I hope you had a wonderful Halloween. Here is the result of our experiments with Blavod black vodka and strange ice, it was a lot of fun. (See also: my previous entry about creepy ice creations.)

The plastic skeleton embedded in an ice sphere was a lot of fun. In a drink it sort of rotated around on it's own and showed different bones, creepy.

On the left are gummy eyeballs I froze in a swizzle stick ice tray I found at Daiso, these were creepy submerged in a drink that had gone opaque (see just below). On the right is black vodka and orange juice, which turned a nicely disgusting greenish beige when mixed.

It took a few tries but I finally figured out how to float vodka in a flute. I filled the glass with juice (or tonic and lime), put in ice, put the vodka in a OXO small measuring cup with a spout and slowly poured the vodka, aiming it towards the topmost ice cube. It usually worked.

On the left is cranberry and vodka and small sphere ice, created in a tray bought at Daiso. The right is blood orange juice and black vodka (which I failed to float properly). There is a gummy eyeball on the end of a cocktail pick. I like the effect of the eyeball at the bottom of the glass. (The gummy eyeballs were from Target and tasted horrible.)

Vodka and tonic before and after mixing. In person it looked a lot more gray than green.

These are Brains! cocktails made in small shot glasses. I had good luck using a pipette to dispense the Irish cream, I dipped the end in the drink and slowly squeezed the Irish cream into the drink while moving the pipette around. I found this technique at Folkinz, which used a straw to a nice effect. The glasses on either side were given small droplets, but didn't look quite as spooky. They looked my like a cocktail that would be named Lymph Nodes!

Here is another skeleton layered inside of a squarish ice cube.

This is a White Russian made with black vodka, turning it a delightfully sickly gray/beige.

I attempted to capture the Frozen Smiles ice floating in tonic and cranberry, it looked creepier in person.

Trivia: the center glass is from Disgruntled Housewife and was aquired in a Smile and Act Nice gift bag from SXSW 2000 or 2001. If you're a knitter you might know Nicole better as the author of Thrifty Knitter (a website) and Naughty Needles (a book), and co-owner of The Harveyville Project (two middle schools in Kansas turned into spaces to encourage creative output, a daring and genius prospect). I've admired Nicole from afar for as long as I can remember, Disgruntled Housewife was one of the first websites I read.

My friend Maggi made these amazing (and delicious) gravestone cookies.

And here is my Halloween mirror picture. I was wearing synthetic hair extensions for the evening, my hair isn't nearly this long:

Hello!

Garlic Cupcakes to Keep You Safe From Vampires This Halloween ~ Cupcake Project.

What are some essential horror films for a movie marathon? | Ask Metafilter.

Make me deathly pale! | Ask Metafilter.

RECIPE: Breadstick Bones on Flickr. Cute idea for something savory to serve.

Halloween Food - Meat Head 2 on Flickr. I'm not sure if this is made by the same person but the meat head is one of the things I linked to way, way back in 2001.

earwax on a swab on Flickr. I could not eat this, but I like this idea.

Easy & Expert Recipes For Halloween Fingers | YumSugar. I love the way these are curled around a cup.

Note to self: buy Matthew Mead's Halloween books Halloween Tricks and Treats and Monster Book of Halloween.

Blood and Bones at Joy the Baker. Red hot chocolate and meringue bones!

Ghostly Eggs at Serious Eats. These are so darn cute.

How to make fake blood, at Wired.

This melting head cake is astounding. The whole thing is edible, with cake brains, a royal icing skull, edible eyeballs that popped open and oozed, a layer of red jam covered by frosting skin and topped with cotton candy hair. It was set under a heat lamp and allowed to melt in the most dramatic and incredible way. You must read to the bottom to see the melting pictures, I insist, go go. Bravo!

Zombie jello mold at Geekologie.

Bloody Tooth Cocktail at Martha Stewart, another one to make using black vodka.

Three shrimp cocktail brains: one, two, three.

This Halloween we are headed to spend a night with friends handing out candy to trick or treaters and playing board games (Zombie Fluxx and Betrayal at House on the Hill!). I've bought a bottle of Blavod, which you might know as the black vodka that Martha Stewart used to make Halloween drinks a couple of years back. I gathered a few options for making spooky ice.

First I found these gummy eyeballs at Target. They come in their own ice tray, you just add water and freeze.

I went to a Halloween store hoping to find white plastic fangs to embed in ice. Instead I found these teeth molds, called Frozen Smiles made by Fred. I think I like them even more.

I also found these plastic skeleton pieces which are small enough to fit into my ice ball mold from Muji. note: You should not ever put something small into ice that is intended to be put in a drink. Especially not if there are children present. Or drunk adults.

I layered it in the ice of the sphere, making several trips in and out of the freezer. Here is my trial ice sphere floating in a glass of water:

I've seen these same plastic skeletons used to decorate cupakes, here and here on Flickr.

(image from marthastewart.com)

And I intend to try out this eery Lychee eyeball garnish and see if I can freeze it inside of an ice ball. There is another Lychee eyeball at Martha Stewart along with a grape eyeball and this savory option of using radishes and olives. Yikes.