Zombie Punch Food

ZOMBIE PUNCH

Steps:

• Special equipment: toothpicks, a muffin tin, a punch bowl and glasses
• For the eyeball ice cubes: Cut off and discard the top quarter of each orange. Carefully hollow out the oranges (a grapefruit spoon or knife works well for this) and reserve the orange pulp. Put a blueberry in the bottom of each orange and use a toothpick to secure it. Make 8 short cuts along the edge of each orange to make tabs. Then fold back every other tab to make eyelashes. Put a blueberry in each lychee to create the pupil of an eye. Then attach the lychees to the oranges by pushing them on the toothpicks to secure. (Try not to poke all the way through.) Place the oranges in the cups of a muffin tin. Carefully fill the oranges about 1/2 inch from the top with the pineapple juice. Freeze until solid, 4 hours or overnight, removing the toothpicks about halfway through freezing.
• For the punch: Puree the strawberries in a blender with the vodka and triple sec. Pour into a punch bowl. Add the pineapple juice and stir well. Top with the ginger ale. Add the eyeball ice cubes.
• For the black rim: Put the sanding sugar on a shallow plate. Put the reserved orange juice in a shallow bowl. Dip the rim of a punch glass into the juice and then coat with sanding sugar before filling with punch.
• Cook's Note: For the ice cubes, you may need to put 2 blueberries in each lychee depending on how deep the lychee hole is.

ZOMBIE EYEBALL PUNCH

Steps:

• In a saucepan, bring the cream, sugar and lemon extract to a simmer. Slowly sprinkle the calcium lactate into the pan and mix with a hand blender. Chill.
• Meanwhile prepare the molds (I use a small flexi-mold, but any mold that is able to be flexible will do) with a dot of melted chocolate to resemble a pupil, and place in the refrigerator to set. Then brush the blue cocoa butter to resemble the iris, and pipe in the jelly to resemble bloody veins.
• Once the cream mixture is cold, whip to a soft peak using a hand mixer. Pipe into the prepared molds and freeze until set.
• Unmold the eyeballs and leave them soaking in the Alginate Solution for about 2 minutes. Then rinse with cold water and store in the fridge until you are ready to serve.
• Place the eyeballs in a dish (2 each is appropriately scary) and top with the lime soda. I find that a clear soda without color gives the eyeballs a better look and flavor.
• Sprinkle the sodium alginate into the water and, using a hand blender, mix the solution until there is no more visible powder left. This takes a couple of minutes. Chill the solution until you are ready to use it.