Dawn of the Gingerbread

Ever wonder what happens to the poor gingerbread souls who still haven't been eaten days after Christmas?

Zombies! These cookies are made from your basic gingerbread recipe, cut to look like people, some of them sans limbs. Once baked and cooled, I decorated them using a basic milk+icing sugar glaze. 

Photo credits: Kelly Garsha

     These zombie cookies inspired me to re-watch Dawn of the Dead (2004). I'm probably among a minority group of people who actually prefer Snyder's remake of Romero's 1978 original. I recognize that the original is probably "better" in terms of originality, influence and social commentary, but I find the remake to be much more enjoyable. First of all, I prefer fast and strong zombies for their ability to scare the living daylights out of me, even if they are less "authentic." Then again, why can't we have both? If you don't have anything better to do with the rest of the holiday season, you can watch both of them while nibbling on some stale gingerbread.

Happy New Year!

Gremlin Cookies

Meet Gizmo, the sweetest little mogwai of the bunch!

     For these, I used a basic sugar cookie recipe and cut out individual, mogwai-shaped cookies before baking. Coincidentally, a mogwai head is about the same shape as Yoda's head, so you could easily double up on your pop culture references in one batch. Here, I kept it (sort of) simple. The icing is a basic glaze made from icing sugar and milk. The consistency should be smooth but not runny. I used gel colouring to get the right shades and then I broke out my paintbrushes and got to work.

Plush Gizmo, for comparison.

Photo credits: Kelly Garsha

     These sweet little treats might not look very terrifying, but appearances can be deceiving. They hail from the classic Christmas movie that gave you nightmares as a child: Gremlins (1984). It's hard to see how anyone wouldn't want a mogwai for Christmas. They're only the cutest pets imaginable. They sing, they play games and they're fairly low-maintenance, too. You only need to follow three simple rules: 1. Keep them out of bright light, 2. Don't get them wet, and 3. Never, ever feed them after midnight. Remember, the last one is especially important.

Merry Christmas!

Nightmare Before Christmas Cupcakes

Time to start making Christmas!

     These rich chocolate cupcakes are topped with fondant that I painted using food colouring and a few drops of vodka. It was just like doing watercolours! Once they've dried, you can't taste the alcohol at all. 

Photo credits: Kelly Garsha

     I've painted scenes from everyone's favourite macabre children's holiday classic, The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). Pictured above (clockwise) are Skeleton Jack's silhouette on a mountaintop, the Boogeyman,  Jack's ghost-dog Zero and a close-up of Skeleton Jack's face. As a small child, this movie was one of my earlier experiences with horror and dark comedy. I remember being captivated by the world of Halloween and all the creepy characters, stunning animation and catchy music. This might be a family-friendly film, but even today, as an adult, I find the scenes where Santa is mistreated to be incredibly disturbing. That's probably the only part I still don't like. I love Jack's hilariously misguided attempts to make Christmas, resulting in a hysterically funny and terrifying Christoween. If you haven't watched it in a while, I recommend putting it on again this season. It's as charming as ever!

Fingers from the Grave

Yikes, looks like somebody just won't stay buried!

     This week I used another Martha recipe, this time for Ladies' Fingers. Although, I think mine look much more disturbing than hers, with their bony knuckles and unvarnished, rotting nails...

Photo credits: Kelly Garsha

     These dreadful digits remind me of the final scare from the movie Carrie (1976). Carrie White is a very unfortunate teenage girl. She's the daughter of a religious fanatic and everyone at school hates her for existing. It just so happens that Carrie also has telekinetic powers, which she uses to exact revenge against the whole town. After the ordeal is over, a surviving classmate is racked with guilt at the way Carrie was treated, and visits Carrie's grave in her dreams. As she kneels down to lay flowers on the grave, an undead arm reaches out of the earth and grabs hold of her. Gotcha! She wakes up, screaming. This is one of my favourite jump scenes, and I am not a fan of jump scenes. I wonder if they'll try to do something like it in the remake that's coming out soon. We'll see.

If you've got a taste for terror... stay tuned for more Terrifying Treats.