I’ll be honest and say that during the pandemic I fell down the TikTok rabbit hole. I like watching tutorial videos like Buzzfeed Tasty and, recently, these have been Halloween themed. What would be a better use of my time than making and reviewing some of the most popular recipe videos I watched? I looked for cheap recipes that students could feasibly replicate at home. I considered the amount of time and effort needed, the taste factor, if they put me in a “spooky mood”, and whether I would make them again. I also wanted to make food that people (my flatmates) or myself would actually eat, because we are not about waste. 

 

Jack O’ Lantern Quesadillas 

I chose savoury “Jack O’ Lantern Quesadillas,” because it was a relatively easy recipe. It required stuffing two wraps with a filling of choice and cheese, then heating them until the cheese melted. The “special factor” came from cutting out triangles and a mouth on the tortilla so it looked like a carved pumpkin. Wraps are a lunch staple for me so I knew I would like this, but I was mostly impressed with my “carving” skills, and that I didn’t rip the wrap, so it looked pretty similar to those on TikTok. I put it in the oven to melt the cheese – this crisps up the wrap without the stress of having to flip it mid-cook, making the whole process easy and quick. It kind of broke when I took it out, but I think that was my fault for overfilling it. I used the broken wrap as nachos and thoroughly enjoyed it! This was an easy meal, very suitable for meal prep. The flavour, fullness, price and ease of making were all appealing. I will definitely make it again; the only let down was the “spook-factor” because the carving only removed tortilla bits (which I added to the filling because no waste here, folks!) which didn’t make me feel very “Halloween-y”. 9/10

 

Halloween Cookies

Next I tested cookies shaped and decorated into Halloween themed shapes. The cookies from TikTok were perfectly shaped and iced, and while I knew that I was probably not going to achieve this, I tried my best.  I combined butter and sugar, then added an egg and flour. The dough took a while to come together as it was quite sticky. The baker in the video froze the dough before rolling,  but I chilled it before and after rolling. Normally I would have dusted the dough with flour, but the TikTok recipe did not and I wanted to test the recipe, so I cut the first cookies without using flour, then trusted my instincts and added flour. I tried my best at cutting the shapes – I wasn’t going to buy cookie cutters just for this – and the dough cut quite easily after I chilled it the second time. They mostly held their shape, though they expanded in the oven a bit. My icing was very runny. I don’t know if this was because I didn’t use meringue powder like the recipe did, and didn’t whip it up (don’t have a mixer) but just mixed it with a spoon and adjusted its consistency accordingly. In hindsight I would add less liquid. I tried my best to decorate them with three colours and was pretty proud that I didn’t make my kitchen too messy. However, they looked nothing like the originals: the icing ran over them, pooling out at the sides, and any pattern or drawing I attempted just melted off. They looked like an art attack explosion; I felt like I was on Bake Off with time running out and having to decorate warm cookies, even though they were cool. The recipe baked them again once iced but I just left the icing to set. They tasted  good; crumbly, and buttery with lemony icing. However, they were quite plain and honestly, not cookies I would typically choose. The best decorated cookies looked quite pretty and did make me feel “spookier.” Overall they were easy to make (icing messiness aside).  6/10.

 

Rice Krispie Treats 

Last were Rice Krispies treats, which featured in many videos, perfectly made and shaped. I did a quick Google search and settled on a BBC Good Food recipe to follow, which was very easy. I melted butter and marshmallows, then added the cereal (I eyeballed this). The hardest part came after I added the cereal and tried to split the mix, setting one in a baking tray and shaping the rest into orange pumpkins. The mixture was VERY sticky to handle – I think I might not have added enough cereal, so I resorted to dusting them with icing sugar. I dipped some in white chocolate which was straightforward, and while they didn’t look like the pristine ones on TikTok, because they were supposed to look like “monsters” it was easy to roll with whatever their shape was. My “pumpkins” just looked like little blobs. I guess that’s what I get for eyeballing recipes, but in all fairness, the videos gave no measurements, just pictures of perfect treats, so I tried my best. These were very sweet (I mean what did I expect?!) though my flatmates loved them. They were also a bit of a hassle to make, so I probably wouldn’t make them again. I suppose I could say they looked quite spooky, but I think they just looked messy and the Halloween theme allowed me to get away with it.  4/10.

 

 

Concluding remarks:

The most frustrating thing about following TikTok recipes was that, unless the recipe was posted in the comments, I had to pause or screenshot the video, otherwise it played all the way through and I missed some information, and I would have to watch it again. Overall, none of my food looked like that in the videos, which could be my fault for cutting corners, but I wanted to show realistic, achievable results, rather than the perfect products you see online. I hope anyone reading this feels inspired to go make some sweet treats, no matter their skill level, because they put a smile on my flatmates’ faces, and now more than ever, doing a fun, wholesome and tasty activity to boost your spirit is essential.