Creepy Crawly Party Food

*Scroll down for recipes!*

My older son just turned three and I wanted to make him this delicious chocolate cake I found as I was looking for book-related recipes. The cake is Bruce Bogtrotter's cake from Roald Dahl's Matilda, as it appears in the Revolting Recipes cookbook. The Bruce Bogtrotter chapter in Matilda is one of my favourite pieces of literature, it's so cleverly written, you read it with bated breath even the tenth time. I was imagining a Little Chefs session, where we prepare the cake and read the chapter - but for this we have to wait for the Little Chefs to get a bit older. At this age some of them (certainly mine) are only calibered to sit through The Very Hungry Caterpillar, just about. But in any case, I've tried the recipe, and can safely say it's the best chocolate cake ever. And of course, only the best for my boy! So this was going to be his birthday cake, but I also wanted a theme, and this is how I got to....

...spiders! It's a round and dark brown cake, so I though two of these - one larger than the other - eight legs and some round eyes would make a pretty spider. So near Halloween a purely spider themed party would have been a bit confusing, so I chose to expand to all sorts of creepy crawlies. My husband and I spent the nights leading up to the party drawing decorative bugs (see pics below), I bought some sticky slugs in WH Smith, baked bug shaped cupcakes (Orange and Carrot, Chocolate, and Banana and Pecan), topped sandwiches with ladybirds, prepared caterpillar grape skewers, and asked everyone to come in creepy crawly costume. 

I also drew lots of butterflies that the guests could colour in and organised a spider hunt: hid a bunch of plastic spiders in my sons' bedroom and the kid who found the most spiders won a handful of... spiders. They did really well, but we still find the occasional little black friend in the sock drawer or under the cot mattress.

To make the bug shaped cupcakes you need this mould. I realise it's not a kitchen essential, but with two boys who love bugs it keeps on giving... for the party I even bought a second one, they're only £4. It took a few practice rounds to work out recipes which ensure the cake comes out easily from the mould. Also I would recommend to let them cool before you pop out the cakes, and do it gently, holding the mould with the cake holes down, over a plate, letting gravity help you out.

Of course, you can make the cupcakes without the mould, in a traditional 12-hole muffin tray, and decorate them with an icing pen.

Spider Chocolate Cake

Ingredients for 20 cm cake tin. (If you're making a spider, this will be the cephalothorax and you'll need to bake a 24 cm cake for the abdomen. For the latter, multiply each ingredient with 1.5 and increase baking time to 1 hour 10 minutes. Also double the ingredients for the ganache.)

225 g dark chocolate (about 50% cocoa solids is fine)

175 g unsalted butter

225 g caster sugar

4 tbsp plain flour

6 eggs

Ganache:

225 g dark chocolate

225 ml double cream

Spider legs: 

8 cocktail sticks

Eyes:

White chocolate buttons

Method

- preheat oven to 170'C/fan 150'C

- grease and dust with flour a 20 cm cake tin

- melt chocolate and butter together in a pan, then allow to cool slightly and pour into a large bowl

- separate the eggs

- mix yolks, caster sugar and flour in another bowl

- stir egg mixture into chocolate

- whisk the egg whites till stiff peaks form

- gently fold half of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture, then fold the other half in just about, no problem if little bits of egg white are showing

- bake for 40 minutes, or until skewer comes out more or less clean

- while it's baking, make the chocolate ganache: melt together the chocolate and the cream in a bowl over simmering water

- then make the spider legs: break the cocktail stick in two places, making sure they stay connected, and dip them in the chocolate ganache. Hold the sticks by the tip, so there will be about a cm that's not covered in chocolate. Line a tray with baking paper, and leave the legs on it to dry

- when the cake is ready, leave it in the oven with the door open for a few minutes, then allow to cool on a rack

- when it's completely cool, carefully take it out of the tin - it will probably be slightly cracked or sunk on top, but no problem - and turn it upside down. This way you'll have a lovely smooth surface on top, and nobody will ever know how the other side looks

- cut the cake into two layers with a large serrated knife (bread knife) and spread a few spoonfuls of ganache on top of the lower half. Don't worry if the middle of the cake seems slightly uncooked - this is how it should be.

