Here are a couple of ghoulish drinks for next Wednesday night, using Orchard Gold berries:

GREEN SLIME SMOOTHIES

INGREDIENTS	HOW TO MAKE THIS	WHAT BERRIES TO USE
2 cups Orchard Gold Smoothie Mixed Berries 2 cups spinach  2 cups fruit juice 1 banana honey to taste (optional) 8 sweet and sour jelly worms	Place all the ingredients except the worms into a blender and process until smoothe.     Pour into glasses and dangle worms over the edge of the rim.

WITCHES' BREW

INGREDIENTS	HOW TO MAKE THIS	SOPHIA'S WITCHES' BREW
1 pack Orchard Gold raspberries or smoothie berries 2 packs raspberry jelly  2 tablespoon gelatine extra 2 Disposable latex-free rubber  gloves (washed carefully, both  inside and out, then turn the   glove inside out) 2 litres sparkling water 1 litre lemonade 1 litre ginger ale sweet and sour jelly fruit worms or spiders to serve. This mixture makes up 2 frozen hands.  You could make 1 frozen hand and pour the rest into a bowl to set.	Put the raspberry jelly mixes into a large bowl and add the extra gelatine.  Make up with 3 cups of boiling water and stir until dissolved.   Stir in the Orchard Gold frozen berries.  Let the mixture cool and thicken slightly.   Pour the berry jelly mixture into the gloves, leaving enough room to tie off the gloves.  Tie the top of each glove securely with kitchen string.  Freeze until solid - this can be done several days before.   To serve, cut the glove away from the frozen jelly to leave a red hand which should be leant on the side of a punch bowl, fingers up.  Pour in the sparkling water and lemonade  and serve with jelly fruit worms or spiders floating on top.	And Jelly made with the left-overs

And for those brave enough, imagine spending the night at the home of the boysenberry, Knotts Berry Farm, see http://www.knotts.com/haunt2012 for further details, if you dare.

For those of us fortunate enough to live in Auckland, Kim Evans' Little and Friday Cafes on the North Shore and in Newmarket tempt us willingly with treats such as doughnuts, lamingtons, cakes and tarts.    We also enjoy Kim's book "Treats from Little and Friday" - available in all good book stores.

Kim has shared her Doughnut recipe with us.  

Doughnuts with Raspberry and Cream Recipe (makes 15) Dough: 550ml milk 60g fresh yeast, crumbled, or 3 tsp dried yeast  6 and a half cups of flour  3 tsp salt half a cup of caster sugar  3 eggs  140g unsalted butter   · In a saucepan, heat milk over a medium heat until lukewarm. Remove from heat and sprinkle over the yeast. Stir until yeast has dissolved. · Place dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. Using an electric beater with a dough hook attachment, mix at a low speed. If you do not have a beater, mix by hand to fully combine. · Add yeast mixture and eggs to a bowl, continuing to mix at a low speed. Mix until a sticky dough forms. · Stop mixer and scrape down dough from sides of bowl. Increase to medium speed and mix for a further 10 minutes until an elastic, shiny dough forms and pulls away from the bowl. If doing this by hand, tip dough onto bench and knead for 10 minutes. · Cut butter into small pieces and gradually add to dough mixture, mixing until well combined. · Cover bowl with a tea-towel and allow dough to prove until it has almost doubled in size. Tip dough onto a floured bench. It is now ready to use.

Filling: Half a cup of Raspberry Coulis  (see below) Oil for frying  2 and half cups of cream  Icing sugar to coat   · Roll out dough on a floured bench to 4 cm thick. Using an 8 cm cookie cutter, cut out 15 circles. · Allow dough to prove for 15-20 minutes, depending on weather. It will need less time if it is a warm day. You will know it is ready when a dry skin forms on dough. · Pour oil into a large saucepan to 2 cm deep and heat to 180 degrees Celsius. To cook donuts accurately you need a thermometer. If you are not using one, heat the oil over a medium heat - once it starts smoking it is too hot. · Depending on the saucepan size, drop several donuts at a time into the hot oil. You do not want them to touch or they will stick together. Cook for 2 minutes on each side. You want dough to be quite dark and crisp. Remove and allow to cool. · Once cool, poke a hole into each donut with the handle of a teaspoon to create a cavity. · Fill a piping bag with Raspberry Coulis and squeeze 1 tsp into each cavity. · Use a clean piping bag to fill cavities with cream - fill each donut until it starts to expand. · Dust each donut liberally with icing sugar.

For the raspberry couli mix 1 cup of Orchard Gold raspberries with 1-2 tablespoons of icing sugar in a saucepan and warm to dissolve the sugar and thaw the raspberries.    Strain into a small bowl to remove the seeds if preferred.