaked red velvet tombstone cakes
Yes, I used box cake. Middle finger to the haters. But the box cake wasn’t the reason why my Red Velvet Tombstone Cakes were a little well done, it’s just my inability to pull pan out of the oven when the box says!
They looked alright, but were dry as a bone and when I flipped them over, the cakes didn’t retain the pan designs.
I did however manage to bake another cake in my my lovely Wiltern pumpkin pan and it turned out kinda nice.
First thing you need for box cake is box mix and I prefer Duncan Hines Perfectly Moist Red Velvet cake mix. This is the easiest cake mix, only 3 other ingredients are needed to bake the cake, 1 cup of water, half cup of oil, and 3 eggs.
Follow the instructions and you’ll get a nice fluffy red velvet cake.
Next, you add 4-5 drops of orange food coloring into buttercream frosting to get that nice classy orange color. If you want it brighter, I suggest using 2-3 more drops of orange and 1 drop of red. Next, spread frosting all over your cake.
Lastly, you add Halloween style sprinkles and viola, Halloween Cake!
It was a bummer the Red Velvet Tombstone Cakes didn’t turn out, but I was happy with the pumpkin cake pan version.
Happy Friday! Tonight’s Friday Fright Nightcap is a Blue Ghost Margarita.
I love the taste of Blue Curacao and I’m disraught over the demolishment of the people’s house. That’s our White House goddamit! It doesn’t belong to stupid conmen! Haunted. Haunted. Haunted. That is how I describe our great nation as it descends into authoritatian chaos, so yes, this is a fitting cocktail to end the week.
Ingredients
2 oz blanco tequila 1 oz blue curaçao liqueur 1 oz fresh lime juice ½ oz simple syrup ½ oz Grenadine syrup (opt) ice to chill (opt)
Garnish/Rim: Course Salt Lime wedge
Blue Ghost Margarita Ingredients
Pour ingredients into a glass and mix well.
This is a sweet margarita, so I recommend using course salt to rim the glass as opposed to sugar. Also, using Grenadine is optional. It doesn’t make that much difference.
Whether or not you like your margaritas chilled is also very much a preference. You’ll notice the little pumpkin ice in my pics. I live in SoCal, it’s always hot. We like chilled drinks, but to each their own.
Sorry for venting earlier, obviously I need another drink. Big party weekend. Please don’t drink and drive. Be safe out there.
Yes, I used Keebler Graham ready crust cups and Jello brand pudding. If you want to do it from scratch, knock yourself out. I got a B52s/Devo concert to get to. For all the rest of my lazy friends and all the working moms out there, here’s how it’s done…
Steps:
â—‡First mix 2 drops of green food coloring in the vanilla pudding and mix well. â—‡Spoon green vanilla pudding into graham cracker ready crust cups. â—‡Add 4-6 drops of green food coloring in the whipped cream and mix well. â—‡Add green whipped cream on top of vanilla pudding. â—‡Pop in fridge or freezer for 60 mins. â—‡Decorate with sprinkles or candies or whatever you want.
Okay, 60 mins might not have been enough time to freeze. They still look cute! think the kids are gonna love this one.
Happy Friday! Tonight’s Friday Fright Nightcaps is a Haunted Lagoon. It’s like a Blue Lagoon but it’s missing the lemonade. Perfect drink when you have the blues.
Haunted Lagoon
Ingredients: 1 oz. Blue Curacao 1.5 oz. vodka 1 oz. cranberry juice .5 oz. grenadine syrup .5 oz. sparkling water (opt for fizzy)
Mix ingredients well. Garnish with Maraschino cherries or fresh fruit. Serve chilled.
This electric blue cocktail is a super cool drink for parties, and it’s highly adaptable, only as sweet as you make it. You could even add the lemonade back in. It might turn a little less blue, but still really yummy!
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.
Out of the oven, it started out okay.
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.
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 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.
Ghastly Spritzer
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!
Happy October! It’s been a busy summer. I admit that keeping up with a blog this year has been challenging. On one hand I love it, I love sharing Halloween haiku and other spooky stuff, but truth is I simply don’t have the time to blog like I used to.
I did make time to visit Disneyland recently for some Fall fun.
I also know times are tough and depressing. It’s not going to get better anytime soon, we need Halloween! We need to celebrate our culture and traditions more than ever and we need to make new memories! Good memories! You never know when that may be the only thing you have. So after careful consideration, I will again be celebrating all 31 days of Halloween this year.
There will be two themes this month, Haunted Halloween and Halloween Happy. Americans are a haunted people, but we all deserve life. Halloween is for everyone. Full stop. The holiday combines both ancient pagan and religious ceremonies. The original purpose was to chase away the demons and bad ghosts that crossed over the spirit realm because of the thin veil between the living and the spirit world.
Don’t let anyone tell you how to do Halloween. Decorate or not. Wear a costume or not. We can be scary and sweet. We can be spooky and cute. Let the teenagers trick or treat. Kids collecting candy are too occupied to do anything else. I truly believe Halloween makes people happy. It’s about community. We need our communities more than ever. It’s the only thing that can save America now.
Be sure to check back every day this October for cool, fun, and inspirational Halloween, horror, and haiku.
HALLOWEEN SCHEDULE 2025
Monday Macabre
Every Monday, I’ll be posting a brand new Halloween Haiku, honoring the theme of Haunted Halloween.
Trick or Treat Tuesdays
Check in on Tuesdays for some online fun. I’ve got treats and I’ve got tricks.
Wicked Art Wednesdays
Every Wednesday, I’ll showcase the amazing and unique talents of Halloween artists from around the globe.
Timeless Thursdays
Every Thursday, let’s travel back in time and revisit some of the greatest Halloween music ever made on the corporeal plane.
Friday Fright Nightcaps
Bubble bubble, drink away trouble, it’s the return of Friday Fright Nightcaps!
Sinister Saturdays
Decadent desserts from the darkside. I’m not much of a cook, so this could get truly evil.
Spooky Sundays
Spooky Sundays are for reading, relaxing, and recharging our brooms.
Halloween Horror Haiku 
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