Eyeball Themed Treats and Desserts

Following on from my recent DIY edible eyes post, I had eyeballs on the brain, and decided to try out a few more ideas in preparation for Halloween.  Today I'm going to share three different eyeball themed treats, some healthier than others!

Although I do try to share healthy ideas as much as possible here on the Eats Amazing blog, we all deserve a treat sometimes - I'm a great believer in 'everything in moderation', so I don't mind my children having the odd sweet or chocolate as long as their overall diet is good.

Frozen Yogurt Eyeballs

First up are some yogurt eyeballs, made from natural yogurt, so not so unhealthy after all! I used a silicone mould from Lakeland for this project, but they seem to have discontinued them, so the bottom half of a cake pop mould like this one would work just as well.

These were easy to make but just took a little thinking ahead, as the yogurt was frozen in two parts.

To make, first gather together your supplies - raisins, natural yogurt, gel food colouring (I used blue, but you could use any colour), a silicone mould and a squeezy bottle.

Pick out the biggest raisins you can find and pop one in each section of the silicone mould.

In a small bowl, mix some of the yogurt with a few drops of the food colouring, then transfer to the squeezy bottle.

Holding the bottle directly over a raisin, squeeze a large drop of the coloured yogurt into the silicone mould, taking care to get the shape as round as possible.

If you don't have a squeezy bottle, you can do this step with a teaspoon, but it may be more difficult to get a round shape.  Repeat with rest of the sections.

Put the mould into the freezer and freeze for an hour or so until the yogurt has set.

Take the mould out of the freezer, and top up with plain natural yogurt to make the whites of the eyes.

Return to the freezer and freeze until solid.

When ready to eat, pop the eyeballs out of the mould and into a bowl, then serve immediately.  Small Child ate his using a set of children's chopsticks, and really enjoyed the additional challenge of chasing them around the bowl before eating them!

Just a note: If you are concerned about using food colouring, you could also try fruit puree or a fruit flavoured yoghurt to make the coloured part of the eyes.

Jelly Eyeballs

Next up are some fun jelly eyeballs!

I made these using the same mould, but again a cake pop mould would work just as well.  I used sugar-free jelly to make these, but you can use whatever jelly you prefer.  Raisins could also be used in the place of the blueberries.

I served them up by themselves in a bowl, but forgot to take a photo! I did also pop some of them into a bowl of natural yogurt to make a fun dessert, and managed to remember my camera that time!

These were really simple to make - just make up your jelly according to the packet instructions, pop a blueberry in each section of the mould, then pour over the jelly and pop it in the fridge to set.

The tricky part comes when you try to remove the eyeballs from the mould.  After a bit of trial and error, I found the best way to do it was to pour some really hot water into a roasting tin, then dip the bottom of the mould into the water for 10 seconds or so.  The eyeballs should then slide out easily.

Take care to hold the mould steady as you lift it up so you don't drop them into the water - this disaster befell most of the first batch I made as they were very slippery!

Marshmallow Eyeballs

Last up was a yummy treat which I trialled last week in advance of a possible Halloween party I'm thinking of throwing.  These went down very well with everyone who tried them, and again, were very simple to make!

All you need for these are a bag of marshmallows (Sainsbury's do sugar-free ones if you want to minimise sugar intake), a tube of smarties, a bar of white chocolate, black gel food colouring and a red edible marker pen.

To make, break up the chocolate into a small microwave safe bowl. Melt in the microwave by heating in short bursts and stirring in between until just melted.

Carefully dip a smartie in the chocolate and stick to the top of a marshmallow.  Repeat until all of the marshmallows are topped with a smartie.

Using the edible marker pen (or a fine paint brush dipped in red food colouring), draw wiggly lines on the marshmallows radiating out from the smarties.

Finish by adding the pupils with a cotton bud dipped in the black food colouring.

Do you have any favourite Halloween treats? I'd love to hear your ideas in the comments below!

Grace

Don't forget to pin this post to your Halloween board so that you can find it again!