Make | a pumpkin beer keg

Because there’s lots more fun to be had with a pumpkin than just carving it

Fancy making this pumpking beer keg as a centrepiece for your own pumpkin party or Halloween celebrations? Of course you do! You’re only human! Inserting a spigot into a hollowed-out pumpkin will transform it into a keg that’ll give your favourite tipple a subtle flavour and keep it cool till pumpkin time.

You will need

Pumpkin Knife
Spoon
Ruler
Spigot (tap)
Sharpie
Drill
Seasonal beer

1 Cut off the crown of the pumpkin and set aside. Scoop out all of the pumpkin seeds (save the seeds to toast later if you wish). 
2 After measuring the diameter of your spigot, select a drill bit 2mm smaller so your spigot will fit snugly and be ‘beer tight’. 
3 Mark and drill a hole towards the base of the pumpkin. Insert the spigot into the hole. 
4 Fill with seasonal beer and replace the crown. 
5 Allow to infuse for a couple of hours and enjoy. 

This make was first featured in our Pumpkin Party ‘Gathering’ in our October 2019 issue, with recipes by Bex Long, including beetroot raita, parsnip soup, acorn squash with chermoula dressing, sausage rolls, kale, walnut and pomegranate salad and more. It’s so autumnal it’s enough to burnish your conkers. You can buy a copy of the back issue from our online store.

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

More from our October 2023 issue…

More pumpkinspiration…

Fun | Gothic Book Title Generator

Fancy penning a spooky novel but can’t quite get going with it? Let us start you off by coming up with a title for your book.

Simply select from the lists below the first letter of your first name, the month you were born and the first letter of your surname and find out what your Gothic novel should be called. So, for example, If you were called Jane Robinson and you were born in June your book would be called ‘The Trees of Fearful Waters’. There. You’re planning your Booker Prize acceptance speech already, aren’t you?

First pick your opening noun using the first letter of your first name:

a- The Castle. b - The Woman. c - The Curse. d - The Mystery. e - The Darkness. f - The Devil. g - The Man.
h - The Caves. i - The Bridge. j - The Trees. k - The Legend. l - The Tale. m - The Skulls. n - The Secret.
o - The Rats. p - The Vampire. q - The Monster. r - The Ghost. s - The Murmuring. t - The Clouds. u - The Birds. v - The Hounds. w - The Dagger. x - The Heart. y - The Cloak. z - The Creature.

Next pick your adjective by the month of your birth:

January - of Everlasting. February - of Dark. March - of Eerie. April - of Howling. May - of Terrible. June - of Fearful. July - of Satanic. August - of Bloody. September - of Haunted. October - of Cold. November - of Ancient. December - of Murderous.

Finally, pick your closing noun using the first letter of your surname:

a - Horror. b - Crows. c- Hollow. d - Terror. e - Churches. f - Spirits. g - Fear. h - Mists. i - Memories.
j - Sobs. k - Screams. l - Books. m - Dungeons. n - Runes. o - Moors. p - Valley. q - Forest. r - Waters.
s - Dreams. t - Fires. u - Spells. v - Rituals. w - House. x - Manor. y - Grave. z - History.

Why we all love a scary story

There’s nothing new about spooky tales of course. Ghost stories have been an important part of folklore for as long as stories have been told and our oldest myths contain monsters. The act of sharing a story and getting scared together is an age-old bonding experience, a way of being afraid but also having fun. Fear isn’t always an unpleasant emotion, especially if we can see it through and reach a resolution. When we experience fear, we get a surge of adrenaline and endorphins which awaken all our senses and give us a rush of energy. After the moment has passed and we’re no longer afraid, we relax and experience a flood of post-horror calm.

Read more about why scary stories are good for us in our Wellbeing feature, Little Shot of Horror in our October issue. And if you pen that spooky story, please do share it with us so we can enjoy being vicariously frightened!

Buy this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

More from our October issue…

A few more things to scare your socks off (in a good way)

Recipe | Mini Pumpkin Creme Brulees

Fire up that blowtorch. These unique crème brûlées taste just as good as they look.

Serves 4

4 mini pumpkins, tops sliced off (keep) and insides scooped out
300ml double cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 large egg yolks
3 tbsp caster sugar
4 tbsp light brown sugar

1 In a large pot of simmering water, add the prepared pumpkins (keep the lids in the fridge ). Simmer for about 10 mins, or until soft but not mushy. Remove , allow to cool a little and place in the fridge or freezer (you want them to be very cold when you pour in the custard) .

2 In a saucepan , add the cream and vanilla . Heat up, but do not let boil.

3 Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar. Still whisking , pour this into the warm cream and stir continuously over a low heat for about 10 mins , or until the custard starts to thicken.

