Rotten Apple Cider

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern inspired me to include a cider recipe as part of my Carn’Evil’ menu this year. In the book, the circus serves apple cider and chocolate mice to circus goers, and the imagery of the kids pulling out a bag of chocolate mice and eating them with hot apple cider in the cool night air, just struck me as magical and fun. I had to find a way to make a Halloween version, so I looked at lots of cider recipes with shrunken heads, mainly for guidance on how to carve the faces. There are a lot of apple heads that are really detailed and look amazing. So I gave it a go. I attempted to make some scary heads with chiseled noses and furrowed brows and I quickly discovered that it’s not easy to carve all that detail. Mine came out terrible. So, I ditched the realistic apple head idea and instead opted for apple skulls. Super easy because…no noses or brows needed and ultimately, skulls were more fitting for my Carn’Evil’ menu. See how to make your own apple skulls to float in mulled cider, wine, and even in a cup of hot tea for a unexpected Halloween twist.

On a personal note, after I made these apple skulls they made me think of my dad.  My dad passed away 5 years ago, but I think my dad would have loved these little faces floating in cider. They reminded me of something I made as a little girl . I was probably in 3rd or 4th grade and it was raining on a Saturday so of course I couldn’t go out to play. I was bored wandering around the house looking for something to do. There was a bag of dried white beans in the cupboard that had spilled a little so there was a few beans lying on the shelf. I picked them up and looked at the shape of them and immediately imagined faces on them with lots of different expressions. I scooped up a handful and ran to my room to draw faces on those beans. I came out to show my dad what I had created and I remember him looking at all the expressions I had drawn on them. From the smiling happy beans, the open mouthed beans that yawned and yelled, the scared beans, and the the crying beans. Think of them as early emoji’s. With each one, he smiled and commented until he came to the “chewing gum” bean.  When he picked up that bean, he laughed with delight! He smiled and praised me as he looked at all the detail. It really did look like the bean was chewing gum. There was a natural bulge in the bean that looked like someone with a big wad of gum in the side of their mouth, so I drew it like that. My dad was so excited about that silly little bean and it made me so happy that he enjoyed it so much. I glued it inside a homemade birthday card for him that year and 40 years later, give or take, I found that card after he died. He had saved that card with the chewing gum bean all those years.

I’m sure my dad would’ve gotten a kick out of these little apple skulls. I love and miss you daddy. xo