Michele StuevenIt’s a bad enough trick when Halloween falls on a Monday, so we’re just focusing on treats. We’ve conjured up a bucket full of ideas for sweets and spirits.
TOUS les JOURS, a French-Asian bakery café chain that offers more than 300 different kinds of artisan pastries, gourmet cakes and desserts baked in-store daily, has a new Trick-or-Treat Collection, launching just in time for Halloween. Featuring eight treats, the spooky season-inspired collection is available at participating TOUS les JOURS locations now through Oct. 31.
There’s a Mummy Cake, a 7-inch chocolate cake topped with ganache and chocolate buttercream with a spooky mummy design. The Jack-O’-Lantern Cake, 7-inch, four-layer chocolate cake, is made with orange buttercream, seasonal sprinkles and coconut flakes. The Halloween Cloud Cake is topped with strawberries over signature Cloud cream cake with a seasonal cake topper. The Pumpkin Cream Cheese Cake is an 8-inch sheet cake made with cream cheese and Cloud cream-based icing, with pumpkin spice and pecan topping.
Additional seasonal treats include Halloween-themed sugar cookies available in jack-o’-lantern and mummy designs, and autumnal twist donuts featuring pumpkin spice and chocolate with seasonal sprinkles.
Fresh Corpse Survivor (Courtesy Sofitel Los Angeles)
Velverie Café and Teahouse, a Beverly Hills café inspired by European café culture and celebrating the best of Old Hollywood glamor, will host a Halloween event with a specially themed afternoon tea on Saturdays, Oct. 22 and Oct. 29.
There will be crystal vendors and a tarot reader, and each ticket includes afternoon tea for one, with all the food menu items included, and one of three Halloween cocktails (non-alcoholic options also will be available). Additional drinks will be available for purchase, as well as Velverie’s regular Afternoon Tea options. Cost is $80 per person, and reservations are available Via Resy (10/22) / Via Resy (10/29) .
The London West Hollywood will host its first annual ‘Spooky Tea Inspired by the Sanderson Sisters,’ which will be offered on Saturday, Oct. 29, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., in the haunted lair, with treats and surprises inside the Boxwood restaurant. Pricing is $84 for adults, and $42 for children 12 and under. Costumes are strongly encouraged. Book on OpenTable.com. For large parties, contact Deborah Davis Bonk, the hotel’s private dining coordinator, at ddavisbonk@thelondonweho.com.
The Fresh Corpse Survivor has returned to the Riviera31 at Sofitel Los Angeles. The smoky cocktail infused with lemon juice and simple syrup will get you into the Halloween spirit. It’s topped off with flaming absinthe.
If it’s your turn to stay in and handy out candy to the neighborhood goblins, grab a bottle of Scapegrace Black Gin. Like all quality gins, it begins with intense juniper and exotic botanicals. The master distiller used a combination of local sweet potato, aronia berries, pineapple and saffron, as well as Butterfly pea flower, which they sourced from Southeast Asia.
Courtesy Scapegrace Black Gin
Courtesy Scapegrace Black Gin
The result is a gin with an exciting nose of pineapple and lemon, followed by spicy juniper. The flavor profile of Scapegrace Black is unique, marrying a gin-drinker’s love of juniper with something dark and delightfully devious. But the real showstopper is, when mixed with tonic and/or citrus, Scapegrace Black goes from noir to a light lavender.
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