4 Once it’s thick and your pumpkin bases are chilled, spoon in the custard , filling the pumpkins to the top. Leave to cool and then chill in the fridge . This can be done a few hours before your guests arrive.

5 Before serving, sprinkle each pumpkin with sugar, then grill for about 4 mins or use a blowtorch until the top is blistering but not burnt. Allow to cool a little , so the sugar creates a shell over the custard .

This recipe is just one of the delicious (and slightly spooky) ideas from our Trick and Treat menu in our October issue. The feature also includes Black Widow cocktails, Halloween Chicken and Leek Pie, Chestnuts wrapped in bacon and more autumnal ideas.

Buy this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

More from our October issue…

More pumpkin makes…

Halloween | Simple spells

It’s Halloween. Why not try a little magic?*

• When you’re in the shower, visualise the water removing any anxieties and worries from the day before.

• If you’re feeling unwell, make a soup and while stirring it chant, “Cold, flu and ills be gone, healthy body from now on.”

• Make a love oil. Blend 5 drops each of rose and lavender oil and 120ml carrier oil. Shake the jar and focus on the intent of the oil (to bring love or friendship, say).

• Be a positive force. Help others, act with love, cut the gossip and try not to judge.

*Adapted from The Good Witch's Guide by Shawn Robbins and Charity Bedell (Sterling)

More Halloween activities…

Buy this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

From our November issue…

Recipe: Soul cakes

Soul cakes are an old English traditional cake, sometimes known simply as ‘souls’. The tradition of giving out soul cakes on All Hallows’ Eve dates back to the Middle Ages, when children went door-to-door saying prayers for the dead  On All Hallows’ Eve, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, children went ‘souling’, asking for soul cakes from house to house: quite possibly a precursor to trick or treating. This recipe is adapted from one on lavenderandlovage.com.

Soul cakes

Makes 12–15 cakes 

175g butter
175g caster sugar
3 egg yolks
450g plain flour
2 teaspoons mixed spice
100g currants
a little milk to mix 

1 Pre-heat the oven to 190C/Fan 170/375F. Cream the butter with the sugar until it’s light and fluffy and then beat in the egg yolks one at a time. 

2 In a separate bowl, sieve the flour and the spices together and add to the wet mixture along with the currants (reserving a small handful to decorate the tops later). 

3 Mix with a wooden spoon and then add some milk to pull everything together into a dough.

4 Roll out to a thickness of around 1cm and cut out rounds with a biscuit cutter. Use a straight-sided knife to make a slight cross indent in the top of each cake and then push in raisins along it. 

5 Place on a piece of baking parchment on a baking tray and bake for 10 to 15 mins on the fire or in the oven until golden. Allow to cool before eating. 

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

More All Hallows Even celebrations…

From our November issue…

Build your own spooky story

Frighten friends and freak out family with your own spooky story

If you love a scary tale, especially at this time of year, why not try penning your own? How hard can it be, after all*? To show you just how easy it is, we asked author and creative writing tutor Susan Elliot Wright to help us put together this Spooky Story Kit. Simply choose one beginning, one ending and five scary elements from below, string them together with a few verbs and conjunctions and Bob’s your Uncle (and The Bride of Frankenstein’s your Aunt). Go!

Beginnings (choose one)

1. She had thought the house was empty as she pushed open the creaking door…

2. Four hundred years after her death, Esmerelda sat up in her coffin…

3. A mile or two into the forest road, Roger Peebles’ car choked to a halt. He had run out of petrol…

Endings (choose one)

1. And that would be the last the town saw of those vampires, for now at least.

2. He put the knife back where he had found it. No one would ever know he had been there at all.

3. But the rats continued to run.

Scary Elements to add to your story’s sandwich filling

1. An electric light that doesn’t work. Characters may pull on it frantically and pointlessly. 

2. A crow. Particularly one with beady eyes or a malformed foot or two.

3. A rocking chair that rocks of its own accord. Just a little bit too quickly and silently to have been set off by a human.

4. A clown. Not a funny one though. A malign-looking, silent one, preferably seen from a distance. 

5. Long corridors (they really should be <very> long, and also shadowy to allow plenty of opportunity for evil to skulk in their corners).

6. The distant sound of a weeping woman that can’t be located. The listener should ideally dash from room to room, with the noise of weeping becoming  louder and quieter again at random. 

7. A face at the window of a house. The protagonist should not be able to locate the room the face appeared in once inside the property. 

8. Some things that ‘go’ when no one has set them off: a television, a gramophone, a slightly manic-looking wind-up toy monkey bashing cymbals together.

