Nine year old Ellie came to spend Saturday afternoon with me, much to my unending joy! When I asked her what she wanted to do she said, “make a list!” So, together, we listed 20 things that we would like to do in the next 4 hours. Needless to say, we didn’t get through the entire list.
Her top two choices were to make and decorate a Halloween Cake and to make candy eyeballs. Everything had to be made from scratch, of course, so we took stock, made a quick trip to the store and turned the kitchen into Halloween Central.
The most fun, for her, was mixing red and yellow food coloring to turn both the batter and the icing a nice pumpkin orange. While the cake was baking, she started in on the eyeballs. Let me add a note here: My goals as a grandmother are totally different than they were as a mother. I know that cake and candy eyeballs are not exactly health foods but I also know that the real goal of the afternoon was the experience and not the product, so I relaxed and just let her make what she wanted. I also have learned, as a grandma, to back off and just let her do projects her way. I would have done things differently, would have used different decorating materials, put them on a different way but – this was Ellie’s project, not mine. It’s a continual challenge to teach her how to do things well but at the same time, allowing her the freedom to do it her way.
So, back to the eyeballs. Before you read the ingredients list, remember, it’s all about the experience. Okay, you mix 1/2 cup peanut butter, 3 tablespoons butter and 1 cup powdered sugar. Make eyeball sized balls, put in the freezer for 30 minutes, then roll in icing. The “pupil” is an M &M and the bloodshot look came from red writing icing.
Not all of the eyeballs were exactly alike. While we were at the store, we happened to see a package of ping pong balls and we looked at each other and started laughing. So, while dipping the candy balls in icing, we also decorated a couple of ping pong balls. It was spectacular!! They looked just like the candy and when her cousin tried to eat one, the whole project was deemed a huge success!!
The kitchen was a disaster. We were both exhausted. But, what fun! What joy! What an experience! What a memory we made. Eyeballs anyone!
Happy Halloween to you all.
