Halloween Headquarters – Black Cats on Vanilla Cupcakes & Halloween Glamour at The Wedding Cake Shoppe

Okay, so I’m a wee bit freaked out about the power zapping out so this will have to be short.  Sandy is currently howling outside my house (it sounds like ocean waves are crashing as I type.  Lovely.) and it’s time for bed!  I took these photos over the weekend and it would be a shame not to post them with Halloween just two days away though, so here is The Wedding Cake Shoppe decked out in black, bats, skulls, and Halloween cake and cupcake glamour!  If you can (or just plain willing to) brave the bad weather (er, anything for cupcakes for us crazy cupcake lovers, right?!), grab the special Halloween vanilla bean buttercream cupcake with the adorable black cat topper!  The Wedding Cake Shoppe is closed on Tuesdays though, so make the trip on Halloween on Wednesday if you want in on the treats!

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The Wedding Cake Shoppe is located at 859 College Street, just west of Ossington Ave.  They are open 6 days a week (closed on Tuesdays) and their weekday hours are from 11am-7pm, weekend hours from 11am-5pm.  You can check out their official website here, and follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

Witches Fingers & Bat Wings – Have a Delicious, Boo-Tastic Halloween with Toronto’s Halloween Food Events!

Pumpkin-Spiced Whoopie Pies with Ginger Cream! This and more Halloween recipes on kraftcanada.com! Recipe tested by Kraft Kitchens Pat Moynihan-Morris and photographed by me.

Get those ghostly, ghastly costumes and Frankenstein-like appetites revved up because in exactly one week we’ll be celebrating the day of candy, treats, trick-or-treating, and all things scary, spooky, and boo-tastic!  Even though Halloween isn’t necessarily known for being food-centric the way Christmas or Thanksgiving is (yes, we like our chocolates and candies, but let’s face it: IT’S NOT A MEAL), the essence and theme of Halloween is the inspiration behind Kraft Canada’s Halloween Recipe Centre with sweet, savoury, and ghoulishly fun Halloween recipes (hey, I work here, I can’t talk Halloween without promoting this!) and Toronto’s many special Halloween food events such as Halloween cookie and cupcake decorating, a Devilicious restaurant event in one of the city’s most party-hearty neighbourhoods, Halloween-inspired menus, and a mish-mash of fall and Halloween all rolled into one.  If you love Halloween and food, you just might want to check out some of these events happening in the city:

Cupcakes!

Devilicious Ghoulinary Dining Tour in Church-Wellesley Village, October 24 – 31.  Church-Wellesley Village near the intersection of Church & Maitland Street at participating restaurant locations in the neighbourhood.  Prices vary depending on restaurant menus but many are price fixe and multiple course meals.  In conjunction with the annual Halloween Church-Wellesley block party on Halloween night, Devilicious celebrates the sinfully delicious restaurant menus and dishes at some of the neighbourhood’s most popular haunts.

Restaurants such as Cafe California, Sambucas, and O’Grady’s Tap & Grill on Church among various others are dishing out “Halloweek” menus that will leave you bloodthirsty for more!  Feast on fall favourites such as maple pumpkin cheesecake and curried butternut squash and sweet yam soup from Cafe California during the day and when the sun goes down and your hungry fangs come out?  Satiate the appetite with baked potato “dead skins”, deep fried pickle “witch fingers”, hell’s lasagna, and blood red velvet cheesecake from O’Grady’s!  http://www.churchwellesleyvillage.ca/stayandplay-detail.php?sub=16&id=23, http://www.toronto.com/article/748067–spooky-spots-to-eat-for-halloween

Halloween at Vagabondo, October 25-31.  32 Wellington Street.  3-course price fixe menu and Halloween drinks and bar promotions during Halloween week.  1/2 price appetizers on the 31st!  http://www.vagabondo.ca/main/halloween-vagabondo

