Halloween is finally here!  And, for the first time in a while, I REALLY got into the Halloween spirit.  My job organizes a Halloween bake-off every year.  For the first time, I decided to enter.  I’m usually not the creative/artsy type when it comes to sweets, but I decided to challenge myself.  Pictured below is what I came up with, titled “The Mad Doctor’s Lab.”

I was super happy with the way that my display turned out.  And, as it turns out, so were my coworkers.  I wound up getting awarded First Place for Originality for my Mad Scientist themed dessert display.  In addition to the actual desserts, I topped my display with a flask filled with water and a few drops of food coloring.  I did the same with two silicone cauldrons on either side of the display, then added a waterproof tea light to give them a “glow”.

The kicker, though, was a few chunks of dry ice plunked into my vessels.  The smoke/fog effect produced by the dry ice really took the display over the top. The rest of my display was made up of two different desserts.

My “Beaker Creatures” were key lime pie parfaits garnished with gumpaste tentacles and a Spiked Jelly Eyeball.  I used this tutorial to make the tentacles.  You can make the key lime filling by mixing 16oz of room temperature cream cheese, 2 cans of sweetened condensed milk, and 5/8 cup (that’s 1/2 cup plus two tablespoons) of key lime juice.  Add a few drops of green food coloring.  Then, alternate layers of this filling with graham cracker crumbs in small beakers (mine are 100mL).

The “Bloody Brains” are vanilla bean panna cotta with raspberry sauce. I garnished the panna cotta brains with a royal icing meat cleaver and served them on a petrie dish just for an extra festive touch.

Making these panna cotta brains is easy, but you do need to have a silicone mini brain mold to pull it off.  It took me about 4 or 5 tries to get the panna cotta to where it would hold the brain shape AND still be creamy.  But, I finally got the right formula, so I am passing it along so that you don’t have to go through the same trial and error as I did.  You’re welcome.

Panna Cotta Brains

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp water
• 1/2 tbsp unflavored gelatin
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
• Red or pink food coloring
• Required equipment: Silicone brain mold (I used this one)

Directions

Lightly grease each cavity of your brain mold and set aside.

In a small saucepan, combine the heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla bean with seeds.  Cook on medium until the mixture starts to simmer, then remove form heat.  Allow vanilla bean to steep in the hot cream for about 10 minutes.

Sprinkle gelatin over water and allow to soften for about 5 minutes.  Microwave for 15-20 seconds, or until all of the gelatin is dissolved (do not let the mixture boil, or you can ruin the gelatin).

Remove the vanilla bean from the cream mixture.  Stir in the gelatin, vanilla extract, and enough food coloring to achieve the desired shade of pink.  Refrigerate for 4 hours or until set.  Remove panna cotta brains from mold and serve with raspberry sauce.

Makes 4 Servings