White Chocolate Strawberry Ghosts

Prepare a large baking tray lined with non-stick baking (parchment) paper.

Place chocolate in a heatproof bowl and drizzle over the vegetable oil. Heat in the microwave for 30-second intervals, stirring each time. It should take roughly 1 minute 30 seconds in total, but keep an eye on it as microwave models can vary.

Once the chocolate is ready, give it a good stir to ensure it’s lovely and smooth. Holding a strawberry by its stalk, dip it into the chocolate mixture, swirling it round to get an even coating. Carefully lower on to the pre-lined tray, pooling some of the chocolate that drips off to form the ghost’s ‘tail’. While the chocolate is still wet, attach candy eyeballs on. Repeat with remaining strawberries.

Place the tray of strawberry ghosts into the fridge for around 5–10 minutes or until the chocolate has set. Meanwhile, make the royal icing. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, lightly whisk egg white and lemon juice. Add in sifted icing sugar and mix together until very smooth and well combined. Add the black food colouring and mix in well.

Transfer to a piping bag (a snaplock bag will also work in a pinch) and trim a very small amount of the tip – you only want a very fine opening in order to get the right thickness of icing. Pipe mouths on to the strawberry ghosts. Transfer to a plate or lunchbox and serve.

– Baking white chocolate has a slightly lower sugar content, which means it’s less likely to burn when you’re heating it up to melt it.

– Adding a drizzle of vegetable oil helps create a smoother chocolate. It also helps prevent the chocolate from drying out, giving it a perfect consistency for dipping.

– If you don’t want to make royal icing from scratch, you can usually pick up icing writing tubes from the supermarket which will do the job.

– You’ll probably have some icing leftover – try piping some spiderwebs or writing ‘Happy Halloween’ on to your serving plate for an extra touch, or use it to make some of my Mummy Dogs.