Introduction to Cupcake Decorating: Halloween Edition at Le Dolci, October 26.  1pm-3pm.  1006 Dundas Street West.  $80 +HST/person.  Get the creative juices and sweet teeth going as you decorate a dozen delicious vanilla cupcakes to take home among like-minded icing sugar queens and kings!  Use fondant, buttercream frosting, and special cutters and professional tools to create flowers, animals, swirls, and whatever your heart desires!  Halloween is just around the corner so think pumpkins, witch hats, black cats, Halloween candy, and even costumes if you like!  http://www.ledolci.com/class-schedule/

Jubilee Queen Cruises Halloween Cruise & Finger Food Party, October 26 & 27.  7pm-12:30am (7pm boarding time, 8pm departure, 12am dock).  539 Queens Quay West.  $49.95/person.  Tour the dark and haunting waters of Toronto’s harbourfront with this ghoulishly fun Halloween cruise and food party!  Take to Jubilee’s “boneyard” and nosh on “salty bones” breadsticks, bat wings with swamp slime (chicken wings with avocado-lime chipotle sauce), gnarled witches fingers with bleeding heart dip (chicken tenders with blood orange sauce), devilish desserts, and so much more!http://www.jubileequeencruises.ca/toronto-halloween-cruise-event.htm,  http://www.jubileequeencruises.ca/halloween_finger_foods_menu.htm

Mummy Cookie Balls! Kraft Canada recipe. Tested by Kraft Kitchens Pat Moynihan-Morris, photographed by me.

1st Annual Foodies on Foot Haunted Halloween Ghost Tour and Finger Foodie Party, October 27.  6pm haunted ghost walk, 8pm spooktacular finger foodie party.  Ghost tour takes place in the Distillery District to the Hockey Hall of Fame.  Finger food party to take place at Foodies on Foot Studio at 75 Portland Street.  $65 membership, limited availability.  Call 416-826-1997 to check availability.  http://foodiesonfoot.ca/haunted-halloween-ghost-tour-and-cocktail-party/halloween-tour-and-finger-foodie-party/

Boo at the Barns at Wychwood Barns, October 27.  5pm-9pm.  76 Wychwood Ave. at Artscape Wychwood Barns just off of St. Clair Ave. West, east of Christie St. and west of Bathurst St.  FREE admission, food and drink tickets available for purchase on-site ($1 each or 12 for $10).  Games, pumpkins, costumes, dance, food, and more – it’s a Halloween celebration like no other!  Fill up more than just a trick-or-treat candy bag as you nosh on pizza, samosas, patties, popcorn, desserts, and other treats and roast your very own pumpkin seeds and s’mores in Wychwood’s oven!   http://www.wychwoodbarnscommunity.ca/articleDetail.aspx?a=347&n=90&s=0&email=&nskin=9

Halloween Cookies for Kids with Cookie Martinez at The Depanneur, October 27.  4pm-6pm.  1033 College Street.  $30 +HST/person.  For kids ages 6-9, celebrate the fun and ghoulish Halloween festivities with cookies at The Depanneur with Cookie Martinez!  Kids will learn baking basics such as rolling out and cutting out dough, baking and safety, and decorating adorable Halloween themed cookies that they can take home after the class.  http://www.facebook.com/events/472343126131528/

Introduction to Cupcake Decorating: Halloween Edition at Le Dolci, October 27.  10am-12pm noon.  1006 Dundas Street West.  $80 +HST/person.  Get the creative juices and sweet teeth going as you decorate a dozen delicious vanilla cupcakes to take home among like-minded icing sugar queens and kings!  Use fondant, buttercream frosting, and special cutters and professional tools to create flowers, animals, swirls, and whatever your heart desires!   Halloween is just around the corner so think pumpkins, witch hats, black cats, Halloween candy, and even costumes if you like!  http://www.ledolci.com/class-schedule/