- place the top layer back and cover the whole cake with ganache - it won't be completely smooth, it should be smothered in chocolate, which makes it irresistible

- if you're making the two-cake spider, cover a large sturdy piece of cardboard, or a tray with baking paper, and carefully place both cakes on it, right next to each other

- then stick the legs into the smaller cake - with clean tip first, and try to touch the chocolate covered part as little as possible, as it will come off - four on each side. If you have any ganache left - and you should, unless you've eaten it - retouch the legs if necessary

- place 4 white chocolate buttons on the front of the smaller cake for eyes

- if you have it in you, you can draw spider webs on the baking paper with the ganache in a piping bag - this may be more suitable if you're going for the scary spider look

Bug shaped Cupcakes (aka Bugcakes)

Carrot and Orange Bugcakes

Ingredients for 16 bugs

100 g unsalted butter

150 g light brown sugar

2 eggs

200 g grated carrots

150 g self raising flour

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cloves

juice of 1 orange

Method

- preheat oven to 180'C/fan 160'C
- put the butter into the preheating oven to soften
- mix butter and sugar with a spoon, add eggs one at a time, and then stir in grated carrots
- mix flour with cinnamon and cloves
- stir flour into the carrot mixture, until just combined, leaving some bubbles of flour
- spoon into cake mould (this amount makes 2 trays of bugs)
- place a rack on the bottom of the oven, put mould on it and bake for 25 minutes, until skewer comes out clean
- poke each cake a few times, and spoon over orange juice
- wait for the cakes to cool completely, then turn mould upside down over a plate and gently ease the cakes out of the mould

Chocolate Bugcakes

Ingredients for 24 bugs

200 g unsalted butter
200 g dark brown sugar
200 g dark chocolate (50% cocoa solids is fine)
100 ml hot water
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
200 g self raising flour

Method

- preheat oven to 160'C/fan 140'C
- in a pan on low heat, melt together butter, sugar, chocolate with the hot water, then allow to cool slightly
- mix eggs with vanilla, then stir into chocolate mixture
- place the flour into a big bowl, then stir in chocolate mixture just about, leaving some flour bubbles
- spoon the mixture into the mould (this amount makes 3 trays of bugs)
- place a rack on the bottom of the oven, put mould on it and bake for 20 minutes, until skewer comes out clean
- wait for the cakes to cool completely, then turn mould upside down over a plate and gently ease the cakes out of the mould

Banana and Pecan Bugcakes

Ingredients for 16 bugs

125 ml sunflower oil
100 g light brown sugar
1 egg
4 ripe bananas, mashed with a fork
50 g pecan nuts, chopped
185 g self raising flour

Method

- preheat oven to 180'C/fan 160'C
- mix oil, sugar, egg and bananas
- stir in pecan nuts
- stir in flour, until just combined, leaving a few flour bubbles
- spoon the mixture into the mould (this amount makes 2 trays of bugs)
- place a rack on the bottom of the oven, put mould on it and bake for 20 minutes, until skewer comes out clean
- wait for the cakes to cool completely, then turn mould upside down over a plate and gently ease the cakes out of the mould

Ladybird Sandwiches

bread

butter, cheese, ham or anything else you'd like on your sandwich

cherry tomatoes

black olives

Prepare the sandwiches, then place half a cherry tomato and half an olive on top of each.

Caterpillar Grape Skewers

red and green grapes

cocktail sticks

Start with green grapes, then finish with a red grape for the head. The trick is to spear each grape at an angle and increase the angle till you reach the middle - the middle grape should be vertical - then mirror it till you reach the head. The grapes might spin around on the cocktail stick, ruining your composition, so make sure you lay the stick down flat to serve.  

Five-a-day treats: Polka dot asparagus tarts

Ok, so the tarts don't have polka dots on the photo. The point is that this recipe has the potential to have polka dots, but you might have to do the relevant bit yourself and not leave it to your toddler. The Little Chefs got a bit heavy handed with the asparagus bits, but on the plus side, the less than perfect look did not stop them from eating up all these healthy treats!

For 24 tarts

Ingredients:

250 g plain flour
125 g cold butter
1 egg yolk
Pinch of salt
Cold water

Or 250 g shop bought shortcrust pastry

300 g asparagus
300 ml double cream
2 eggs, beaten
100 g Gruyère cheese, grated

Method:

- cut the butter into cubes and mix with the flour with your fingers until it looks like breadcrumbs
- mix in pinch of salt and egg yolk until it comes together as a ball of dough - add a drop of water if necessary
- chill in the fridge for 20 minutes
- or remove packaging from ready made pastry

- preheat oven to 180'C / fan 160'C
- place paper muffin cases into the holes of two muffin trays
- roll out the pastry and cut out circles with a pastry cutter larger than the holes of the muffin tray
- place a pastry circle in each paper case and press them down so they come up at the sides and form a pastry case
- blind bake for 15 minutes

- in the meantime, steam the asparagus for 5 minutes
- puree about half of the asparagus with a stick blender
- chop the remaining asparagus into 1 cm slices
- mix the cream, cheese, eggs and asparagus puree
- spoon the mixture into the blind baked pastry cases
- place a few asparagus slices in each tart, so that the cut (round) ends face upwards
- bake for 20 minutes until golden on top

And a few tips:
- my way of blind baking the tarts was to place baking beans in paper muffin cases and put one on top of each tart - this recipe is pretty fiddly if you do it from scratch, so don't expect your toddler to be eager to participate throughout the whole process: it might be a good idea to make the dough together and then leave it in the fridge and do the filling later
- I'm not sure it's entirely necessary to blind bake: please let me know if you have experience doing it without
- the asparagus has quite a delicate taste, so it works well if you add some extra strong tasting ingredients, such as red onions or bacon - I would fry these before you add them to the filling

*The bold text in the recipe shows the steps that the Little Chefs did (with supervision).*

Egg course part 2: Egg Men

Continuing with the egg theme, and honouring the Hungarian tradition of eating your own weight in hard boiled eggs for Easter, this week we made stuffed eggs with the Little Chefs. For an egg-free version we used oatcakes and hummus.

