Jellied Eyeball Shots and Severed Fingers for Halloween

Well it's that time of year again: Halloween...when it's quite possible and quite acceptable to find a fly in your soup, a body part on your plate or even lumps in your custard!
Yet again I will be dusting off my broomstick and heading off to a friend’s house to celebrate. It has become somewhat of a tradition, maybe because of her Irish origins, after all Halloween did begin as a Celtic festival. It will be a pot-luck or more fitingly a 'cauldron-luck' dinner. I am making dessert. At first I wanted to make jellied eels uh I mean 'worms' but they look so disgustingly realistic I couldn't imagine anyone eating them so opted instead for Vodka shots with you've guessed... lychee eyeballs...how original-not! Definitely not for the kids! And I have decided to make severed fingers after last year’s success when I made them with bread dough ('finger food') and a cheesy spider dip. They went down so well, (not even complains about the 'fingernails' in the food) so I have decided to try the cookie dough variant, which will be served with chocolate-fondue-dirt dip (Oreo cookie crumbs sure resemble dirt) and fruit compote which with a little bit of imagination, could well be clots of blood. I have even added an extra element- dirty fingernails yuk. Oh this is going to be fun!
I must admit some of the Halloween ideas I have come across on internet look so gross I have quickly lost my appetite! While achieving the desired shock-effect they have rather gone over the top, after all food enjoyment has a lot to do with appearance. With Halloween food you need to find the balance fun-yes, scary-yes but disgusting-no. Halloween is certainly a time to let creative juices flow, but be careful not dry up digestive juices in the process! While you may think it fun to serve edible puke your guests may well be running to (YOUR!) the bathroom to vomit!
Looking for a finger cookie recipe proved a bit of a hassle. Because it has become such an American influenced celebration I could only find recipes with cup measurements...how annoying...how big is the cup??? Do Americans actually have a cup that they weigh their ingredients in? Luckily I soon found a conversion chart.
Here is the recipe I came across more than once it must be good, now translated into grams. These seriously delicious, very buttery and despite being a bit creepy looking 'witches fingers' are sure to bring a smile to the faces of your Halloween guests.
The Vodka shots recipe I came up with myself. I could only find recipes for Jello? it must be American I guess. I used the one remaining English jelly I had left in my store cupboard with a little gelatine. I have never made Jelly shots before and was rather nervous that the alcohol content was going to affect the setting so I adapted my recipe.
Here is what I used:
Vodka Shots with Jellied Eyeballs
1 jelly
5gr gelatine (leaf)
2 tsp sugar
lychees without pip (tinned)
Cherries (tinned)
Vodka (I used extra strength 50% vol)
Food colouring (optional)
Dissolve the jelly in hot water; add water to the jelly pieces up to the 350ml mark of a measuring jug, add sugar and stir. Soak leaf gelatine for 5 minutes in a little cold water. Add to jelly mix. and stir well until everything is dissolved. Leave to cool slightly and add vodka up to the 550ml mark on the jug.
Fill the 'socket' of each lychees with a cherry and place in shot glasses. Pour a little jelly liquid in each glass and refrigerate overnight. Enjoy!
Severed Fingers
225gr butter, softened
110gr icing sugar (I used 1/2 icing/1/2 caster sugar)
1 egg
1 tsp almond essence
1 tsp vanilla essence
275gr plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt (I used a good pinch)
I egg white
1 tsp. cacao powder
Whole almonds
Beat butter, sugar, egg, almond essence and vanilla essence. Beat in flour, baking powder, and salt. Refrigerate for 30 minutes (I left mine overnight). Working with a quarter of the dough at one time (keeping the remainder cool) shape the cookies. Take a piece the size of a small walnut and roll into a finger shape, making a knuckle and making cuts with a knife and place on a baking sheet with baking paper. Make a paste with about a teasp. cocoa and a little egg white and paint the nail tips. Press the almonds firmly in place. Bake in an oven 160°C. for about 20 minutes. I made 66.

I wish you all a very happy Halloween.

Update: 1st Nov. Everyone loved the shots, they tasted great and held up for a couple of hours out of the fridge. Apparently the cookie fingers were even more realistic than the bread dough variant- they scared the kids, but in no time they were happily dipping their 'fingers' in the chocolate sauce!