Halloween baking! Recipe: Popcorn Chocolate Brains!

So as everyone knows, this past weekend was Halloween! I went to a fancy dress party at my friend's Maz and Carl's house for a fabulous party with some super yummy snacks. I met up at their house earlier in the day to bake with Maz, I didn't really help her do anything as she'd been on a cooking spree all day making some really tasty looking snacks! I helped her decorate some cakes but she had made quite a few creations of her own.

Here are some photos of the snacks at the party (made by Maz!) (please excuse the camera taking skills in this post!):

I also attempted a snack of my own - popcorn chocolate brains - as named by Maz! This was inspired by this recipe on Sorted Food, a youtube food channel that makes most recipes seem like they'll take 2 minutes and be super easy! (But in reality they don't!) Obviously Halloween has been and gone, however these are still a fun, yummy snack to create for a themed party or just a chilled out night watching a movie!

So I used the above recipe, however, I did not put them in the fridge when I had finished making them. They tasted ok but not as crisp as they would have done if they had been in the fridge.

This recipe will make a generous amount of fudgey popcorn clusters!

Ingredients

Microwaveable sweet popcorn/raw popping corn, 150g

Shot of oil

1 tin of condensed milk, 397g

Dark chocolate chips, 400g - around 4 bags

Knob of butter, 25g

Icing sugar, 100g

For decoration (optional) -

Orange sugar strands

Handful of white chocolate chips

Dusting of icing sugar

Pinch of all spice

Orange chocolate buttons, 100g (1 bag) - I bought these on a whim and they taste like Terry's chocolate orange and are amazing. I recommend buying just to have a naughty snack! I just decorated the plate with these which gave a Halloween esque feel!

Empty the condensed milk into a saucepan with the chocolate drops and butter.

Either heat the oil up in another pan (make sure you have a lid) and add the popcorn. Shakeand stir the popcorn kernels so they are all coated in the oil and then put on the lid and continue to heat, shaking occasionally, once the corn starts popping, keep shaking the pan so none of it stays in the same place and burns. Or, alternatively, microwave approximately two bags of sweet popcorn - it should have more or less the same effect!

Beat the icing sugar into the fudge mixture until smooth.

Use as much or as little of the fudge and popcorn as desired, and mix the two together to create a concoct similar to the one below!

Arrange the fudgey popcorn balls on a baking tray and compress with a spoon/your fingers until it makes a tight ball.

Sprinkle over decoration of your choice, if desired.

Allow to set, then skewer each ball with a stick.

Voilà!