Boo-tastic Trick-or-Treat at Casa Loma, October 27 & 28.  10am-11:15am on October 27, 11:30am-1pm on October 28.  1 Austin Terrace (near Spadina Ave. and Davenport Rd.).  $20 +HST for children 4 to 9 years old, $20.55 +HST for adults.  Children must be accompanied by an adult.  Prices include admission and tour of Casa Loma.  Pre-registration is required for the event.  To book, call 647-725-1826.  A fun and festive Halloween day for the little ones!  Kids will get the opportunity to decorate 12 mini cupcakes Halloween style with frosting and sprinkles and then go on a trick-or-treating tour through the 2nd floor of the spooky castle.  Dress them from head to toe in costume and have a boo-tastic time!  http://www.casaloma.org/events.index.gk#20340

Leslieville Farmers’ Market Harvest & Halloween Celebration, October 28.  9am-2pm.  Jonathan Ashbridge Park on Queen Street East and Woodward Ave., between Greenwood and Coxwell Ave.  It’s the last market of the season for Leslieville and they’re going out with a bang!  Enjoy pumpkin carving, kids costume parade, carnival games, and plenty of food!  Feast on the Wild Boar Roast and Falafel Feast at 12pm noon with pork sandwiches ($7) and falafel sandwiches ($6).  Bring your own plate event!

Hallowe’en Headquarters – A Frosted, Sprinkled Party of Orange, White, Purple & Black at Short & Sweet Cupcakes!

Just in case your sweet tooth is begging for mercy (I’ve had my share of cookies, cupcakes, and other treats over the past several days; guilty as charged), today’s offering of treats is the last of the bunch in the Hallowe’en Headquarters series and I’m sad to see it end!  I’ve really warmed up to the cutesy header image, background colour, and colour scheme (I’m quite fond of lime green) and it’ll be bittersweet saying goodbye to it.  It was Ate by Ate’s first Hallowe’en and I’ve had so much fun being mummifying and spookifying the blog!  I wish I had another week to post more goodies (or rather, I wish I had just started earlier!), but I’m glad I got the chance to show you all at least a few yummies around the city.  If we’re bidding farewell to the haunted holiday, we’re going out with a bang – Short & Sweet cupcake style!  Like I would let Hallowe’en come and go without a visit to my favourite cupcake shop 😉

Hallowe’en was a big deal for Short & Sweet for a number of reasons.  First, it was the shop’s first major holiday celebration at the new location on Avenue Rd.  Second, Hallowe’en fell on a Monday this year and Short & Sweet doesn’t normally open for business on Mondays, so it was a crazy, whirlwind day on their part!  There are plenty of shops in the city that aren’t open 7 days a week and I can imagine what a pickle it becomes, as a business owner, when you’re faced with the dilemma of wanting to stay open for a specific holiday or occasion on the very day that you’re business is supposed to be closed.  It’s the desire for more business versus possibly being short-staffed, majorly overworked, or just not having enough resources to accomodate.

I’m biased, but I’m happy they decided to open this past Monday!  While I was drooling over Short & Sweet’s special Hallowe’en themed cupcakes and snapping away with my camera, people were picking up orders left and right and I had to tell at least 4 or 5 people who came in after me that I was not, in fact, ordering (yet) and that they were more than welcome to go ahead of me.  I was too busy gawking.  Their selection of cupcakes were all sporting a mixed flurry of frosted, sprinkled orange, white, purple, and black and everything looked so pretty and festive!  Some cupcakes had bright, rich, colourful frosting (Ice Ice Baby had a fiery orange vanilla frosting while Penguin Suit looked dapper in a gorgeous jeweltone purple with sprinkles) while others were dusted with orange, purple, black, and white sprinkles, pumpkin candy toppers, and Hallowe’en trinkets. 

I picked up one for myself (October’s Pumpkin Spice with pumpkin spice cake and cream cheese frosting) and one for my brother (the chocolate, fudgy Rich in Recession with a Hallowe’en appropriate pumpkin candy on top) and good god did my brother ever go to town with his cupcake when I brought it home for him!  Forget trick-or-treating, cupcakes are where it’s at!  My brother is a chocolate fiend and while he was stuffing his face, he managed to mumble out, “Mmm, chocolatey goodness, chocolate frosting is so good” in between mouthfuls of, well, chocolate.

