Easy Scarecrow Cake

Easy Scarecrow Cake

1 box cake mix (any flavor)

Water, vegetable oil and eggs called for on cake mix box

1 container vanilla frosting

1 tablespoon chocolate-flavored syrup

1 box (4 ounces) waffle ice cream bowls (10 bowls)

1 box (4.5 ounces) fruit by the foot chewy fruit snack rolls (6 rolls)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Make and cool cake as directed on cake mix box for 12-cup fluted tube cake pan.

Place cake on serving plate. Stir together frosting and chocolate syrup; reserve 1/4 cup of the frosting. Spread remaining frosting over cake. For straw hat, place 1 waffle bowl upside down in center of cake. Stack 5 more bowls on first bowl.

For hair, cut fruit snack into 14 (6 inch) strips and 14 (5 inch) strips. Cut each strip lengthwise to within 1 inch of top of strip. Place one 6 inch and 5 inch strip together, pressing together at uncut ends. Repeat with remaining strips. Randomly press pairs of strips on top of two-thirds of cake, overlapping as needed and allowing strips to hang over side of cake. Spread reserved 1/4 cup frosting over top of hair.

For brim of hat, break remaining waffle bowls into 5 or 6 pieces each. Randomly press waffle pieces on top of cake, overlapping and tucking pieces as needed. Allow waffle pieces to hang over side of cake and over fruit snack strips. Cut pieces of remaining fruit snack for eyes and nose; press on cake. Store loosely covered.

Recipe and picture from BettyCrocker.com

Pining for a Snack

Pining for a Snack

Cream cheese

Round crackers

Almond slices

Pretzel stick

Celery, thinly sliced

For each, spread a gnerous amount of cream cheese onto a round cracker. Starting at the bottom, layer almond slices on top of the cream cheese for the scales. Add a small piece of a pretzel stick for the stem and serve with thinly sliced celery pine needles.

Recipe and picture from FamilyFun.go.com

Mini Pumpkins

Mini Pumpkins

Circus peanuts

Green gumdrops

Granulated sugar

For each pumpkin, cut one circus peanut in half. Cut a small piece from a green gumdrop and trim away the sugar coating so you have a dot of the sticky inside. Use this piece as glue to stick the two halves of the peanut together, bottom to bottom.

Roll the pumpkin in the palms of your hands to make it round. Press lightly; you don’t want to compress the candy too much.

Use a skewer or toothpick to poke a hole in the top of the pumpkin and draw lines down the sides. Cut another small piece from the green gumdrop and roll it in granulated sugar, molding it into a slightly conical stem shape with your fingers. Insert the stem into the hole on the top of the pumpkin.

Recipe and picture from FamilyFun.go.com

Scarecrow Cookies

Scarecrow Cookies

Shredded wheat hay

Fruit leather patches

M&M’s and M&M minis for eyes, noses, buttons, jewelry

Gummy candy or circus peanuts hats

Candy corn noses

Banana candy mouths

To prepare, use a gingerbread-man cookie cutter to shape a batch of your favorite cookie dough and bake the cookies.

After they have cooled, add the finishing touches, using colored frosting for scarecrow clothes and white icing to stick on decorations.

Recipe and picture from FamilyFun.go.com

A Campfire You Can Eat

A Campfire You Can Eat

12-inch flour tortilla

Red licorice rope

Peanuts

Peanut butter

Fried Chinese noodles

Tootsie rolls

Mini pretzel sticks

White grape juice

Hot cocoa powder

Candy corn

Lay down a tortilla fire base and wrap a licorice rope safety circle around the tortilla about an inch in from the edge. Build a peanut rock ring halfway between the safety circle and the center of the fire base. Spread a circle of peanut butter in the center of the fire base, then lay a small handful of fried Chinese noodles on top for kindling.

Lay tootsie roll logs around the peanut butter circle. Use mini pretzel sticks as fuel wood to build a tepee inside the ring of logs and over the kindling, sticking the pretzels into the peanut butter at a 45 degree angle.

Add another layer of logs, setting them across the corners of the first layer to form a box around the tepee. Lay a few more pieces of fuel wood across the logs.

Make sure buckets of water (white grape juice) and dirt (hot cocoa powder) are nearby. Light the fire by adding candy corn flames.

Recipe and picture from FamilyFun.go.com

Acorn Dough Nuts

Acorn Dough Nuts

Chocolate frosting or peanut butter

Donuts

Crumbled toffee

Pretzel

Frost a thir or so of a plain or glazed doughnut hole with chocolate frosting or peanut butter.

Roll the frosted top in crumbled toffee (look for it in the baking section of grocery stores), then add a small piece of a pretzel for the stem.

Recipe and picture from FamilyFun.go.com

Pumpkin Roll-Ups

Pumpkin Roll-Ups

Cream cheese or American cheese

Sun dried tomato tortillas

Cilantro or parsley sprigs

Spread cream cheese or lay American cheese slices on sun dried tomato tortillas.

Roll them up, then cut them into 1 inch sections. Secure with a toothpick topped with a cilantro or parsley sprig.

Recipe and picture from FamilyFun.go.com

Autumn Leaves Cupcakes

Autumn Leaves Cupcakes

1 can (16 ounces) caramel frosting

Cupcakes

Spiced gumdrops

Frost cupcakes. Roll out gumdrops to 1/8 inch thickness; cut out with 1 inch to 1-1/2 inch leaf shaped cookie cutters. Pile leaves on cupcakes as desired.

Recipe and picture from TasteOfHome.com

Sweet Scarecrows

Sweet Scarecrows

Cookies

White frosting

Assorted sugar wafers

Candy corn

Mini chocolate chips

Bran cereal

Chocolate sprinkles

Frost the top of each cookie.

Cut a sugar wafer in half. Add a dollop of frosting to the top edge of the cookie and stick a wafer half to it for a hat.

Place a whole sugar wafer just below the hat top for a brim. Use a little more frosting to decorate it with slices of candy corn or mini chocolate chips.

Press pieces of bran cereal hair into the frosting around the hat.

For the face, press on a candy corn nose, mini chocolate chip eyes, and a chocolate sprinkle stitched mouth.

Recipe and picture from FamilyFun.go.com

Aut-yum Leaves

Aut-yum Leaves

1 egg

1 teaspoon of water

Prepared pie crust

Mini chocolate chips

Peanut butter chips

Raw sugar

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Whisk one egg with a teaspoon of water and set it aside.

On a floured surface, roll out a prepared pie crust so it’s about 1/8 inch thick. Use a large leaf shaped cookie cutter to make as many dough leaf pairs as possible.

For each pocket, spread about 4 teaspoons of mini chocolate chips and peanut butter chips on a leaf, leaving a 1/2 inch margin at the edge. Brush egg wash onto the edge, place a second leaf on top, and press the edges to seal.

Brush the top with egg wash and sprinkle it generously with raw sugar. Bake the leaves on a parchment-covered cookie sheet until their edges are just beginning to brown, about 12 minutes. Let them rest on the sheet a few minutes before moving them to a cooling rack.

Recipe and picture from FamilyFun.go.com