Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Halloween Party

For those of you who don't know, Netflix released a new series about Sabrina Spellman around this time last year. I was super excited because I used to watch Sabrina the Teenage Witch starring Melissa Joan Hart back in the 90s. The new series stars Kiernan Shipka, who was on Mad Men (which was one of my favorite TV shows to date) and she plays the role perfectly. This rendition of Sabrina Spellman's life is MUCH different than the former adaptation. It's very dark and full of horror, which I LOVE! It still has all the familiar characters from the older show, but I like this new one much better. There's currently two seasons out and fans (including me) are itching for the season three release date announcement.

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Jon and I have been hosting Halloween parties every year since we've purchased a home. They've always been themed after TV shows we watch, or have watched in the past and really liked. The first year we did Stranger Things, the second year we did a multi-show theme of Rick and Morty, Twin Peaks and Stranger Things again and last year we did Riverdale. I really enjoy event/party planning, so I go all out with the decorations and food to match each theme. This year I decided to do Chilling Adventures of Sabrina as the theme. I dressed up as Sabrina and Jon dressed up as the Dark Lord, who is Satan. There's a couple costumes out there for Sabrina, but I decided to make it my own and order everything separately. I felt it made my costume more unique and was more of a cosplay feel (without actually making everything). Jon's was VERY hard. They don't have anything made for his character from the show, even though the Dark Lord is one of the main characters. The Dark Lord is usually seen in his true form during the show, which is a demon goat. There were a bunch of demon goat masks, but nothing that looked like the one from the show. I happened to find this one on amazon last minute the week of the party and it worked out perfectly...especially since it actually scared our guests LOL!

I didn't do as much for decorations this year as I've done in the past. However, I always have a tapestry up on our wall in the living room to match our theme and a bunch of lights on the ceiling. In the past, I've done the famous alphabet wall from Stranger Things and the Southside Serpents logo from Riverdale as tapestries. This year, I put up a Spellman Mortuary tapestry. In addition to the multiple lights on our ceiling, I included some Halloween banners with ghosts, bats and pumpkins to look like the Halloween party for Sabrina's 16th birthday on the show.

My favorite part is the food. As you know if you follow my blog, I love to bake. I take pride in baking things from scratch not only for holidays, but for parties as well. I enjoy thinking of menu options which match the theme for our Halloween parties, but also like to do some typical Halloween treats. This year I decided to make the following:

1. Aunt Hilda's Vegetable Pie

This idea was from the episode in season one where Sabrina's aunts Hilda and Zelda are chosen to make a meal for the High Priest. Hilda decides to make a vegetable pie and Zelda cooks a child (I told you the show was dark). The High Priest enjoyed Hilda's vegetable pie more, and obviously I went with that as well LOL. Here's the recipe I used and everyone said it tasted really good! I was glad to hear that because this was the only thing I wasn't able to taste test and it went quick, so I didn't have any at the party either.

2. Pumpkin Cheese Ball

This is a cheese ball that's rolled in crushed up Doritos and has a green pepper stem on the top to make it look like a pumpkin. It was super cute and very tasty. Here's the recipe. I used ground garlic jalapeno since that was all I could find and I didn't add the cumin. It turned out great!

3. Aunt Hilda's Roast Chicken with Rosemary and Thyme

I got this idea from the episode in season two where Hilda and Sabrina try to save Ambrose from the academy. Hilda makes roasted chicken with rosemary and thyme because she knows the wicked sisters won't be able to resist eating it. She also knows they'll only throw the bones to Ambrose to mess with him while he's locked away and that he would use the bones to make a skeleton key to escape. This recipe was easy and super delicious! I used wings and drumsticks instead of thighs. Not the prettiest picture since I didn't take the chicken out of the oven until the party officially started.

4. Witch Fingers with Blood Sauce

The show is about witches and this is a popular Halloween party treat, so why not? I took refrigerated pizza dough and cut it into small strips and then formed them to look like little fingers. I mixed melted butter and garlic salt and brushed that on each "finger" and then baked them at 375 degrees for about 10-15 minutes or until they were golden. I placed an almond on the tip of each one to make it look like a fingernail directly after they came out of the oven. I served them with marinara sauce to look like "blood."

