Halloween Treats

The American Heart Association will be having a Halloween bake sale at work and I decided to bake some treats. This easy never-fail fudge recipe is a staple at our house during the holidays. Sarah's friends will come over and sit with the tin of fudge on their laps.

Easy Fudge

3/4 cup margarine or butter

3 cups sugar

2/3 cup evaporated milk

1 pkg (12 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 jar ( 7 oz) jet puffed marshmallow creme

1 tsp. vanilla essence

1. Butter a 13 x 9 inch glass pan.

2. Put sugar, milk and butter into a heavy saucepan and cook over a medium heat; stirring constantly.

3. When mixture comes to a gentle rolling boil; cook for an additional 5 minutes.

4. Remove saucepan from heat. Stir in chocolate chips until completely dissolved.

5. Add marshmallow creme and mix thoroughly.

6. Pour into prepared pan and set aside to cool. I usually will let the fudge set overnight before cutting into squares.

This bundt cake is a new recipe I tried out. It is a very moist cake that is wonderful with tea or coffee.

Milk Chocolate Bundt Cake

1 milk chocolate candy bar (7 oz.) broken into pieces

1/2 cup chocolate syrup

1 cup butter, softened

4 eggs, at room temperature

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup buttermilk

1. In a heavy saucepan melt the candy bar pieces with the chocolate syrup; stirring constantly until smooth. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

2. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

3. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.

4. Stir in chocolate mixture and vanilla.

5. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Add to creamed mixture alternately with milk, starting and ending with the flour.

6. Pour into a greased and floured 10-inch fluted tube or bundt pan. Bake at 350 deg. for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 15 minutes in pan before removing and cooling on a wire rack.

7. When cake is completely cool decorate with powdered sugar or a chocolate glaze. I did a Sandra Lee and used two tablespoons of canned fudge frosting that I melted over low heat and then drizzled over the cake. When the drizzle was almost set I mixed about two heaping tablespoons of powdered sugar with enough milk to make a glaze. I colored this with orange coloring, put it into a sandwich bag, cut a tiny piece of the tip and drizzled the orange glaze over the chocolate one.

Note: I used Hershey's milk chocolate bar for this recipe. And when you eat this cake you can actually get a subtle underlying flavor of the chocolate bar! (Since this is a new recipe I put a little batter in a ramekin and baked that for a taste ... yummy).