Celebrate Halloween with 5 chilly, tasty treats

To make the simple syrup, add sugar and water into a small saucepan and cook over medium-high heat until mixture boils and sugar dissolves; about 5 to 8 minutes. Cool completely and transfer to a bowl. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

Mix together cranberry juice, water, simple syrup, vodka, triple sec, and lime juice. Pour into popsicle molds and freeze. When almost solid, insert popsicle sticks. For wooden chopsticks, swizzle sticks, or DIY popsicle sticks with smooth sides, I recommend that you slide a couple of white gumdrops on to the tip and top portion of the stick before inserting into the pop. Frozen pops tend to slide off a smooth surface stick unless they have something to “grab” on to. Freeze until completely solid.

Make gummy bugs recipe following step-by-step photos on JeanneBenedict.com and using silicone plastique from MakeYourOwnMolds.com. Lightly moisten underside of bug and place on a pop. Return to freezer until bug sticks to pop. Serve pops in a bowl on top of ice cubes or right out of the freezer.

Mix together water, simple syrup, liquor, and lime juice. Pour into a food-safe silicone mini brain mold and freeze until solid. Add coarsely crushed ice topped into the bottom of a Martini glass. (Optional: Spoon a layer of red Jello on top to resemble blood and help keep the brain cool and level in the glass.)

Dab candy blood on to Appletini Brain Freeze to bring out the veins and serve chilled!

Crumble yellow cake. Mix together 1 cup cake crumbs with 1 cup vanilla ice cream and 1 tablespoon Baileys until thoroughly combined. Fill push pop molds 1/4 full with mixture and place upright in the freezer for 30 minutes or until solid.

Meanwhile, combine 2 cups vanilla ice cream with 2 tablespoons of Baileys. Add orange gel food coloring until desired color is achieved. (Taste test throughout to make sure you don’t go overboard and get that awful food coloring taste.) Remove push pop molds from freezer and add orange ice cream on top of frozen cake layer 3/4 full in mold. (Tip: If the cake isn’t frozen the orange ice cream seeps down the sides inside the mold ruining the layered look.) Freeze until solid.

Mix 1 cup frosting with 1 tablespoon Baileys. Dollop on top of orange ice cream and accent with a candy corn. Place back in freezer for about 15 minutes to allow frosting to chill and then serve.

Add 1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk into a medium saucepan along with granulated sugar, milk, and pumpkin. Heat over medium heat, stirring often, until mixture is hot and ingredients are combined, but do not allow to boil. Remove from heat and stir in brown sugar and bourbon. Cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate for 8 hours.

Pour cooled pumpkin sherbet batter into ice cream maker and process according to manufacturer’s instructions. Layer pumpkin sherbet with swirls of dulce le leche into a plastic container with a lid and freeze for at least 2 hours before serving.

To make the dulce le leche, preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Place remainder of sweetened condensed milk from recipe above (or contents of an entire 14 ounce can) into a 6-inch square casserole dish (or something similar) and cover with foil. Place covered dish in a metal baking pan and fill pan with water halfway up outside of casserole dish. Bake for 1 hour 30 minutes. Carefully lift foil (it will be steamy!) and check the milk’s color. If the milk has caramelized into a medium brown, carefully remove from the oven. If more baking time is needed, cook for 15 minutes more and then remove from heat. Cool to room temperature and add to the pumpkin sherbet as instructed above or use as a dip for everything from apples to pretzels!

Mix together coconut water, cream of coconut, simple syrup and rum. Pour into popsicle molds and freeze. When almost solid, insert popsicle sticks (or swizzle sticks). Freeze until completely solid.

Melt red candy melts as per package instructions and cool slightly. Unmold popsicles and drizzle red chocolate on top allowing to drip down pop. Immediately place back in freezer until ready to serve. Garnish with plastic vampire teeth.