Candy, costumes, kegs, Jell-O shots and a good time are what come to mind when college students imagine Halloween. As the trees start losing their leaves and the temperature begins to drop, the spookiest night of the year is on everyone's mind, and students are looking to plan the best parties for Halloween night.
College parties often happen spontaneously and impulsively, but a truly good Halloween bash will take a bit of planning. One of the things students can be most creative about is food and drinks served at their parties, according to Brandon Gemerek, a junior business administration major.
"Having a keg and some bottles is your best bet for a party," Gemerek said. "Kegs save money and it's much easier to clean up cups rather than cans after everyone leaves the party."
Some can give drinks a creative twist with colored punch or freaky treats.
"If you want to keep the Halloween theme, you can always provide orange colored Kool-Aid jungle juice and put plastic spiders, eyeballs, rats or skulls in it," said Robert Tucker, a junior Spanish major.
Kassie Reese, a junior nursing major, sees Halloween as a time to whip out her oven mitts and create an original dessert for her friends.
"My favorite Halloween dish is dirt cake," Reese said.
For students like Allison Schoenfeld, a junior speech and hearing major, Halloween is a time to pull out all the stops and create some spectacularly scary desserts.
"Every Halloween, I look forward to making graveyard cake," Schoenfeld said.
According to Schoenfeld to make the Halloween graveyard cake, you will need one package of cake mix, 1/3 cup of water, 1/2 cup of vegetable oil and three large eggs. Cook the cake according to the package directions, and frost with vanilla frosting.
"Once the cake is done baking, use the decorative candies, crushed Oreos, Milano cookies and frostings to cover the top of the cake, making it look like a graveyard," Schoenfeld said. "I put the Milano cookies standing up on the cake so that they look like tombstones."
According to Steve Jones, a senior geography major, all students have to do is follow the crowd of costumed co-eds down Main Street for a good time.
"If you're roaming up and down the streets of South Campus on Halloween weekend, you're pretty much guaranteed a party," Jones said. "Every Halloween at UB has been a (great) experience."
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
