Hallowe'en Tricks & Treats with Poundland

I never really got the chance to "do" Hallowe'en as a kid.  The whole Trick or Treating idea passed me by (it was the 80's after all, who would tell?), and then when I was older I moved to Yorkshire, where it seems to get passed over in favour of Mischief Night on 4 November.

So it's only now I really get the chance to play.  Squeaky's still far too young for Trick or Treating, but that doesn't stop us enjoying ourselves.  Poundland sent us a bag of goodies to get our Hallowe'en off to a great start (and I'll be scaring the local kids when they knock the door over the weekend, now)

Costumes and Hallowe'en parties don't have to be expensive.  A couple of white loo-rolls (or bandages) make an effective mummy costume, as long as the weather's ok.  Cotton wool pulled apart makes spider webs, or you could just pull the real thing down from the corners of my hall. Talc for a white face, a little tomato sauce or old lippy as blood.  And the old favourite to drink - vimto, with peeled grape eyeballs floating in it!

Poundland are also a great way to get your Hallowe'en supplies in for a low price.  We were sent masks, face paints, tights, and THE coolest beanie hat in the world, see for yourself. I snuck it out of the parcel without her noticing, aiming to wear it myself, but as soon as I put it on, she shouted "MINE, MINE!" and I had to give it up.  All the way round town, my little skelly girl modelled her hat, even when we popped in to Poundland for a few extra supplies for the weekend (batteries, Vimto, popcorn & glowsticks, if you really want to know!)  Whether you're going out, or just want to decorate the house to get into the spirit, there's loads of choice - oh yeah, and big bags of sweeties to distribute on the doorstep.

You can easily make your own Hallowe'en items at home too.  We got baking yesterday, and made Gruesome Marmalade pumpkin cupcakes.  Dead easy (muahahahahah!)  Take your own favourite cupcake recipe, or a packet cake mix (that's what we used, I'm lazy), and add quite a healthy dose of red & yellow food dye to make the cake batter bright orange.  It takes a lot of colour to make the resulting cakes colourful, so don't worry about overdoing it.  I probably could have done with a bit more in here, to be honest.

When it's mixed, put a small amount of cake batter into your cupcake cases, then add a quarter of a teaspoon of marmalade to each cake, then cover that up with the rest of your cake batter.  Try to make sure the marmalade is completely covered.  (If I was a food blogger, I'd've remembered to take photos at this point)

Cook for as long as it takes.  When they're done, take them out & leave to cool.  Meantime, use some green food dye to colour fondant icing & make stems. They're fairly gruesomely orange inside, but taste fab, the marmalade gives them a lovely flavour. And I can never resist fondant icing.  These cost me about £1.50 in total to make, for the bits I had to buy, all the rest was already in my kitchen.  Told you Hallowe'en didn't need to be expensive. And I can hand these out to the Trick or Treaters!  Not sure whether they'll think they're a trick or a treat, mind you.

So, there you have it, my guide to a great value Hallowe'en, with a little bit of help from Poundland.

Disclosure: I was provided with a selection of Poundland Hallowe'en products free of charge for the purpose of this review.  I was not told what to write, and all opinions are my own.  Links are provided for your convenience only, I am not a member of any affiliate scheme & will not receive reward for their use.