PER ITALIANO "Ricci"
Today I am publishing the first recipe from 2012's Halloween cakes.
I got the idea from last year's Longtail Mouse recipe. I did some trials a few weeks prior to the party to be able to obtain a beautiful hedgehog replica. The most challenging part was to decide how to make the stings. After several experiments with various ingredients the one satisfied me the most was puffed rice so I chose that.
Before proceeding to the recipe I'd like to mention about our Halloween party. All the cakes and the entertaintment content during the night belonged to Andrea, Stefano and myself. The rest of the food and beverages were brought, made. prepared by the guests as a result of their precious collective work. We were a group of 20 people including children. Not a little number, is it? ;)
A very long time ago Stefano, Andrea and I had decided to build a cool and creepy Horror Tunnel for this year. We had been planning and programming it since then. While talking and brainstorming we were flooded with endless ideas, we kept saying "let's do this too... oh.. also that one is a brilliant idea... let's add also that...". Well... As they say easier said than done. However, often they require time, work and effort beyond imagination.
As we declined to slow down and instead embraced almost every idea (-and refused also any help offerings not to spoil the surprise factor"), three of us got completely exhausted. Fortunately we pulled it off successfully thanks to the organization ability and talent of Stefano, however we spent next few days resting only :) Would we bother to do it all again next year? I think not.. Well, we'll see. I wouldn't want to talk big anyway :)
Andrea and I prepared indoors Halloween decorations three days before our Halloween night and the following day we began to stretch and tie the tarpaulins between olive trees.
Audio and video systems, smoke and laser light machines were already tried many days ago, the speakers were placed along the tunnel path, extension cords and all necessary settings were made.
Tunnel obviously was to be built outdoors and the weather conditions of those days were not to be trusted. So we could only try the equipment, we had to put them away immediately after our tests. That's why, except tarpaulins, we were obliged to build everything else and test all again the very last day.
We scheduled our guests' arriving times minute by minute. The first guests were supposed to arrive at 18:45, because it was getting dark enough only then. Hence that was our deadline. We had to finalize everything by then.
All three of us started to work very early that morning and worked fast and non-stop until the very last moment.
We were worried whether we would make it on time or not. It wasn't only about building the tunnel. We, ourselves, were also part of the act!
Andrea was to open the door to the guests by popping up unexpectedly under the pumpkin at the gate.
I was impersonating a witch who was to welcome the people and offer from her "magic potion".
Stefano was to arrange the music and the sounds, all hidden under the witch's table, which had a secret hole, and when it was the right time, he was to pop up his hand that held a chalice by opening the box on the table and offering chocolates to the guests. I must say everyone reacted to that very much :)
What made us extremely sad later was the bitter fact that we forgot to record any video at all of our horror tour. (We forgot even to take pictures at night time when it was all dark and the tunnel was really creepier. As a result of tiredness and rush it slipped our minds)
This was just the beginning and we were hardly done. I, as the witch, was to accompany every guest throughout the tunnel. I was to tell different lines to each guest, we put up a quite exclusive show let me say :)
During the rehearsals, I kept offering new ideas, new lines, new jokes which accumulated to quite a text almost like a script and I ended up having to memorize them all!! :) Well... It was mostly my own doing so I couldn't complain. Besides, some of Andrea's and Stefano's acts depended on some key words that I was supposed to say so I didn't have much chance to improvise either.
Besides being the "hand", Stefano had the control of sound, music and video systems, he started smoke machine once we were in the tunnel. Each act had different music and sound files.
Andrea worked as both actor and animator. Additionally, he controlled the second smoke machine and laser lights.
On the tablet, which you can see at the bottom left of the collage above, we played a horror video that we found on youtube. The hung man at the top right corner of the same collage fell suddenly upon the guests while they were passing by.
The tunnel ended with a cemetery. The old chest at the top and bottom right of the collage below opened all of a sudden popping out the "ex" husband of the witch, accompanied by a strobe light which created a pretty scary visual effect.
Finally the guests were out of the tunnel once they passed behind the curtains from the cemetry to another "dimension" where a dazzling light effect created by a small laser machine met a foggy and misty smoke effect made by the second smoke machine. Unfortunately we haven't got any photos of this part. It was quite a magical ambience I must add.
Right after the laser show, the TV turned on by itself and started to play This is Halloween, the famous soundtrack of The Nightmare Before Christmas which was just perfect for the evening. (We played the italian version of course:) )
At last, the guests had to eat "freshly chopped" meat before they arrived at their final destination which was the cabin. This was how the Terror Tour ended. (When the photos were taken, salami we offered to the guests weren't on the table yet.)
To our regret, the photos are far from reflecting the entire ambience because the tunnel really looked darker, mistier and creepier. Well let us console ourselves saying.. better than nothing.
I mention about the supper in my next post. I already talked a lot today :)
And here comes the hedgehog recipe.
I made 25 hedgehogs with these ingredients.
Each hedgehog was about 55-60g. For those of you that would like to make more or less hedgehogs let me give you the basic ingredients for one. I use 40g biscuits and 20g cheese for 1 hedgehog. You can figure out the rest.
You don't have to wait for the next Halloween to make these hedgehogs. They are cute rather than fearsome.
Ingredients for 25 Hedgehogs:
1000g Oreo
500g Philadelphia
Kit Kat wafers
Chocolate chips (I used both dark and white)
Puffed rice
Preparation:
- Place 500g of Oreao biscuits in TM Bowl. Grind for 10 seconds on Speed 8.
- Add 250g of Philadelphia. Mix for 30 seconds on Speed 4-5. At the same time blend also with Spatula. Mix few more seconds if needed.
- Wrap the mixture with plastic film. Refrigerate it for at least half an hour.
- Prepare a second dough with the remaining ingredients as it was described above and refrigerate it as well.
- Get about a 55-60g piece off the mixture. Roll it into a ball shape using a piece of plastic film. Try not to overwork with the dough because it gets harder to work with as it gets warmer.
- Cut a suitable piece of Kit Kat. Insert it to the ball, which is the body of the hedgehog. Close and correct the hole.
- Remove the plastic film. Press and pull in front to form its face.
- I placed my hedgehogs in paper baking cups so that we could transport and serve them easily. I'd recommend you to do so as well.
- Shape the eyes and nose with chocolate chips. I made some with white eyes and some with brown.
- Form its stings by inserting puffed rice to the body.
- As I previously said, don't overwork the dough and avoid too much of contact. Keep refrigerated the dough which you are not working at the moment.
- Store your hedgehogs in the fridge. Bring them to room temperature before serving.
Enjoy...
Hiç yorum yok:
Yorum Gönder