9. Something seen from the corner of one’s eye, only fleetingly. It should move swiftly and be gone when the protagonist whirls round (one never simply turns in spooky stories).

10. A deserted institution. An asylum is ideal but hospitals, churches and prisons are all good. Any building that would once have been bustling and may hide dark secrets. 

11. Any child’s toy in the wrong context. A rag doll that appears in someone’s home and has never been seen before. A doll’s house in an abandoned home. Any mechanical toy that moves of its own accord. 

*It’s quite a bit harder than we have made this sound, actually.

Susan Elliot Wright loves a spooky story. Her latest novel, The Flight of Cornelia Blackwood (Simon and Schuster) features some rather spooky crows, of which she is a big fan. For more of her writing tips and advice on getting published visit susanelliotwright.co.uk.  For some more spooky inspiration, have a read of our feature Dare To Be Scared for ideas on paranormal outings you can do in a day (p80).

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

If you enjoy a good mystery, don’t miss our November issue, in which we will be announcing the winner of our competition to write the ending for a murder mystery penned by Sophie Hannah. We'll be publishing Sophie’s own ending to the story (and the rest of it too, so you can enjoy it all in one go) here on the blog later in the month.

More from our October issue…

More spooky things for an autumn evening…

Clever tips for tricky apples

How not to be beaten by bobbing or tricked by a toffee apple this season

We love an apple, but they’ve been causing trouble for millennia, what with tempting innocent folk going about their business in the garden of Eden, causing discord among Greek Gods and all sorts of trouble in Norse legend, too. 

And even today, if you’ve ever tried bobbing for apples or munching on a toffee apple at this time of year you’ll know they can be tricky customers. Here’s The Simple Things’ guide to getting one over on apples this autumn.

How to eat a toffee apple

Here’s how to avoid a very sticky face, sugar in one’s hair and the risk of dropping your toffee apple on the floor and it rolling into the bonfire…. 

Etiquette dictates that one should cut a toffee apple into slices and, indeed, this is the way to eat one if you wish to eliminate all the above risks. Take a sharp knife and a plate and simply slice the apple and remove the core as you would any ordinary (non-toffeed) apple and eat it in bite-sized slices.

The Simple Things method: Open your mouth as wide as possible and take a huge bite at the first pass, showering yourself with shards of sugar, getting sticky bits in your hair and dicing with a trip to the dentist. Because where is the fun, and what on earth is the point otherwise, we ask you.

How to succeed at apple bobbing

Any activity that involves getting wet, probably outside, at the end of October should be undertaken in a wetsuit really. But assuming you’re going to wing it in civvies (or a Halloween costume) here’s how the pros think you should proceed.

Don’t just randomly grab at apples with your mouth. You’ll get very wet. You need to think strategically here and go for one of two methods. Either look for an apple floating right way up with a prominent stalk and try to catch the stalk between your teeth (don’t bother with this method if you have a significant overbite), or pick an apple you’re going for and push it up against the side of the bowl using the bowl as leverage in order to sink your teeth into the apple.

The Simple Things method: Come dressed as a witch in a black bin liner, so the top half of your body is essentially waterproof. Don a swimming cap and nose clip. Take a deep breath and plunge your head into the water, using the bottom of the bowl to push against to get your teeth into the apple. Remove swimming cap and witch bin liner and emerge victorious. 

If you’re making your own toffee apples for Halloween (or just because) you might like to try the recipe for the toffee apples on twigs (above) from Apple by James Rich (Hardie Grant). You can find the recipe on p71 of our October Create issue or buy it in the link below.

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

More from our October issue…

More apple activities…

Recipe | Ginger snaps

Crunchy, spicy biscuits ideal for eating with pumpkin ice cream

Our October issue has a very special ‘gathering’ feature with recipes for a pumpkin party. It’s got everything from autumnal salads to a fabulously moreish sausage roll and even a pumpkin beer keg. But we have made a date to create the pumpkin ice cream sandwiches pictured above - sweet pumpkin ice cream squidged between ginger snaps and rolled in pistachios. Who says ice cream is for summer?

You can make them using any shop-bought ginger snaps but if you fancy going the whole hog, you can make the ginger snaps using the recipe below.

Ginger snaps

Makes 24

225g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tbsp ground ginger

Pinch of salt

120g unsalted butter

120g caster sugar

5 tbsp (75g) golden syrup

1 Preheat oven to 180C/Fan 160C/Gas 4. Line 2 baking trays with greaseproof

paper.

2 Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and salt into a large

bowl. Cut the butter into cubes and rub into the flour until the mixture

resembles fine breadcrumbs.

