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Posts with tag trick

Spooky sweets from Moonstruck

Moonstruck Chocolate Co. usually focuses on making some of the most beautiful confections that you're likely to see, with creation designs and precision artistry, but for Halloween, they do something a little different. In the spirit of the season, some of their seasonal offerings look more scary than sophisticated, which we love because it seems a little more appropriate for the holiday. The Halloween Horror Pizza is milk chocolate topped with a chocolate truffle eyeball and some gummy goodies that you wouldn't expect to find on any pizza. The Ivory Skull and Wormy Jack are both filled with gummy candies to give anyone who bites into the chocolate a Halloween trick, as well as a treat.

If you can't make up your mind as to which one you want, you can order a combo pack that contains one of each.

What to avoid giving out for Halloween

If, for some reason, you aren't familiar with the practice of giving candy out to costumed children on Halloween, you might want to take a look at the guide put together by Stuff Magazine explaining the best and worst things to give out. Eager trick or treaters look forward to participating in the ritual every year and we wouldn't want to disappoint them. The worst "treats" include:
  • Apples -- They're tasty, but they're not candy. They're "disappointing as hell for a little kid expecting a Snickers."
  • Marshmallows -- Yes, they're candy, but they don't usually come individually wrapped -- a must for Halloween treats.
  • A bag of pennies -- "It's like giving away a gift certificate for a piece of gum." Save up all those pennies and buy a bag of the real thing.
  • Smarties -- The U.S. Smarties are chalky and kids don't even seem to enjoy them, despite the fact that they sometimes eat them on the grounds that they still constitute candy. Try to get U.K. Smarties (similar to M&M's) or avoid the candy mixes that include these.
  • Anything homemade -- "This one is alright if you only give them to kids with neglectful parents." Any responsible parent is going to dump something unwrapped as fast as possible. Save your energy.
  • Raisins -- "People generally give them out under the pretense that they want to make kids healthier. In reality, they give them out because they hate fun." The boxed raisins never taste all that fresh anyway.

The best options would include "anything made by a real candy company," preferably king-sized versions.

After all, any resulting cavities aren't going to end up on your dental bill.

[Thanks, Patrick]

Hershey's Kisses for Halloween

The house that gave out Hershey's Kisses on Halloween was inevitably considered to be the "cheap" house, the one that wouldn't spend the extra dollar to upgrade from the tiny chocolates to miniature candy bars. As Hershey's developed lots of tasty new varieties, the prospect of getting Kisses began to seem a little more palatable to candy-hungry kids. Hershey's new Costume Kisses are something that just about any chocolate-lover (kid or not) would want to get for Halloween. Sold in sets of two, the chocolates are decorated by hand and packed up in an attractive gift box.

At the moment, they only appear to be available on the online Hershey's store and, because they are hand-crafted, they might not make it into retail stores. They're still plenty of time to order them and, though you might want to keep them for yourself, think how popular you'll be with the neighborhood kids if you gave these away to trick-or-treaters!

[via Candy Addict]

How to line a cake pan

It is a relatively simple matter to grease and flour a cake pan. Jus spray it with cooking spray (rub with butter), sprinkle some flour on top, turning the pan to coat it evenly, and you're ready to go. Lining a cake pan with parchment paper can pose a problem for some, especially if you try to draw a circle out on the paper and ever-so-carefully cut around it because it is easy to screw up, not to mention that it is tedious work. Fortunately, there is a simple way to get a piece of paper to fit exactly inside of the circular pan. It's as easy as following the photos above and will take no longer than reading this post:

  1. Take a piece of parchment paper larger than your pan and fold it into quarters. Fold that piece in half, then in half again until it is quite slim.
  2. Place the point of the paper in the center of the upside down pan.
  3. Use scissors to cut a straight line just inside the outer edge of the pan.
  4. Unfold and place in pan, if necessary, fold back up and trim a corner to make it fit better.

Risqué butter packaging



We never said we were highbrow here at Slashfood...

Some of you may already be hip to this little trick. My father showed it to me as a young boy and, honestly, I'd sort of forgotten about it until, during a recent visit home, I came across a folded package of Land O'Lakes and realized that Dad must be passing the wisdom on to my younger brother.

For those unaware, the deal is that if you make a little flap out of the package of butter that the Native American woman is holding and then fold under the other image of the girl just so, her knees will appear in the flap and, well, you get the idea.

Warning: the following page contains graphic images of illustrated knees. Possibly NSFW.

Continue reading Risqué butter packaging

Potato Tips, Tricks and Recipes

Kate, the Accidental Hedonist, may have compiled the most comprehensive list of potato tips, tricks and how-to's that has been seen on a food blog, if not in other forms of media. Any question you had relating to potatoes can certainly be found on the list, which includes such tips as:

  • Choose potatoes that are firm, smooth and fairly clean
  • Storing potatoes below 40 degrees F will allow the potatoes to have a sweeter taste, yet will result in a darker look when cooked
  • Oiling the skin of a baked potato prior to placing in the oven will ensure a crispy skin.
  • Russet potatoes are best for baking.

The only things Kate has not included are potato recipes, but a few other blogs (including Slashfood) can step in to fill that void:

Tip of the Day

A jar of honey can become a sticky mess. Next time you're adding honey to another dish or a mug of tea, use a honey dipper to prevent a thick gooey layer from spreading.

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