Scary bakes, ghoulish cakes

Give your Halloween party a dash of style

Severed fingers

These cookies look super life-like and can be made more spooky if you paint some red food colouring around the base of each finger after baking. You could also put candy rings on the fingers and paint the fingernails in assorted (edible) colours. Makes about 24

125g butter, soft

25g caster sugar

100g icing sugar

2 egg yolks

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

275g plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

a pinch of salt

20 whole almonds, halved (this allows for breakages)

You will need a baking sheet, lined with nonstick baking parchment. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees/gas 4. Put the butter and both sugars in a mixing bowl and cream until pale and light Ÿ 3-4 minutes. Add the egg yolks and vanilla extract and mix until combined. Add the flour, baking powder and salt and mix again until smooth.

Break off small balls of dough and roll between your hands to make sausage shapes. Roll them no thicker than your own fingers. A good way to get a realistic finger effect is to splay your fingers when you roll your hand over the sausage of dough Ÿ you should get a bumpy outline to represent knuckles. Arrange on the prepared baking sheet.

Press half an almond, flat side up, onto the end of each finger as a fingernail and use a round-bladed knife to mark ridges on each knuckle bone. Bake in batches on the middle shelf of the preheated oven for about 12 minutes until pale golden and firm. Allow to cool on the baking sheet for two to three minutes before transferring to a wire rack until cold. Serve in individual boxes for an extra spooky surprise.

Toffee apples

Look for small, preferably red-skinned apples and red lolly sticks for these fun and popular toffee apples. When you buy the ingredients for this recipe, why not get some extra apples and at your party, fill a large tub with water, tip in the apples and play bobbing for apples.

8 small apples, eg Coxüs, Jazz, Macoun or Pink Lady. Makes 8

300g caster sugar

2 tbsp golden syrup

juice of 1/2 lemon

To decorate: assorted orange, green and black sprinkles, for dipping

8 lolly sticks or wooden skewers

Wash and thoroughly dry each apple. Carefully push a lolly stick or wooden skewer into the stalk end of each apple.

Put the sugar, syrup and 150ml water in a heavy-based saucepan over low heat. Leave until the sugar has completely dissolved. Turn up the heat and simmer until the toffee turns an amber colour. Remove the pan from the heat and carefully add the lemon juice Ÿ take care as the hot toffee may splutter.