Countdown to Halloween 2013 - Bat Theme

For the sixth day in the Countdown to Halloween, our focus was on bats. However, we had a rather full day with a visit from a friend in the morning; a trip to the library in the afternoon; and violin lessons  for Sophia and choir practice for both the girls in the evening. So, we ended up doing two bat theme activities on Thursday instead.

There are a lot of crafty ideas for bats, however the girls are enjoying the food-making activities more this year.

Bat Skewers

Sophia with her Bat Skewer.

Pinterest had an idea for bats on this pin: a fruit skewer topped off with a bat figure. The pin leads only to an image, so it doesn't say where the bat-topped skewers could be purchased.

I looked at various stores, but these skewers weren't available locally. Even looking at others small food decorations that could be attached to the skewers didn't work. Apparently bats aren't popular Halloween decorations on food.

At any rate, there is an image of various bat outlines on Tumblr that I printed. From that, I cut three bat images. I taped these onto the dull end of the skewers. Frugal and functional for what we were doing...the images were more than sufficient for our needs.

We used pineapple chunks, grapes, and manadarin oranges for the fruit.

Sophia placing fruit on the skewer.

The original pin showed strawberries. However, strawberries aren't in season in Minnesota so there aren't any fresh ones at the grocery stores now.

Any type of fruit that can be sliced or cut into chunks could be used for the Bat Skewers. Each person can put the fruit onto her skewer that she likes.

Olivia placing grapes and mandarin oranges

on her Bat Skewer.

The skewers can be made before the meal and placed on a platter.

Completed Bat Skewer.

Or they can be made and eaten right away...which is what we did.

This was a healthy item...before we made the unhealthy one: Bat Cupcakes.

Olivia showing her finished Bat Cupcake.

Lucy is in the background.

I had a clipping from Family Fun magazine in my Halloween file since 2003 for these cupcakes. More recently, I found a pin on Pinterest for them which led to Thrifty Jinxy.

Olivia's finished Bat Cupcake.

Ingredients:

Cupcakes (baked from your favorite recipe)
Chocolate frosting
White icing in a bag
2 M&M's Minis for each bat cupcake
Jujube candy (we used Mike & Ike candies)
Thin Mint
Andes Creme de Menthe candy

Directions

Frost a cupcake (baked from your favorite recipe) with chocolate icing.

Sophia frosting a cupcake.

For the bat's face, set two mini M&Ms in place for the eyes.

Sophia placing the eyes, nose, and wings 

in just the right position with a knife.

Add a Jujube/Mike & Ike candy nose. This either can be cut in half or pushed down into the cupcake.

Sophia cut the candy for the nose in half.

Olivia and I kept it whole and pressed it into the cupcake.

For the wings, cut a Thin Mint in two and set the halves in place.

Olivia putting the Thin Mint halves in place.

Then cut an Andes Creme de Menthe candy in half diagonally. Set the pieces in place for the bat's ears. As a side note, we had a lot of difficulty cutting the candy in half. It is solid chocolate, so it doesn't cut smoothly as shown we had expected.

Sophia with her finished Bat Cupcake.

Finally, add a white frosting mouth, fangs, and pupils.

Olivia adding frosting for the mouth and fangs.

I tried applying a small dot of frosting on the mini M&M. It ended up coming out a bit too fast, and consequently creating a line of frosting rather than a dot. Next time, I'd skip trying to put frosting on the mini M&Ms next time; or maybe used a toothpick to apply frosting rather than applying it from the bag.

My finished Bat Cupcake.

We all had fun making the Bat Cupcakes and Bat Skewers, and definitely would make these items again.