3 Stir in the sugar. Add the golden syrup and mix together well. Bring it all

together with your hands to make a smooth ball of dough.

4 Break off small walnut-sized pieces, roll into balls and place on the lined

baking trays. Allow space between each ball as they will spread during cooking.

5 Bake for 10-15 mins until the ginger snaps have spread and turned golden

brown.

6 Leave to cool for 5 mins on the baking trays before using a spatula to

carefully move them to wire racks to cool completely.

Don’t forget to buy the October ‘create’ issue for the rest of the recipes for our pumpkin party.

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

More biscuit inspiration…

More from our September issue…

Halloween | Five great ghouls

We love scary stories, especially in the chill nights of autumn. From Frankenstein to Freddy Krueger, monsters are enduringly fascinating. It seems we can’t get enough of scaring ourselves silly. Here are five great ghouls

DRACULA

The vampire as seductive killer has become one of horror’s (and, latterly, romance’s) staples. These days Dracula is often reduced to a campy stereotype, but bloodsucking parasites are constantly reinvented for their age – as in Justin Cronin’s saga The Passage, where virus- carrying vampires ravage a post- apocalyptic wasteland.

FRANKENSTEIN’S MONSTER

Another figure more often seen in pastiche, the monster is a tragic figure, man’s hubris made real and deadly. In an age when science is once again taking over what was once seen as ‘God’s work’ (with cloning, genetic modification, etc) it’s no surprise this idea sees multiple revivals on TV, film and stage.

FREDDY KRUEGER

Razor-clawed, pizza-faced Freddy has been sanitised into a clownish Halloween costume over the years (people often forget he started out as a child killer), but his unforgettable look, plus his ability to enter our very dreams and prey on our subconscious fears, make him one of cinema’s great monsters.

HANNIBAL LECTER

Most famously played by Anthony Hopkins, and recently reinvented by Mads Mikkelsen in the blood-soaked TV series Hannibal, this suave, cunning and ruthless cannibal set the template for the sophisticated serial killer, able to charm his victims – and captors – despite being guilty of the most horrible crimes.

THE ARMITAGES

Easygoing and friendly, the urbane, intellectual family in Get Out welcome their daughter’s black boyfriend into their home – but when their sinister reasons become apparent, the terror begins. They could be your neighbours, your friends, and you wouldn’t ever know...

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

View the sampler here.

More from the October issue:

More Halloween:

Liquorice shards recipe + growing tips

This hard version of liquorice, to suck rather than chew, is a darkly delicious treat for Halloween. The bicarbonate of soda lightens the texture a little, so the shards are slightly brittle

Liquorice shards

Makes about 550g

Butter, for greasing 
200g caster sugar 
100g golden syrup
100g black treacle  
½ tsp cream of tartar 
1 liquorice root, pounded 

1 tsp powdered liquorice or ½-1 tsp liquorice essence 
65g liquid fruit pectin or 12g powdered fruit pectin 
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda 
1 tsp anise extract 

1 Grease a 23cm/9in square cake tin or pan and line with cling film as smoothly as possible. 

2 Combine the sugar, syrup, treacle and cream of tartar with 100ml of water in a heavy pan. Stir over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Add the liquorice root and liquorice powder or essence, and boil, without stirring, until it reaches 120C. 

3 Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, combine the pectin (add 4 tbsp water if using powdered pectin), bicarbonate of soda and ½ tsp salt. 

4 Pour the pectin mixture into the syrup and stir to combine. Boil again until the syrup reaches 103C, then stir in the anise extract. 

5 Pour the syrup into the prepared tin, discarding the liquorice root, and leave to set for about 4 hours. Turn out on to a chopping board and break into shapes. Serve immediately, or store in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks.

Recipe from Liquorice: A Cookbook by Carol Wilson (Lorenz Books). 

Growing your own

Did you know liquorice is easy to grow yourself? Grow young plants (try brandycarrnurseries.co.uk) in a sunny spot in good, moist soil, allowing plenty of space between them – as the roots really like to spread! Roots can be harvested three to four years after planting and eaten raw or dried and used as a flavouring. 

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

View the sampler here.

More from the October issue:

More Halloween:

Halloween | Alla Helgons Dag

In Sweden, instead of celebrating All Hallow’s Eve, they commemorate Alla Helgons Dag - All Saints’ Day - an altogether more gentle, thoughtful affair

How to do Alla Helgons Dag at home

• If you’re not comfortable walking through a cemetery at night, take a walk through your nearest graveyard before it gets dark and contemplate the people you’ve lost as well as those you still have around you. Come home to a cosy fire and light a candle in honour of each person you want to remember.
• Create a miniature shrine to your lost loved ones including a photograph, a candle and perhaps a couple of mementoes. Use the evening as an opportunity to share happy memories about that person.
• Share a candle-lit meal with the loved ones you still have around you – Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes and lingonberry jam would be just the thing. Raise a glass to those you’ve loved and lost.

