Halloween Contest: Recipes

My daughter's birthday falls around Halloween. Since little girls love to play dress-up in all sorts of costumes, her celebrations easily evolved into Halloween themes. Everything from decorations to music and from games to food revolved around the spooky, silly, or just plain gross-out fun of the Halloween season.

I pondered the Halloween birthday cake issue. Did she really need a cake when six year old kids just eat off the topping? A-ha! Topping! That was it! I began playing with whipped cream - my daughter's favorite topping for everything - and "Mud and Muck" was born!

Mud and Muck (makes 8 to 10 servings)

2 boxes instant chocolate pudding mix
4 cups milk
2 large tubs whipped cream
1 bag gummy worms
1 package Oreos or other chocolate crème cookie
1 small bag chocolate chips
1 bag of kids' toy spider finger rings, or
other assorted add-ins of Halloween theme (edible if under age 6 or can be toys if age 6 and up)

Step 1: Make pudding - Pour 4 cups cold milk into mixing bowl, add 2 boxes instant pudding mix. With whip, electric mixer, or rotary beater, beat at slow speed to blend for about 2 minutes. The best part of this is that instant puddings are no-bake pudding mixes, so the kids can help make this. "Mud and Muck" is a great kid's recipe. No one will get burned.

Step 2: Using spatula, gently fold 2 large tubs whipped cream into the blended pudding and milk mixture until chocolate and cream are blended as one nice light brown color. This is now "mud." Kids love pretending the food is not food at all. Making this recipe along with the children is fun for everyone.

Step 3: Sprinkle ½ the bag of chocolate chips into the mixture and gently fold. These are "rocks." Pour this mud mixture into a 9 x 13 baking dish. Cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Step 4: While mud mixture is in refrigerator, put ½ the package of Oreo cookies on a cutting board. Place a clean hand towel over them and crush them with a hammer or meat tenderizing mallet; if you have Ziploc bags, put the cookies in a bag and crush them; if you have a blender or food processor, use those appliances to crush the cookies. This is the dirt "muck."

Step 5: When ready to serve, remove mud from refrigerator. Generously sprinkle the dirt muck around the edge of the mud creating a mucky edge along the mud dish inside rim. Sprinkle the remaining rocks and dirt muck randomly all over the middle area, making into "Mud and Muck."

Step 6: For the final touch of Halloween, arrange gummy worms and spider rings randomly poking-out and squirming about the surface of the "Mud and Muck." Spoon into clear dessert cups so, everyone can see all the elements in 'Mud and Muck."

Remember it's Halloween, so gross comments about your dessert are complimentary!

My daughter will turn twenty-four this October. By her request, I will make her annual Halloween recipe of "Mud and Muck." She learned long ago to carefully spoon through the muck just in case there's a surprise eyeball or toe in it. "Trick or Treat!"

Writer's note: Mud and Muck is my own variation on the classic Dirt Cup recipe found on many websites.
Two of my favorite online recipe resources are included at left.