Pbartender
First Post
First, a little background...
Our family loves Halloween. We love the challenge of coming up with good costumes on a frugal budget. A couple weeks ago, we were thinking ahead to what we wanted to do for Halloween this year. We decided it would be fun for all four of us to dress up as a family as zombies.
A little later, we thought... You can't really have just a few zombies. If you're going to have zombie, you need a proper horde of them. That's when we realized that Halloween is on a Saturday this year. We'll make it a party! So, we're inviting all of our friends and family over to have a cookout in the afternoon, and then dress up as zombies and go trick-or-treating as one big group in the evening.
So I need fake blood. Buckets of it.
The trouble is, the stuff you buy in the store comes in very small quantities and is rather expensive. Not to mention the fact that not all of it safe to put in your mouth (we'll have lots of kids there), and most of it doesn't look very good.
I went to the internet to find recipes. My first tries were unsuccessful. Mostly based on corn syrup, flour or corn starch mixtures, they all ended up looking like thickened Kool-Aid running down my arm.
I did, however, find a recipe that worked out spectacularly. Here it is, if anyone is interested:
Fake Blood
Note that measurements are approximate, some fiddling may be necessary to get it just the way you want it.
Ingredients:
First, for every one cup of corn syrup, stir in one tablespoon of red food coloring. Mix well.
Add "less than a drop" of blue food coloring. A little blue goes a very long way, and we don't want the blood turning magenta. Take a toothpick and dip it in the blue food coloring. Shake off the excess, and then stir the slightly damp blue toothpick in the blood mixture. It doesn't look like much, but it's more than enough. Mix well.
Now, the cocoa powder will help give it the right shade and opacity, and also thicken it a little more. Stir in cocoa powder a spoonful at a time. Mix well between each spoonful. Check for color and consistency after each spoonful. Keep going until you like what you see... You can go very, very dark this way and still come up with good looking blood. Especially if you plan to use it on camera, make it about two shades darker than you think.
Finally, the finishing touch. Add just a little bit of milk... Not more than a spoonful or two. A little gives the blood better texture and brightens the color a little, but too much will turn it pink.
Also, be careful if you're making the blood ahead of time. Refrigerate it or put it in the freezer. If you leave it sitting out for too long, the little bit of milk will start going bad and growing mold despite the preservatives in the corn syrup. It might give an upset stomach, if you swallow some, but worse than that... It start smelling really bad. Stinky winky.
And now for your enjoyment, photos:
My "Blood Lab".
Good and drippy.
Looks good...
Tastes better!
Our family loves Halloween. We love the challenge of coming up with good costumes on a frugal budget. A couple weeks ago, we were thinking ahead to what we wanted to do for Halloween this year. We decided it would be fun for all four of us to dress up as a family as zombies.
A little later, we thought... You can't really have just a few zombies. If you're going to have zombie, you need a proper horde of them. That's when we realized that Halloween is on a Saturday this year. We'll make it a party! So, we're inviting all of our friends and family over to have a cookout in the afternoon, and then dress up as zombies and go trick-or-treating as one big group in the evening.
So I need fake blood. Buckets of it.
The trouble is, the stuff you buy in the store comes in very small quantities and is rather expensive. Not to mention the fact that not all of it safe to put in your mouth (we'll have lots of kids there), and most of it doesn't look very good.
I went to the internet to find recipes. My first tries were unsuccessful. Mostly based on corn syrup, flour or corn starch mixtures, they all ended up looking like thickened Kool-Aid running down my arm.
I did, however, find a recipe that worked out spectacularly. Here it is, if anyone is interested:
Fake Blood
Note that measurements are approximate, some fiddling may be necessary to get it just the way you want it.
Ingredients:
- Light Corn Syrup
- Red Food Coloring
- Blue Food Coloring
- Baking Cocoa Powder (the unsweetened stuff in the baking section, not Hot Cocoa Mix or Chocolate Milk Mix)
- Milk
First, for every one cup of corn syrup, stir in one tablespoon of red food coloring. Mix well.
Add "less than a drop" of blue food coloring. A little blue goes a very long way, and we don't want the blood turning magenta. Take a toothpick and dip it in the blue food coloring. Shake off the excess, and then stir the slightly damp blue toothpick in the blood mixture. It doesn't look like much, but it's more than enough. Mix well.
Now, the cocoa powder will help give it the right shade and opacity, and also thicken it a little more. Stir in cocoa powder a spoonful at a time. Mix well between each spoonful. Check for color and consistency after each spoonful. Keep going until you like what you see... You can go very, very dark this way and still come up with good looking blood. Especially if you plan to use it on camera, make it about two shades darker than you think.
Finally, the finishing touch. Add just a little bit of milk... Not more than a spoonful or two. A little gives the blood better texture and brightens the color a little, but too much will turn it pink.
Also, be careful if you're making the blood ahead of time. Refrigerate it or put it in the freezer. If you leave it sitting out for too long, the little bit of milk will start going bad and growing mold despite the preservatives in the corn syrup. It might give an upset stomach, if you swallow some, but worse than that... It start smelling really bad. Stinky winky.
And now for your enjoyment, photos:
My "Blood Lab".
Good and drippy.
Looks good...
Tastes better!
