Gingersnaps

     Gingersnaps are basically an excuse to eat gingerbread year-round, and I adore spice cookies. These ones appear to have fallen into the hands of a teenage werewolf. Ouch! I scratched them up when they were fresh from the oven, and the "blood" in the cuts is made from strawberry jam and grenadine.

Photo credits: Kelly Garsha

     These classic cookies also lend their name to the excellent Canadian werewolf movie Ginger Snaps (2000), which is probably my favourite coming-of-age horror film. Ginger and Brigitte Fitzgerald are two sisters who don't fit in at their high school, probably because they spend so much time faking their own deaths and hating their classmates. One evening, big sister Ginger falls victim to puberty, as well as the savage wild beast terrorizing their suburban neighbourhood. But hey... same thing, right? She loses control of her body and behaviour as she becomes a lycanthropic woman. Brigitte must do what she can to help the now unpredictable sister she used to know so well. I love this movie for the setting, the dark humour, and because for anyone who survived adolescence, the central metaphor is spot-on. 

"Ginge, what's going on? Something's wrong with you. More than you being just...female." 

If you like scary spice cookies, feast your eyes on my Nosferatu Pfeffernüsse.

28 Days Later Cupcakes

Feeling enraged? Here, have a cupcake...

     These are your standard infected chocolate cupcakes, dipped in red glaze and topped with rage-eyes and biohazard symbols made out of half-and-half (fondant + gum paste). To make the biohazard symbols, I consulted Zilly Rosen's book Zombie Cupcakes, an excellent resource if, like me, you prefer your desserts undead.

Photo credits: Kelly Garsha

     These cupcakes were inspired by a film that I hold very close to my heart. I'm talking, of course, about Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later (2002), one of the best "zombie" movies of this century. Every time I re-watch it, I find I like it more. The story is imaginative, detailed, and tragically human, not to mention scary as hell. Just thinking about the infected with their frantic yet absent expressions makes me want to barricade the doors and  windows. It's not all-killing-all-the-time, though. Boyle carefully balances the moments of boredom and terror that make up any apocalyptic tale worth its salt... or sugar, in this case. 

"Mmmmmm... Irradiated!" 

Do you like zombie movies? Then you'll want to check out my Dawn of the Gingerdead Men.