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Halloween season seems to bring out the crafty witch in me, as if a spell is cast over my hands and spooky fun begins to swirl. A recent trip to one of The 99 Cents Only Stores proved to be most valuable. You never know what you’ll find when 99-ing, there is always something new and exciting on the shelves. I roamed the isles in amazement of all the awesome halloween candy the 99 had stocked. My mind started with it’s antics of how I could use all this themed candy and build the ultimate candy box for Halloween. One with a haunted cookie house and mini graveyard attached to it. It could be used either as a centerpiece at a party or on Halloween night to dispense treats to all the neighborhood ghouls.
I calculated what the cost of this project would total at the 99 vs. any other retailer. My head said ” #DoThe99 it’s completely in your budget.” That’s all I had to hear…. I started to fill my cart with candy bags and all of my favorite name brands at a price that can’t be beat. At .99 cents a bag why would I shop anywhere else? My local retailer has halloween candy priced at $6 dollars a bag! The 99 is the ideal one stop Halloween shop and I was able to find EVERYTHING I needed for my project.
In addition to the epic candy selection, I found wafer cookies (to build my haunted house with), cereal, cotton candy, ice cream cones, Big Hunk candy bars, jolly ranchers hard candy, hot glue gun, glue sticks, cool little toy skeletons, plastic toy rats, and glow in the dark bats all for 99 cents! I was set. Okay…. yeah, I’m #99obsessed , you will be too when you go in and find all your Halloween needs under one roof at the most affordable price.
Let’s get started on this Epic Haunted House Halloween Candy Box!
What you’ll need:
- 4 packages of Colombina chocolate sugar wafers
- hot glue or royal icing (depends on if you will eat the haunted house or if it is purely for decoration)
- 1 box ChocoRoni’s cereal
- 2 packages chocolate sandwich cookies
- 2 Big Hunk candy bars
- Jolly Ranchers
- pointy shaped ice cream cones
- cotton candy
- Halloween Candy (How many bags you purchase is up to you)
- A box
- A flat board
Directions:
- Glue chocolate sugar wafer cookies together in groups of two with either royal icing or hot glue, depending on if you’ll be eating the haunted cookie house or if it will just be for decoration.
- Then draw out the shape of your haunted house by measuring out 4 walls, and the roof on papper. I made mine with a double A frame roof. Cut out your house pattern and set to the side to use as a stencil.
- Now piece the sugar wafer cookies together by glueing them in big enough measurements to cut out your stencils. Allow them to dry overnight before cutting.
- Place stencil on top of cookie wall and cut with a sharp little knife or scissors.
- Now to assemble the house: Pipe royal icing or glue along the side walls. Join the walls together to make the base of your haunted house. Hold in place for a couple of minutes until it sets. Let dry for a minimum of one hour befor moving on to the next step.
- Attach roof one panel at a time by piping the royal icing or glue onto the top side of the walls, then carefully place your roof section into place. If you are using more than one section for the roof, carefully place each section and allow the glue or royal icing to set before adding the next section. Adjust as you go so the seams meet.
- Let the frame of the house dry for at least 4 hours before you start to decorate.
- Let’s Decorate: Use whatever Halloween Candy you wish from the 99 and make it your own. Below are a few tips on how I decorated my house.
- Roof: I used royal icing and round chocolate cereal balls to create a cottage-like looking M shaped roof. I dabbed a little royal icing on the back of each cereal ball and stuck it to the roof.
- To make a skeleton skull door: I placed a 3-inch skeleton skull cookie cutter on a no-stick baking liner/sheet and filled it with 2 tablespoons of crushed jolly ranchers. I then baked it in the oven at 450 degrees for 3 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool for one minute on the counter before removing the cookie cutter. This will ensure it keeps it’s shape. Once completely cooled, draw a face onto the candy skull with icing. Then stick onto cookie house with royal icing.
- Window shutters: I cut one wafer cookie down the middle making two long strips, then glued little candy skeleton bones on top. I allowed them to dry completely then I glued them to the house. Once the shutters were dried on to the house I glued a ghost lollipop candy to one to give the appearance of it flying out of the house.
- Chimney: I used a pointed ice cream cone and broke the pointy bit off. Then I cut the bottom at an edge to fit perfectly against my roof. I glued the chimney onto the roof with royal icing, and let it dry into place. I then stuck a piece of cotton candy coming out of the top for a smoke appearance.
- Graveyard: I crumbled chocolate cookies on a board to create cookie dirt. I sprinkled it evenly all over the board then placed my haunted cookie house on top. Leaving a space on the front side of the house to create a mini graveyard. Then I cut pieces of Big Hunk candy bars into tomb shapes and wrote on them with icing. Carefully place the tombstones in the front of the house, and decorate with toy skeletons or gummi worms.
- Grab a box and fill with Halloween Candy from the 99. Then place haunted house graveyard board on one side of the box. Allow candy to flow out of the box and fall onto table.
- Epic Haunted House/Graveyard Halloween Candy Box all bought at the 99.
- Happy Halloween! #dothe99