And my cream cheese frosted pumpkin spice cupcake was a mixture of sweetness, tangyness, and thick creaminess, which is a defining feature of Short & Sweet’s cupcakes.  The frostings are thick and creamy and you’ll never find a frosting here that’s airy and whippy.  The cake itself had an earthy, pumpkin flavour and the nice thing about it was that it wasn’t overloaded with the spice component.  I enjoy spice combinations like cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, 5-star, anise, etc. but too much makes the pumpkin flavour taste artificial. 

I don’t know what it is about pumpkin that makes the texture of cake so different, but pumpkin cupcakes are so different from the regular vanillas and chocolates.  They’re not fluffy per se, and they’re not like muffins because muffins have more of a crumbly texture to them.  The pumpkin spice cupcake was so full of body.  You feel like you’re eating a loaf cake with frosting and it’s the type of cake you can envision yourself having as a morning breakfast snack, or taking out of your oven in a loaf pan.  I don’t mind one way or another, but if you prefer the “pillow” type of texture, the pumpkin cake probably isn’t for you.  Even though the density of it takes some getting used to, I enjoy the flavour and I’m happy I got the chance to try it! 

Hallowe’en at Short & Sweet was super fun and this whole series was a blast to do.  I hope you all liked the series, as short as it was, and had fabulous Hallowe’ens!  November is now upon us and there’s so much to look forward to.  I’m excited to churn out more Fall Harvest posts and I have a few holiday ideas up my sleeve as well!  If you have any leftover Hallowe’en sweets, enjoy them!    

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Short & Sweet Cupcakes is now located at 1945 Avenue Rd., south of Wilson Ave.  If you take public transit like me, the easiest way to get here is to get off at Wilson subway station and take the 96 bus to Avenue Rd. and walk south.  You can also get here by getting off at York Mills subway station and taking the 165 Weston Rd. North bus to Wilson Ave. and Avenue Rd. and walking south, or getting off Yorks Mills subway station and walking west to Avenue Rd. from Yonge.

Hallowe’en Headquarters – If Only Real Mummies Looked This Cute! Gingerbread & Hallowe’en Confections

BOO!  It’s Gingerbread Mummy peeking out to haunt you with his yummy frosted coated ginger cookie body and chocolate eyes!  If only real mummies were this cute.  I was “heehee”ing as I took him out of his paper bag “coffin” to snap his photos this morning (I actually wanted to pose him in a bed of crushed Oreo cookie crumbs to make it look like he was coming from the ground, but I ran out of the house this morning in a rush so alas, no crushed Oreos) and couldn’t wait to give this little guy to my boyfriend for his afternoon snack.  For the record, my boyfriend wanted to eat it for breakfast and I scoffed and told him to save it for the afternoon because he had already eaten the Hallowe’en cupcake I had also brought him.  That also had a chocolate topper on it.  Sigh.  Boys.  Anyway, he (the mummy) was too cute to do any real scaring so he was much better off being gobbled up by sweet tooths like us.

I think Hallowe’en has totally evolved from a candy-centric occasion into a full-0ut creative foodie fest.  The holiday has morphed into a foodie affair, incorporating cupcakes, cake pops, pastries, and savoury foods (Witch’s Cauldron Tortellini, anyone?) all in one and I only wish I could have planned an entire week’s worth of Hallowe’en themed foods.  Even though I didn’t get to do everything I wanted to do this year for Hallowe’en, I still had fun nevertheless.  Not only did I hit Mount Pleasant and Avenue Road yesterday, but I also paid a visit to Kensington Market to walk around (it was a really nice day out) and to take photos in my favourite bakery, My Market Bakery, and to Cabbagetown where I picked up my container of ravioli and this cute-as-button gingerbread mummy cookie at Daniel et Daniel.

