Rating Fall drinks/pastries + Making Halloween treats

Happy Halloween Season!

For this article, I wanted to try some new Fall drinks and pastries plus bake some Halloween goodies with some of my favorite people: my husband Kristian, one of my best friends Roy and brother Ivan.

Love them but don't let their innocent faces fool you ... they are extremely good at pushing my buttons.

Still, I'm thankful they were nice enough to tag along and help out with these fun activities I had planned to write about for my website. They know how much I like Halloween :)

A few days after I published the first part to my Spooky Season Series is when my husband and brother joined me in trying some Autumn treats!

Starbucks & Dunkin' Donuts

We had a full day planned one weekend and eventually stopped by a Starbucks. We got a couple of different things:

1) Iced Chai Tea Latte with Salted Cream Cold Foam

2) Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew with extra Pumpkin Foam & extra vanilla syrup

3) Warm Pumpkin Loaf

4) Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffin

My brother got the Iced chai Tea latte and pumpkin loaf for himself. His drink rating was 10/10 but only if the salted cream cold foam is added to it. I personally like chai tea, but I rarely order it. However, I took a sip of his drink and I'd have to agree with the perfect score he gave it. The salted cream cold foam gives it that perfect sweet & salty mixture of flavor which I know some people don't like, but if you're the type to not mind that combination, we highly suggest this drink.

As for the warm pumpkin loaf, the overall rating is either an 8 or 9. My brother and I tend to always order warm loafs or croissants from Starbucks, so it truly depends on what you prefer. We do like it enough that if we don't order it during the fall or winter, it's considered a tragedy. It goes well with any drink - hot or iced!

I ordered the pumpkin spice cold brew with extra pumpkin cold foam and extra vanilla syrup. Possibly the most basic drink you can get this season, but I feel no shame. It's one of my favorites if done correctly. That being said, my rating for this is 8/10 just because it's either a hit or miss depending on what Starbucks I order it from. I prefer it when they take the time to mix it appropriately versus them handing it to me that's a perfect half. Now I ask them to mix it for me in case they don't do it, but it still comes out tasting funky.

My husband got himself the pumpkin cream cheese muffin. Believe it or not, that's the one pastry none of us have tried before so of course we all had to try and give it our own rating. We all thought it tasted exactly the same as the warm pumpkin loaf, but the muffin is better just because it has that delicious and creamy filling to add in more sweetness. It's a decent size where I think two people could share it, but it's so good that it makes it difficult to share in the first place. Like the pumpkin loaf, this pumpkin cream cheese muffin could go with any drink. If you haven't gone to purchase it yet, do yourself a favor and go as soon as possible!

A few days after trying things from Starbucks, my husband went to Dunkin' Donuts one morning to pick up random things from their Fall menu. He got:

1) NEW Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew

2) NEW Apple Cranberry Refresher

3) Apple Cider Donut

4) MUNCHKINS Pumpkin Donut Hole Treats

I did not try the apple cranberry refresher, but my husband liked it. He prefers refreshers or any drink/dessert that has more of a fruity taste to it. I, on the other hand, love coffee or anything chocolate. His rating for that refresher is 7/10.

Of course I had to try their pumpkin cream cold brew which was very good - I give it a 9/10. If anything, I liked it more than the Starbucks one just because I thought it was sweeter and nicely mixed. Both Kristian and I shared the apple cider donut and the munchkin pumpkin donut holes and let me tell you, they did not disappoint. Those easily deserve a 10/10. When comparing those to the pastries at Starbucks, I'd say it just comes down to what you're specifically craving in the moment. We turned out to be more picky with the drinks, but the pastries in both places are equally delicious.

Making Halloween Treats @ Roy's

This day was very fun and eventful. Kristian and I went over to Roy's apartment this past weekend and I had a list of all the different desserts we were going to make. Unfortunately, it went downhill and we only ended up making 2 types of desserts, and yet I only took ONE picture.

Please notice the bottom 3 "normal" ghosts that I proudly made vs. the other crazy looking ghosts both Kristian and Roy decided to decorate.

I'll admit it made me laugh eventually but at first I was like "WHY?"

They added all the fun in decorating the treats as you can tell by the one picture.

All the treats we made plus the ones I had in mind that didn't really work out are from this website that offers so many cute Halloween treats:

https://insanelygoodrecipes.com/halloween-desserts/

The ghost cookies were the first thing we made and they are fairly easy if you want to make some yummy treats:

Ghost Halloween Cookies

For ingredients and steps, click the link below for reference:

https://butterwithasideofbread.com/easy-ghost-halloween-cookies/

The other treats we successfully made but did not take pictures of are little witch hat cookies.

These were fairly easy too, so I highly recommend making these plus the ghost halloween cookies and you'll have more than enough cookies in a good amount of time.

Witch Hat Cookies

For ingredients and steps, go to:

https://dizzybusyandhungry.com/witch-hat-cookies/

Since we used both Ritz crackers and thin Oreo's, I'd have to say that the Ritz crackers dipped in chocolate taste a lot better than the Oreo's. I guess it goes back to what I wrote in the beginning of this article: I prefer the sweet/salty mix rather than just pure sweet.

The other 2 treats we tried making were Candy Corn Chocolate Chip cookies and Dark Chocolate Halloween Chip cookies. My husband did manage to sort of make the candy corn ones, but they came out broken in different pieces since something went wrong in mixing the candy corn in with the cookie batter. After a while, we just decided not to make the dark chocolate ones since we got caught up playing games and watching a Disney movie.

On a side note, speaking of games and movies, Roy had me play this video game, Surgeon Simulator, but basically you play a surgeon and you have to operate on patients in a timely manner. Needless to say, Roy enjoyed his time laughing at me as always, but I feel like I eventually got it! And the Disney movie we watched was Cruella which was excellent. It was well made, it had great acting and the storyline was pretty good. Overall, we had a nice Halloween themed day of treats, games and a movie.

So yes, it has been very fun trying to keep up with all the things I've been wanting to do to post on my website. Not perfect the way I imagined it since we didn't get to make all the treats I wanted or try out more coffee places, but still so fun and special.

Thanks to those who keep up with my articles - it means a lot and believe me when I say I have a lot of fun writing for all of you.