5 Treats to Make with Halloween Candy

Directions

1. Plan ahead by buying extra candy before Halloween or scooping up bargains after the holiday. You can speed things up with store-bought cake, brownies, and frosting, or prepare them from scratch.
2. Always frost your own cake or brownies rather than using pre-frosted ones, because a fresh, wet layer of frosting helps the candy and sprinkles stick securely.
3. For the Chocolate Cake Decorated with Halloween Candy: you need about 4 cups of candy to cover a two-layer 8-inch round cake. Sort all the candy by type so you can see what you have, and consider cutting larger pieces into smaller bits for variety.
4. Chill your Halloween candy in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes before decorating; this prevents it from getting squished when you press it into the cake.
5. Slather the cake with a thick layer of chocolate frosting. Starting from the bottom, gently press candy onto the sides and top in a pattern or randomly, then sprinkle with decorative jimmies. For heavier pieces, dab a little extra frosting on the back to help them adhere.
6. For Voyeur Brownies: spread frosting over your brownies, then press assorted candies and sprinkles onto the surface. Decorate with Hershey's Pumpkin Spice Kisses, a halved mini Snickers, a Tootsie Roll, and a ghoulish eyeball candy attached to two Almond M&M's using a bit of frosting.
7. For Cyclops Brownies: place a gummy eyeball in the center of each frosted brownie, then cover the remaining area with sprinkles. Try using purple and black candy pearls along with orange and black jimmies. Be sure to set aside one 4-inch brownie per person for the next recipe.