Turn to page 60 of October's The Simple Things for more on Alla Helgons Dag.

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

View the sampler here

More from the October issue:

More Halloween:

Halloween: Pumpkin carving

What better way to see in the season than by gathering friends, family and a pile of big pumpkins…

Once pumpkins arrive you know autumn is really in full swing. Throw a pumpkin party: ask people to bring a small pumpkin as well as the one they’ll be carving.

Carve off the pumpkin tops and fill them with tea lights, votive candles or dried flowers and seedheads from the garden. Send everyone home with their pumpkin vase.

Tell stories as you carve of fancy dress disasters, maybe a ghost story you once heard or simply what the word ‘pumpkin’ brings to mind.

Eat pumpkin*, too – a pie is the obvious choice. But pumpkin and sage lasagne or pumpkin soup make for filling savoury dishes, especially accompanied by a mug of hot cider or two.

How to carve a pumpkin

YOU WILL NEED

Carving tools (a variety of spoons, knives and other tools for decorating
Cookie cutters (use a mallet to pound them through the pumpkin flesh)
Carving pumpkins 

TO MAKE

Place newspaper over a large table. Pile carving tools in the centre, plus a communal bowl for seeds and filling. 

When it comes to carving, there are no rules, just decorate whichever way you fancy. 

Extract from Handmade Gatherings by Ashley English. Photography by Jen Altman (Roost Books)

*Carving pumpkins are an altogether different prospect to eating varieties. Come back later this week to find out which types are best in which dishes.

Download our free pumpkins booklet:

More from the October issue:

More pumpkin posts:

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

View the sampler here

How to use up discarded pumpkins

No need to jack in your jack-o-lantern: give it a new lease of life

Plant pot: Plant an annual within the soil-filled shell and dig into the ground. As it decomposes, it’ll fertilise your plant.

Compost: Put leaves inside the shell to speed the process. Break it into small pieces for a wormery.

Pumpkin printing: A potato printing alternative – cut into pieces and add paint.

Ant colony: Place your pumpkin near an existing colony (outside!). Honey or something sweet will bring all the ants to the gourd.

Bird feeder: We whipped one up last Halloween. Find out how to make a Halloween pumpkin bird feeder here. 

And a few suggestions from the internet that we don’t recommend:

Base for decorative floating candles: That’s likely to be one leaky vessel.

Eating it: Come November, it’s debatable how appetising your old Halloween lantern will look. 

More pumpkins! Here at The Simple Things, we love an outdoor gathering and Halloween is a great excuse to wrap up warm and enjoy all things pumpkin. Download our guide for how to use and eat pumpkins, and we’ve got a recipe for a bonfire parkin, too.  

And we could resist including this fella - knit a pumpkin hat (pattern from Cats in Hats by Sara Thomas (Hamlyn) octopusbooks.co.uk) 

Read more:

From the October issue

Pumpkin coconut curry recipe

Salted caramel toffee apples

October's The Simple Things is on sale - buy, download or subscribe now.

How to make a pumpkin bird feeder

Don't ditch the Halloween pumpkin just yet... Give it a new lease of life in the garden as a pumpkin bird feeder. Pumpkins spend all summer ballooning into huge, majestic,super-squash, then come autumn, most are either made into soup or carved into a lantern at Hallowe’en. These heavyweights of the fruit world – they often reach 35kg – have a rigid shell that’s great for hacking into. This year, why not carve out a new purpose for your pumpkin, as a bird feeder?

Here’s how:

1. Cut a 2kg pumpkin in half across its equator, scoop out the seeds but leave behind a wall of pumpkin flesh, around 2cm thick.

2. Cut a 1.5cm deep groove in the rim, then push the pumpkin seeds into the rim, making an attractive and edible border.

3. Create perches for robins, blackbirds and sparrows, which like to sit and eat, rather than hang, off a feeder. Poke holes into the pumpkin skin using a skewer or sharp knife and push twigs and sticks into them for perches.

4. Knot two lengths of twine or string together in the centre, then tack the knot of both lengths to the bottom of the pumpkin feeder, using a drawing pin. This creates a hanging basket effect.

5. Fill with seed and watch your birdie friends tuck in.

Want more Halloween reads? Take our Wicca quiz and find out which witch you are, or preserve your pumpkins with pride.