Give Halloween candy a creative spin this year. Photo: Marks & Spencer
Give Halloween candy a creative spin this year. Photo: Marks & Spencer
Give Halloween candy a creative spin this year. Photo: Marks & Spencer
Give Halloween candy a creative spin this year. Photo: Marks & Spencer

Halloween party food, from monster cakes to zombie lollipops


Panna Munyal
  • English
  • Arabic

A number of UAE cafes and bakeries are offering limited-time Halloween treats in spooky shapes and patterns. Here are six to sample.

Marks & Spencer

The British retailer has both single and sharing packs of Halloween treats – all suitably spooky. Toads are the main motif this season and available in the form of bubbly milk chocolate (Hocus Croakus, Dh6) and strawberry and cola-flavoured gummies (Toxic Toads, Dh22). A packet of 10 Creepy Chocolate lollipops (Dh25) is ideal for visiting trick-or-treaters and the Glow in the Dark Ghost Train (Dh55) is full of eerie treats.

Glow in the Dark Ghost Train, Dh55. Photo: Marks & Spencer
Glow in the Dark Ghost Train, Dh55. Photo: Marks & Spencer

Available in select M&S stores

Sugargram

Its usual mini cupcakes aside, Sugargram is serving up limited-time Spooky Bonbons (Dh40 for five pieces or Dh170 for 25 pieces) for Halloween. Available in flavours such as pumpkin spice, hot choco, pop rocks, coconut truffle and yuzu, the artisanal chocolates also come packed in a black-sleeved box studded with bats.

Spooky Bonbons, Dh170 for 25. Photo: Sugargram
Spooky Bonbons, Dh170 for 25. Photo: Sugargram

Available through Deliveroo and Chatfood

Laduree

The French patisserie is serving its signature macarons in an eerie but elegant black-and-orange box as well as offering an assortment of macarons printed with spooky motifs (Dh210 for 12 pieces). For Halloween, Laduree is introducing the Popcorn Tart (from Dh52) with a crusty dough, corn almond cream, macadamia nuts, roasted corn praline, caramel popcorn and chocolate bat garnish.

Popcorn tart, Dh52. Photo: Rise Bakehouse
Popcorn tart, Dh52. Photo: Rise Bakehouse

Available in Laduree outlets in Abu Dhabi and Dubai

Rise Bakehouse

This Dubai bakery offers Mini Monster cakes (Dh65) and Halloween cakelettes (Dh160 to Dh205). Each can be personalised with a choice of flavour, text and monster design, from spider webs, pumpkins and bats, to witches, zombies and scary clowns.

Mini Monster cakes, Dh65. Photo: Rise Bakehouse
Mini Monster cakes, Dh65. Photo: Rise Bakehouse

Available on Chatfood and Deliveroo

Bumblebee Food

For toddlers up to the age of two, baby food company Bumblebee has put together a nutritionist-approved Halloween bundle (Dh99). It includes healthy yet fun snacks, including 10 bat-shaped cookies with reduced sugar icing and topped with edible eyes, plus fruit and veg that can be shaped using the ghost, skull and pumpkin cutters included as part of the kit.

Halloween bundle for children up the age of two, Dh99. Photo: Bumblebee Foods
Halloween bundle for children up the age of two, Dh99. Photo: Bumblebee Foods

Available on the Bumblebee Foods website

Sugarmoo

A creamy eyeball surrounded by severed fondant fingers. A red velvet-Oreo brain with a sugary worm crawling out. Cakesickles that resemble a jack o’lantern and Casper the friendly ghost. Dessert shop SugarMoo has gone all out with its Halloween range. Available as jars, on sticks and as whole cakes, these range in price from Dh35 to Dh350.

Ghoul Eye cake, Dh350. Photo: Sugarmoo
Ghoul Eye cake, Dh350. Photo: Sugarmoo

Available through Deliveroo, Talabat and Careem

Jones The Grocer

A limited-time cinnamon-nutmeg latte (Dh25) aside, the cafe is retailing themed cookies (Dh15 for three pieces) for Halloween parties and trick-or-treaters. Made of gingerbread, the cookies are moulded into ghost and pumpkin shapes and are available until November 1.

Pumpkin latte, Dh25; and Halloween cookies, Dh15 for three. Photo: Jones the Grocer
Pumpkin latte, Dh25; and Halloween cookies, Dh15 for three. Photo: Jones the Grocer

Available at Jones the Grocer outlets in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah

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How to play the stock market recovery in 2021?

If you are looking to build your long-term wealth in 2021 and beyond, the stock market is still the best place to do it as equities powered on despite the pandemic.

Investing in individual stocks is not for everyone and most private investors should stick to mutual funds and ETFs, but there are some thrilling opportunities for those who understand the risks.

Peter Garnry, head of equity strategy at Saxo Bank, says the 20 best-performing US and European stocks have delivered an average return year-to-date of 148 per cent, measured in local currency terms.

Online marketplace Etsy was the best performer with a return of 330.6 per cent, followed by communications software company Sinch (315.4 per cent), online supermarket HelloFresh (232.8 per cent) and fuel cells specialist NEL (191.7 per cent).

Mr Garnry says digital companies benefited from the lockdown, while green energy firms flew as efforts to combat climate change were ramped up, helped in part by the European Union’s green deal. 

Electric car company Tesla would be on the list if it had been part of the S&P 500 Index, but it only joined on December 21. “Tesla has become one of the most valuable companies in the world this year as demand for electric vehicles has grown dramatically,” Mr Garnry says.

By contrast, the 20 worst-performing European stocks fell 54 per cent on average, with European banks hit by the economic fallout from the pandemic, while cruise liners and airline stocks suffered due to travel restrictions.

As demand for energy fell, the oil and gas industry had a tough year, too.

Mr Garnry says the biggest story this year was the “absolute crunch” in so-called value stocks, companies that trade at low valuations compared to their earnings and growth potential.

He says they are “heavily tilted towards financials, miners, energy, utilities and industrials, which have all been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic”. “The last year saw these cheap stocks become cheaper and expensive stocks have become more expensive.” 

This has triggered excited talk about the “great value rotation” but Mr Garnry remains sceptical. “We need to see a breakout of interest rates combined with higher inflation before we join the crowd.”

Always remember that past performance is not a guarantee of future returns. Last year’s winners often turn out to be this year’s losers, and vice-versa.

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Updated: October 29, 2024, 2:38 PM