5. Aunt Hilda's Pumpkin Brown Butter Cupcakes

I found this when looking for ideas on what to make for a Sabrina themed party. I didn't have much luck and came up with everything on my own except for this. Someone had this idea based off the 'Feast of Feasts' episode where Hilda makes a truth cake for the pre-dinner celebration. One bite and you won't be able to tell a lie. It was a brown butter marzipan cake with brandied currants. This recipe is a spin off that. They were really tasty!

6. Spellman Mortuary Graveyard Dip

I was originally going to make guacamole, but judging from our past Halloween parties everyone seems to love my buffalo chicken dip a lot, so I made that instead. I cut out pita rounds to look like gravestones and toasted them in the oven at 375 degrees for about 5-8 minutes and then stuck them in the dip to make it look like a graveyard. Sabrina, her aunts and her cousin live in a house which doubles as their mortuary business. There is a cemetery in the front yard where if you bury someone there they come back to life again. I thought it went with the theme, even if it didn't look too appealing LOL! I doubled the recipe to make a lot of it since I know it's a guest favorite. I also made it in a pot on the stove and refrigerated it until I was ready to warm it up in the oven right before the party. I usually make it in the crock pot just like the recipe suggests. It'll work either way just fine!

7. Aunt Hilda's Fresh Baked Bread

If you've watched the show, you know Aunt Hilda is ALWAYS cooking and baking (probably why I love her character so much). She makes fresh baked bread in one of the episodes. I decided to use my bread maker machine and make some olive oil and rosemary bread. It was a huge hit and almost all of it was gone before all of our guests arrived - I probably should've made two loaves! I served it with strawberry preserves and orange marmalade since Hilda is always making her own - I just bought some in a jar at the store though. I got the recipe from the recipe/instruction book which came with our Cuisinart bread machine.

8. Malum Malus Mini Caramel Apples

This was from the episode in season one where Sabrina has to go find the oldest tree in the orchard since it contains the "malum malus" apple. When you take a bite from it, it'll predict your future. I love caramel apples, but can never finish a whole one so I decided to make some bite-sized ones as an easy-to-eat appetizer for our guests. The recipe I used was full of tips on how to make them the right way so they don't fall apart, but it wasn't the easiest. I had to immediately put them in the freezer after dipping each one and I kept them in the freezer for about 24 hours to prevent the caramel from melting.

9. Sabrina's Dark Baptism Cake

This was my favorite thing I made from the party. I've seen other people reinvent these cakes from the show too, so I can't take all the credit for it. I made the entire thing from scratch. I then covered it in Wilton brand store bought fondant. I always wanted to make a cake with drip icing and my first one turned out great! However, I had to make sure I found one that could be used on fondant. Here's a tip: if you're doing drip icing on a frosted cake, make a white chocolate ganache (you can use gel food coloring to make it whatever color you want)...if you're doing drip icing on a fondant cake like me, use a royal icing recipe (which you can also color with gel food coloring). I went a little crazy at first because I didn't plan on covering my cake in fondant, but needed to in order to get the look I was going for, which was Sabrina's Dark Baptism Cake from the show. It took a little more time and another trip to the store (for Jon) to get it the way I visioned, but I am super happy with it and it tasted SO good! They never said what flavor the cake was on the show, so I used this devils food cake recipe because I thought it went with the dark theme of the show and because Sabrina is signing her life away to the devil during her dark baptism. I ordered the red candles from amazon to complete the look. After making this cake, I now want to make more drip icing cakes because it was so much fun to do that part!

I also always have Halloween candy at our parties (of course) and decided to put them in a witch's cauldron to match the theme. I downloaded the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina font and made the signs for everything. We also decorated the outside of our house for Halloween the first time this year, which I'm very excited about!

Everyone enjoyed everything I made, which was really nice to hear since I poured a lot of time, energy and love into each and everything I created. I really enjoyed planning this one and it made me super excited to hear the release date and see the trailer for season three - hopefully soon!