Phill and I attended a joint birthday party on Halloween night and of course it was Halloween-themed. I’d never attended a Halloween party before since I don’t celebrate the occasion, but I went since it was a birthday party and I made the mammoth effort of wearing a long black dress with a black pointy hat so I would pass for a half-hearted witch. There were quite a lot of people not in costume plus heaps in full costume, so it was a good mix.

Phill had stumbled across a blog post where the blogger made “orange rind votives” – basically an orange is cut in half, hollowed out and decorated with whole cloves and then put back together with a tea light candle in the base so it glows through the orange. They looked really awesome (and spooky!) and Phill’s first thought was that they looked very Halloweeny, so we decided to make four and take them with us.

They worked very well and were so simple to make. For step-by-step, illustrated instructions, click here.

We had a bit of fun spooning out the orange pulp from the insides (we just used a normal dessert spoon), because  the orange juices kept squirting everywhere! I copped a few in the eye, which stung, and I even got some orange juice up my nose! Instead of using a cookie cutter to cut holes out of the top, Phill used a knife to cut different shapes. The oranges jack-o-lanterns lasted a long time and didn’t catch fire, which I was worried about!

It’s a fuzzy photo, but it shows how the oranges helped to “Halloween-up” the table spread, along with a couple carved pumpkins. Kudos if you can spot the undead baby crawling on the table.

Perhaps I should have posted this before Halloween in case anyone wanted to make them, but oh well – there’s always next year. Or Christmas! These would look great on the Christmas dinner table.