Ingredients:

Eggs
Dijon mustard
Olive oil
Salt

To decorate
Capers
Black olives
Radishes
Chives

Method:

- boil your eggs for about 10 minutes and leave them to cool completely
- peel the eggs
- cut them in half, scoop out the yolk and place in a bowl
- mash the yolks with a fork, and add a little mustard, olive oil and salt to taste, till it's creamy (quantities depend on how many eggs you're making and how strong you like the taste, so keep tasting it, it's hard to go wrong)
- fill the mixture back into the egg whites with a bit of extra to cover most of the white surface
- turn them into faces by making eyes out of capers, glasses out of sliced black olives, mouths out of radishes and hair/beard/moustache out of chives

And a few tips:
- stick to the 10 minute cooking time, otherwise the yolks turn blue and won't look as pretty
- we used parsley instead of chives, because I couldn't find any chives in the shops, but I think chives are more versatile when it comes to the decoration, and their taste goes better with the eggs

*The bold text in the recipe shows the steps that the Little Chefs did (with supervision).*

Raw ingredients part 3: Rainbow salad

You can use all sorts of colourful vegetables, here is what went into ours:

For 6 portions

Ingredients:

3 sweet red peppers, cubed
4 carrots, grated
Tin of sweetcorn
Half an iceberg lettuce, shredded
1 cucumber, cubed
A jar of black olives, chopped in half

Dressing
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons yoghurt
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
Handful of grated parmesan

Method:

- spoon a layer of each salad ingredient into a clean jar until your jar is full of rainbow coloured vegetables: red pepper, orange carrot, yellow sweetcorn, light green lettuce, dark green cucumber and black olives
- mix the dressing ingredients and spoon some on top of the vegetables
- tip onto a plate or eat straight from the jar

And a few tips:
- we used jam jars, and there wasn't much space to stir the dressing around: you could try a larger jar and shake it a few times to get the dressing mixed in
- you'll probably have leftovers from most ingredients (except the olives if your little chefs are anything like mine): mix them with some vinaigrette for an adult salad

*The bold text in the recipe shows the steps that the Little Chefs did (with supervision).*

Pastry course part 3: Filling and rolling up - Cheese swirls

The cheese swirl recipe.

For 15 swirls

Ingredients:

Packet of ready rolled puff pastry
125 g Red Leicester, grated

Tomato sauce
Olive oil
1 onion, chopped small
2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
1 sweet red pepper, chopped small
3 tomatoes, chopped small
2 tablespoons of concentrated tomato puree
1 teaspoon of dried oregano

Method:

- prepare the tomato sauce: fry the onions on medium low heat in the olive oil till soft
- add garlic and red pepper, fry for another few minutes
- add tomatoes, tomato puree and oregano, and fry until all vegetables are soft (if it starts to burn, add a little water)
- puree with a stick blender and allow to cool
- preheat the oven to 200'C/fan oven 180'C

- roll out the puff pastry leaving it on its plastic packaging (blue if you buy the Jus-Rol pastry), it will make it easier to move it later plus no need to flour your surface
- spread the tomato sauce evenly, leaving a 1 cm rim all around
- sprinkle on the cheese evenly
- roll the pastry back up, starting at a longer end, and as tightly as possible
- lift it by the plastic sheet underneath and chill in the fridge for 10 minutes
- meanwhile, line a baking tray with baking paper
- move the chilled roll onto a chopping board and discard the plastic wrapping
- with a very sharp knife, cut the roll into 15 slices and arrange them on the baking tray, allowing them space to expand while cooking
- bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes
- allow to cool for 10 minutes before eating

And a few tips:
- leave the pastry in the fridge until you're ready to roll it out
- our swirls only had tomato sauce and cheese, but you can add many things to the filling, just make sure you've chopped them small, eg chorizo, ham, olives, sweetcorn etc - if it's too big pieces, your swirls will fall apart
- if your extra fillings need cooking, like pancetta or courgettes, cook them with the sauce, otherwise just sprinkle them on before you sprinkle the cheese
- I make these sometimes when we go travelling, as they're filling and easy to hold, even for my baby
  
*The bold text in the recipe shows the steps that the Little Chefs did (with supervision).*