Who says Halloween candy is only for the kids? I mean some of my fondest childhood memories involve a crappy Halloween costume and a white pillowcase filled with trick-or-treating loot. At the end of the night my brother and I raced home and dumped our tooth-rotting Halloween bounty into our respective corners of the living room and rifled through to find our favorites (my short list included sour patch kids, sugar daddies and peanut butter cups). We started another small pile of the candy we were willing to trade (always smarties and black licorice, which I couldn't stand but thankfully my brother loved). Then we'd obligingly let our mom inspect for razor blades (all you trick-or-treaters from late 80's know what I'm talkin' bout) before stuffing our faces with so much sugar that we chased each other in circles for half an hour before we crashed and laid supine on the living room floor.
My Halloween festivities are slightly more civilized these days, but they still always involve some form of candy. If you can't indulge on Halloween then when can you?!? I know I'm not alone; most people love the nostalgia of traditional Halloween candy. Which is why I like to use candy corn and mellowcreme pumpkins in any Halloween candy spread, but I mix them with a few more grown-up (i.e. not as sweet) treats, like black licorice, malt balls and chocolate covered peanuts.
This year, I decided to play around with using different vases and glassware that I have at home as the serving vessels to give traditional Halloween candy a more grownup, stylish look. Just use what you have around the house, and try to find vessels with varying heights. Get creative and use empty glass salsa jars (well washed of course) or glass bowls if you don't have enough glassware. Here's a list of the glassware I used, from left to right: a Spiegelau Stemmed Pilsner Glass for chocolate malt balls from Sahadi's, a cylinder vase for the Haribo black licorice wheels, a tall Simon Pearce Woodbury Vase (one of the best and most often used wedding gifts we got many years ago) for the peanut butter chocolate wrapped candies, a short cylinder vases for the Hampton Candy Co. orange and black gummy bears, a mini martini glass for the chocolate-covered peanuts (also from Sahadi's), and a Riedel Overture Red Wine Glass for the mallowcreme pumpkins.
Check back over the weekend for making a mini Halloween candy tray display and styling it a few different ways, or sign-up for Stylish Spoon's e-newsletter (Subscribe Via E-mail grey box on the right) so you don't miss a single post.
Happy early Halloween!