I can always count on My Market Bakery to do seasonal everything and anything!  Their cookie selection is amaaaazing and they have something for every palate: fruit and nut cookies, chocolate chip, chunk, and fudge cookies, biscotti, gingerbread, tea cookies, sugar cookies, shortbread cookies, thumbprints, and others.  They had frosted pumpkins, ghosts, jack-o-lanterns, black cats, and Hallowe’en sprinkle cookies and if I hadn’t already picked up cupcakes, I would have mostly liked snatched up an orange frosted pumpkin because they were so cute and pretty. 

I was so excited to go to Daniel et Daniel later on in the day because they have some of the most gorgeous pies and tarts and I knew they would decorate and be decked out for Hallowe’en.  And I was right!  They had a ton of pastries, pies, tarts, and cakes decorated in beautiful Hallowe’en motifs, such as a lemon chiffon cake with googly eyes, a chocolate raspbery cake with smiling fruit pumpkins, and my favourite, the mixed berry fruit tart with carved fruit bats!  What totally got me though were the gingerbread mummy men! 

I LOVE gingerbread cookies.  Not the hard kind that tastes like cardboard and makes me roll my eyes because it’s so bleh, but the soft, chewy, spiced ginger molasses kind that melt in your mouth.  I love these so much.  I nosh on the ones from Tim Hortons whenever they have them and over the summer I went crazy for the ones by More Than Pies Baking Co. Ltd. at the David Pecaut Square farmers’ market.  Ginger molasses cookies are huge and round and I always break off half so I can eat half and save the other for later, but I never end up sticking to that.  I just happily eat the whole thing in one sitting.  And if we’re going to be talking about our favourite types of cookies now that the holidays are in full effect (like my friend Amanda @ Fake Ginger did yesterday), I actually like gingerbread cookies more than I like shortbread and sugar cookies.  Although I have my shortbread and sugar cookie weaknesses, I just love how gingerbread molasses look and taste with the crackling, sprinkled sugar, and spiced flavour.  And combining chocolate and icing the way Daniel et Daniel did with their Hallowe’en mummies just seals the deal.  Pun totally intended.

Oh cookies, how we love thee.  I saw so many amazing cookies when I was out yesterday and I had to mentally tie my hands together because I wanted to take home one of everything I saw.  I was a good girl though and I only brought home 2 cupcakes (another one for myself and one for my brother), this gingerbread mummy, and some stuffed ravioli to share with the fam for dinner.  I know, the stuffed ravioli has nothing to do with Hallowe’en (unless of course you count the fact the ravioli was covered in yummy orange sauce with chives), but the cookies certainly do!  And I know I was being a nice girlfriend by getting the gingerbread mummy for my boyfriend (because he loves gingerbread too), I really wish I had gotten one for myself now.  Sigh.  Like eating two Hallowe’en cupcakes wasn’t enough yesterday, right?

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My Market Bakery is located at 184 Baldwin St. in Kensington Market.  The bakery is located west of Spadina Ave. and south of Nassau St.  Daniel et Daniel is a gourmet food shop in Cabbagetown that does event catering.  They are located at 248 Carlton St. near the intersection of Carlton and Parliament St.

Hallowe’en Headquarters – A Spooky & Sweet Cupcake Lover’s Paradise! Lollicakes on Mount Pleasant Road

Happy Hallowe’en everyone!  I hope everyone’s had a freakishly fun weekend and Hallowe’en day so far!  My Hallowe’en was spent snapping a gazillion photos for the blog today and looking at some of the cutest Hallowe’en treats and paraphernalia!  I may hop around the city on a regular basis, but I don’t think I’ve jumped on and off the subway and streetcar as much as I did today.  I was all over town hitting up some of my favourite places to capture the once-a-year occasion in all its orange-and-black glory.  I promised you all treats for tonight, so I’m here to deliver a nice helping of Hallowe’en posts, just in case you didn’t already fill up on sweet treats!  Kind of like the giddy emptying of a trick-or-treat bag 😀  Let’s get started!

