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If, like me, you spent your weekend tending to little brothers/nieces/children, you may have not only a tinge of green to your face but lots of pumpkins kicking about too. Try this warming soup to wash away the sugary sweetness from All Hallows Eve.This soup is so simple and beautifully bright it's sure to cast off the last of the demons from fright night.

Ingredients:

1 Onion

1 Medium sized pumpkin

Half a butternut squash

3/4 pint of vegetable stock

Cumin to season

Pumpkin Seeds

Method:

Heat the onion gently in the olive oil till soft and golden and then add the pumpkin and squash chunks. Cook for around 8 minutes or until the chunks begin to soften, stir occasionally so as not to burn.

Pour the stock into the pan and season to taste with salt, pepper and cumin. The cumin will add a nice warmth and a bit of spice. Cook for a further 10 mins until the squash and pumpkin is very soft. Take off the heat and puree the mixture with a hand held blender.

To serve I add just a little cream cheese.

Whilst the soup cooks toast the pumpkin seeds in a frying pan. These go great on the top of the soup or as a snack. Waste not want not! 

Dupenny has an amazing range of quirky and striking wallpapers - perfect for a quick and easy update for the home. In keeping with the theme of the day, the fantastic Irrational Fear Wallpaper will really make a statement!

This monochrome spider design is so creepy, yet so much fun! This will be a real talking point when friends come to visit.

Be afraid. Be very afraid!

£75.00

www.dupenny.com

For a last minute spooky accessory for Halloween, you can't miss this amazing shop, the Cobwebs Company.

They have a huge range of adorable, handmade hats for babies, including a pumpkin and a black cat. Perfect for Halloween but cute enough to be worn all through the winter, making them good value too. 

Prices start at £15.95 for the pumpkin hat. All are handmade in the UK using machine washable fabrics, making them practical too.

cobwebknits.co.uk

Take the tricks (and children) out of the equation and halloween can be quite the glamorous affair, think the seduction of vampires and the hopeless-but-beautiful victims of Hammer horror films.

A darkly gothic dinner party can cover all of the seven deadly sins as a true tribute to the night of all things evil. Tables can be laden like gothic and medieval banquets with scores of cooked meats, fruit and dark candles. Finishing touches will really lift the dinner away from cliches so try adding a black, purple or red, velvet runner to the table and use dark ruby red apples to decorate.

For a gluttenous and extravagant centrepiece look to Hotel Chocolat's Headonism life-sized skull which is finished with precious, 24-carat edible gold. This ultimate horror-chic showpiece is limited edition and therefore only available in selected stores, you'd be a monster not to snap it up.

£50

www.hotelchocolat.co.uk