Today I've got a really special treat for all of you! This Sweet Spell Sunday is about an edible castle I made over the weekend!
This castle was inspired by all of the amazing, spooky castles I saw in my time abroad in Romania!
The base of the castle is a recipe I made up myself for Cocoa Molasses Cookies.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 generous tbsp molasses
- 2 2/3 cup flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
Directions:
Preheat your oven at 350 and line baking sheets with parchment paper. Mix the butter, sugar, egg, vanilla, and molasses in one bowl. Mix the dry ingredients in another bowl and then slowly add them to the liquids bowl.
Once everything is blended, chill it for about 20-30 min until it's hard enough to roll out on a clean, flat surface. Then you can cut out whatever shapes you'd like and transfer them to the baking sheet.
Bake for about 15 minutes, and you're all set!
I then spray-painted the castle black with Wilton food spray to give it a weathered look. Besides the castle pieces, I also used the cookie dough to make a few tombstones which I assembled on the tray with a bottom layer of chocolate pudding, topped with crushed chocolate cookies and graham crackers.
I used piping chocolate to make gates and piped buttercream to make the vines around the pumpkins. The pumpkins and lion crests are from Trader Joe's and Godiva.
The towers of the castle are made by coating paper towel rolls and ice cream cones in chocolate. So the cylinders of the towers are the only thing not edible on this dessert!
The meringue ghosts I made with my favorite meringue recipe. After they cooled, I added the eyes by painting them on with black food coloring.
Now what makes the castle extra magical?
It lights up. Yup. You heard me right.
I cut a hole in the back of the castle like I did the front, to leave room for a cord of string lights to be fed through the hole and into the base of the castle. Once plugged in, the lights illuminated the inside of the castle!