Up first: Hallowe’en at Lollicakes!  Lollicakes is a cupcake bakery and merchandise retail shop located in uptown Toronto on Mount Pleasant Rd. just north of Davisville Ave.  If you’re the type of person who squeals over cupcakeries and the design and retail concept of “the cupcakery”, you will go bananas over Lollicakes because this shop is EVERYTHING CUPCAKE and more!  Do you like to collect cupcake related things?  Is your house or apartment adorned with cute cupcake kitchen tools, accessories, candles, photos, and recipe books?  Does the thought of outfitting your kitchen or room in true cupcake fashion make your heart flutter?  If you said yes to even one of those, you need to come here.  It is a cupcake haven.  Or heaven.  Or both.

Not only does Lollicakes sell fresh baked cupcakes on a daily basis, but they also sell all of the following: cupcake recipe books, wrappers, toppers, stands, trinket boxes, backpacks, makeup bags, picture frames, aprons, oven mitts, wallets, luggage tags, notepads, clipboards, paper stationery, cards, and cupcake and cookie baking tools and equipment.  You can pick your jaw up from off the floor now – it’s a cupcake dream come true.

Hallowe’en is awesome here at Lollicakes.  They have so many cute Hallowe’en related baking accessories and of course, Hallowe’en themed cupcakes and trinkets.  They have pumpkin trinket boxes, Hallowe’en cookie cutters, treat bags, and lots of sweet eats.  By the cash and counter today they had buckets and baskets of frosted cookies decorated like ghosts and jack-o-lanterns, chocolate covered R.I.P. treats on a stick, and plenty of frosted regular and mini cupcakes with Hallowe’en chocolate toppers and sprinkles!  Regular cupcakes are priced at $3 and mini ones come in at $2.  Granted, prices are higher if they come with the giant chocolate toppers, but if we’re talking about base price, those are the prices we’re working with.  This puts Lollicakes in the mid-to-higher range among other cupcakeries in the city.  The low-end (price-wise, not quality!) is around $2.50 and the high-end is about $3.25-$3.50.

Lollicakes is also the type of cupcakery that focus more on the asthetics than on flavour menus.  Every cupcake lover has their preferences.  Some love having 20 different flavours of cake and frosting to choose from while others find that type of system way too fussy and prefer having simple vanilla and chocolate cupcakes that are prettily decorated.  For the record though, Lollicakes does vanilla and chocolate cake and frosting, period.  Their vanilla buttercream frosting comes in a rainbow of colours and their cupcakes are often decorated with different kinds of sprinkles and sometimes fancy chocolate toppers.  For Hallowe’en, they had vanilla and chocolate cupcakes with orange, purple, and bright monster lime green frosting with colour coordinate sprinkles, as well as a cute silver tray of cupcakes with the Hallowe’en chocolate toppers already on them.  Eyeballs, skulls, skeleton hands, spiders and cobwebs, witches’ fingers, the whole shebang!  

My parents (and probably some friends) would be over the moon about Lollicakes because their cupcake confections are not too sweet.  If you’re the type of person who enjoys the idea of cupcakes but shudders at the thought of sickly sweet frosting and/or cake, you would most definitely breathe a sigh of relief when eating these because the sweetness level is a little lower.  With Lollicakes’ cupcakes, think fluffy.  Don’t think dense.  The frosting is thick but with a fluffy texture to it.  The vanilla flavour is subtly sweet and you don’t get any of the “butter” taste which is a good thing in my opinion.  The cake is incredibly soft.  If you prefer a denser cake, these probably aren’t for you but if you “mmm” at the thought of pillow-soft, airy fluffiness, these fit the bill.  I think a lot of cupcake devotees will either love them or hate them.  If you enjoy sugary sweetness with thickness and density and heavy vanilla flavour, you won’t enjoy these.  However, if you’re like my parents and can’t stand that type of texture and strength in sweetness, these are more your speed.

