BLOOD DRIP!

Yesterday we had a little Halloween get-together with some friends.  I'll post pictures from that on our family blog later.  Julia and I first began talking about having this get-together when we were looking around at Target (as we do almost every week.... Target NEVER gets boring!) and we saw these Halloween blood-drip glasses:

We were imagining how fun it would be to pretend to drink blood from these glasses (yeah, we think things like that are fun) and decided that we needed to have a Halloween party so we could drink from them.  I seriously considered buying some of these glasses (which are actually plastic), but they were $3 each, which adds up fast when you want to have 8 or 10 of them.  And I always feel bad to buy holiday things at full price when we all know they're going to be half off in just a few weeks.  So I put them back on the shelf and we kept planning our party.

We ended up going to Wal-Mart and buying glass goblets for less than half the price of those Target plastic ones and planned that when we got home that night we'd search the internet for ways of making our own blood-drip on them.  So, without further ado, here it is.............

These pictures were taken last Thursday (Oct 6) when we got together and decorated for the party.  I really LOVE the way these glasses turned out!  I think they are so much cuter than the Target goblets, and they were so fun and EASY to do.  And the best part is that after the party you can clean off the "blood" and have nice glasses to use for other holidays or special occasions.  I just soaked our glasses in hot water and the candy came off in less than 5 minutes.  I'm really glad I didn't waste money on those Target cups.

Julia already had a candy thermometer and Karo syrup, so we didn't have to buy anything extra to make this.  We were worried that the hot temperature would break the glass, but it didn't hurt it at all.  I would definitely NOT use plastic cups, though, if you decide to do this because they would melt.  After you dip the glasses in the candy and wait for them to cool, you'll hear some quiet cracking noises (and we were worried that it was the glass cracking) but it's just the candy cracking a little bit as it cools - it doesn't break the glass at all.  The one single regret I have about making these blood-drip glasses is that I didn't look at the D.I. before buying goblets at Wal-Mart.  I happened to stop at the D.I. last week and found that they had a large selection of glass goblets for 50 cents each.  The ones from Wal-Mart were $1.25 each.  At the D.I. near my house I could have even bought 8-10 matching goblets if I'd wanted, but there were also a ton of different kinds, and I think mismatched goblets are just as cute as matching ones for holiday parties.

Since we made these 2 days before the party, I stored them by covering each glass in plastic wrap and putting them back on our shelf.  That kept any dust from getting on the candy, and when we took them out Saturday and took the plastic off for the party, they were all ready to go.

I found the recipe for making this blood-drip from this website:

Source: hostessblog.com via April on Pinterest

I originally found it through Google and then I pinned it to my Pinterest (I don't want to give credit to the wrong internet source, okay).  I like the way our blood-drip turned out better than the one on her website because hers was a little too candy-red.  Julia had the idea to add a few drops of black food coloring to the mix and that made it a deeper red, which is obviously much more realistic.  And being realistic is important when pretending to drink blood.

If you are interested in making these blood-drip glasses (for a Halloween party or even a.... Twilight party) and for some crazy reason can't get to that blog, here are the recipe and instructions:

The “blood rim” is made from the same kind of mixture as you’d use to make hard candy. It’s actually pretty easy, but you will need a candy thermometer (which you can find at most grocery stores).

Ingredients:
1 c. Sugar
1/2 c. Karo Syrup
1/2 c. Water
Red Food Coloring

Directions:
Combine sugar, syrup and water. Cook without stirring to hard crack stage – which is 300 degrees F. Add food coloring.

Turn off heat. While the mixture is still hot, dunk the top of the cocktail glass into the mixture to create the red rim. If you need to do several glasses, keep the mixture hot so it lasts longer (instead of turning heat off, just reduce slightly).You can go anywhere from just along the very tip of the rim to part way down the glass – whichever you prefer. Flip the glass right side up to cool. The thick consistency of the mixture will cause “drips” as it hardens on the glass!