jeepers creepers

            Reading Lord of the Rings with my oldest son, for my second time (millionth if you count watching the movies), I’m really struck by the descriptions of Sauron’s ever watchful eye.  The idea of this giant eye tracking the earth, looking for its dominion creating ring is chilling and is what planted the seed in my mind for these sugar glass eye domes.  Also, everything with slit pupils freaks. me. out. I almost get mad at goats who have soft fluff and adorable dangly ears, only to stare up at me with their scary eyes at petting farms.  Why are their eyes like that? Actually, I looked it up and it is so their field of vision is much wider to protect them from predators. But, still goats, urgs, why?  At least on reptiles and snakes the whole slit eyeball thing makes sense- they want to play up the whole “I’m reptilian and creepy” thing.  And it makes scientific sense, too, since they have really specialized wavelength specific sensitive cone vision cells that are grouped in definite location zones on their eyes- the slits allow their pupils to contract without any zones losing total light input.  And they also make a great Halloween cupcake topper!

            These sugar cones can’t really see, but they can cover up a frosting and sprinkles treat that is super fun to crack open and eat!  Or, you can just politely chomp through the eye to get to whatever surprise you decide to hide underneath.  But you do need to hide something underneath, since it is the season for tricks and treats.  These cupcakes are a two-for-one special!

Once your sugar glass has reached the 290 degree stage, instead of pouring it onto a flat cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, you need to spoon it into a silicon semi circle mold- swish it to coat the mold.  My mold holds 6, depending on the size of your sphere, you might have more or less to fill, once all have been swished, let the whole mold harden inverted on a piece of parchment paper, so the extra sugar can run down the sides and not pool up at the top. 

Gently remove spheres from molds once sugar is hardened and completely cool.

To make the actual eyeball, just mix a couple drops of food coloring with vodka and paint away: blood shot, slit pupiled, freaky googly eyes, whatever your vision for the shells, make it a reality! Let dry. 

Frost a cupcake and add a generous amount of sprinkles and then cover with your eyeball shell.  Give kids spoons or skeleton hands (hey, whatever you have around!) to crack the shells over for extra fun. 

The most unnerving scary movie quote about eyes has to be the one at the end of Rosemary’s Baby, where she desperately asks “what have you done to its eyes?” to a room full of geriatric Satan worshippers.  I don’t know how I watched this movie so many times in high school (at one point i was using it as a boyfriend litmus test, because I’m crazy like that), but I honestly could not watch it ever again, it is the most chilling of the scary movies to me because there really is no way that she could win.  I love the styling, the look of the movie and everything about Mia Farrow, but even thinking about pregnancy and feminism and pre-war walk ups through this lens just gives me the shudders. The eerie thing about this movie is years later while talking with my best friend and movie buff I emphatically declared that they show the baby, with creepy eyes, at the end of the movie.  My friend protested and I thought she just hadn’t watched carefully.  But my head literally imagined the last scene, because Polanski never shows the baby at all, yet the vision of it is locked perfectly in my mind along with all of Farrow’s perfectly perfect baby doll dresses and Vidal Sassoon haircut.  Its that kind of movie, the kind that gets in your head.   But it is such a classic, and everyone should see it at least once, preferably with a big book of essays by Audre Lorde by your side to read afterwards to perk you up and feel ready to face the world again.  And you will need fuel to do that, so have a cupcake.  We’ve come a long way, baby…right?  Really, I’m asking for real.  Urgs. This is why we have cupcakes 🙂