The Pastry Guru's tricks will help you up your treat game!

Time to get into the treats for Halloween, and we're not talking about that pre-wrapped candy you buy at the store, we talking about delicious pastries that are so good they're scary! Jonathan Elias, the owner of The Pastry Guru, is here to share his tricks for some delicious treats. He competed on the Halloween Baking Championships on the Food Network, so he is quite experienced in making some tasty, but spooky desserts. So here is his advice for making your own goodies at home.

1) Stick with what you know. The basics are a good thing to build up from. If you like making cookies, make cookies. If you are not a baker and you generally buy things from the store, still do that. Take Elias' mummy cannoli; if you don't want to make your own cannoli, buy some from the store, drizzle some white chocolate over them, and add googly eyes to make some "mummy cannoli." Get fun and creative decorating the treats instead of worrying about making them, that way it will look good and taste good.

2) Use classic decorations to display your food. You know the saying, "you eat with your eyes," well use that to your advantage! A fun decorated table is a great way to theme your food without having to do a bunch of decorating on the food itself. Elias used a classic skeleton you would normally hang on the door to act as a centerpiece, and he displayed his treats in there. Again, have fun and get creative! 

If you want to try your hand at decorating like the pros, Elias shared his recipe for his  "Peanut Butter and Jelly Brain Cupcakes."  Watch the video to see how he gets the icing to look like a brain!

For more information and to get in touch with Elias, check out his "Pastry Guru" social media accounts. 

Peanut Butter and Jelly Brain Cupcakes

Chocolate Cake Recipe

2 Cups White sugar

2 Cup all-purpose flour

¾ Cup Cocoa Powder

1 ½ Teaspoon Baking Soda

1 ½ Teaspoon Baking Powder

Pinch of salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk

½ cup vegetable oil

1 ½ Teaspoon Vanilla

1 cup hot water

Preheat Oven to 325 degrees F.  Put cupcake liners in muffin pan.

In a mixing bowl combine sugar, flour, cocoa, soda, baking powder, and salt.  Add egg one at a time.  Followed by milk, oil, and vanilla.  Now add hot water.  Pour into cupcake liners.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Cool completely before decorating.

Peanut Butter brain Frosting  

1 1/2 pounds of powdered sugar

2 sticks of softened room temp unsalted butter

2 8oz packages of softened Cream Cheese

½ Cup Peanut butter

In mixer with paddle attachment combine Sugar and butter till fully mixed.  Now add cream cheese and peanut butter.  Make sure to scrape the bowl and whip for 2 minutes or until light and fluffy.

To start decorating cupcakes.  Pipe with a circle tip and pastry bag, two segments of the brain.

Now finish off the brain with raspberry or strawberry sauce to give it a blood effect. Â