One of the things I really adore about Lollicakes shop is how it isn’t age-specific.  Even though they have cute, kid-friendly items, it’s the type of shop that doesn’t alienate its older cilentele.  There’s something for every type of cupcake lover here: the collector, the interior decorator, the beginner, everyone.  You can find cupcake items in other stores, but to have an entire shop dedicated to cupcake things alone in this capacity with this type of selection is rare.  They have items here I’ve never seen at other places and I think it functions as a fabulous gift shop for birthdays and holidays.  Part of me whimpers every time I leave the shop though because everything is so darn cute and in my opinion, perfect for my own house.  One of these days I’m going to end up living in a house just like Hansel and Gretel and then I’ll really be in trouble.

 

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Lollicakes is located at 559 Mount Pleasant Rd. just north of Davisville Ave.

Hallowe’en Kitties, Cupcakes, Pumpkins, and All Things Ghoulish – Hallowe’en Headquarters on Ate by Ate!

Whether you’ve been costuming and partying it up over the weekend, decorating your home with all things ghostly and ghoulish, or preparing your children’s costumes and trick-or-treat bags, tomorrow is the BIG DAY.  The day we light up and put our carved pumpkins out on the porch or windowsill (if you haven’t already), dress up in a cute/scary/disgusting costume, and fall into sugar comas.  Cupcakes, cookies, chocolates, finger foods – it’s Hallowe’en, we’re allowed.  I have so many friends who absolutely adore Hallowe’en and even though I haven’t dressed up in years (I know, tsk, tsk on me), I get really excited about the occasion nevertheless. 

My best friend is celebrating Hallowe’en with her kindergarten kids and I can’t wait to eventually see photos of her two classes dressed up like a box of crayons!  All her little ones are set to dress in different colours and shades and they’ll have Crayola “sashes” to wear in the front and party hats to represent their crayon “tips”.  I told her that if I was in any way a part of the class, I would come as a green crayon (I can actually dress in green from head to toe – no lie) and construct a crayon cardbox “box” for the kids to stand in for a group picture.  I can’t get over how cute the idea is!  Hallowe’en is just pure fun and c’mon, we all have memories of Hallowe’ens past that we can reminisce about.

My favourite Hallowe’en memories: 1) the year my aunt made my witch costume from scratch, 2) discovering a full-out foodie Hallowe’en party at the The Cookbook Store in Yorkville 2 years ago, and 3) working at Claire’s 4 years ago and going through all the adorable Hallowe’en merchandise (and yes, picking up a few things for myself) and helping others find accessories for their costumes.  I can’t tell you how many times people asked for things like suspenders and hats! 

The sweetest Hallowe’en memory that I have though involves a trick-or-treating adventure my brother and I had when he was 9 and when I was 14.  I took him out for candy-hunting and as we were about to wrap up our night, we went to one last house with their lights on.  The door opened and a teeny girl in a fairy costume stood before us with her daddy.  Her daddy apologetically told us that they were out of candy and my brother and I told him it was okay and thanked him.  As we were about to turn away, the little girl reached into her own trick-or-treat basket and began to pull out some treats.  Taken aback I exclaimed, “oh my gosh, no!  It’s okay!”  to which her daddy replied, “no, no, let her, she wants to!”  She gingerly pulled out some shiny stickers and a candy for each us and put them in my brother’s bag.  I honestly wanted to cry because it was so damn cute and sweet and utterly selfless.  I can’t imagine how proud her daddy must have felt in that moment, seeing his daughter share her wealth the way she did.  It’s been 12 years and I remember it like it was yesterday.

I can’t wait to go crazy tomorrow and post up a Hallowe’en storm.  I’ll be honest, I should have had Hallowe’en Headquarters up and running a week ago but I just wasn’t prepared enough.  I’m bummed that I wasn’t able to get any Hallowe’en baking done to show you all or to do any scrapbooking beforehand, but that’s how it rolls sometimes.  I’ll have all my treats for you tomorrow and if I can’t squeeze everything in, we’ll have ourselves a belated Hallowe’en afterparty.  I leave you with some treat photos I took last year and my beloved Hallowe’en “kitties”.  Have a spooktacular Hallwe’en, everyone!

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Photos taken from Whole Foods Market, Half-Baked Ideas, and Lollicakes in Toronto.