Cotton Candy Spider Web Hot Chocolate Donuts

Halloween is officially here! But if you're like us and planning to celebrate all week and weekend long, then you'll surely love this sweet treat recipe by Lauren Conrad. Check it out!

Cotton Candy Spider Web Hot Chocolate Donuts

Ingredients: Makes 8 regular size donuts 

For the donut batter:
¾ cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 packet hot chocolate mix
½ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
¼ cup + 2 tbsp. buttermilk
2 tbsp. coconut oil, melted
1 tbsp. vanilla
1 egg
½ cup sugar

For the glaze and toppings:
¼ cup water
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 cup marshmallow fluff
3 cup powdered sugar
small plastic black spiders
white cotton candy

Instructions:
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Spray a regular size donut pan with nonstick spray and set aside until ready to use.

2. To make the batter, whisk the buttermilk, coconut oil, vanilla, egg, and sugar in a large bowl until thoroughly combined. Add in the flour, cocoa powder, hot chocolate mix, baking soda and salt. With a spatula, combine all ingredients until there are no more white streaks. Try not to over mix the batter.

3. Put your batter into a large piping bag and cut a little part of the bottom off. Pipe the batter into the donut cavities until each are ¾ of the way full. If you don’t have a piping bag, just spoon the batter into the cavities.

4. Bake in your preheated oven for about 6-8 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

5. Immediately flip your donut pan upside down and tap it against your work surface until the donuts come out of the pan. Then let your donuts cool and make the glaze...

6. To make the glaze, combine all ingredients together in a small bowl and whisk until there are no more lumps of sugar. Make sure to cover the bowl with plastic wrap if you’re not using the glaze right away.

7. When the donuts are completely cooled, dip one side into the glaze and flip right side up onto a piece of parchment paper and let the glaze harden a bit.

8. Now for topping your donuts: Simply tear off thin, wispy pieces of your cotton candy and layer them on your donut. You will have to work quickly because as soon as cotton candy touches the glaze (or even your hands), it will begin to “melt.” If you are serving these to guests, I would recommend adding the cotton candy at the very last minute so that it stays fluffy.

9. Last but not least, place one of your small plastic spiders on top of each cotton candy pouf for a spooky touch!

We can't wait to indulge this Halloween! Join us in devouring the details of this sweet treat and celebrating spooky season with these delicious spider web donuts!

Wedding Wednesdays: How to Change Your Middle Name After Marriage

An old tradition is making a comeback based on some recent data. According to HitchSwitch and The Knot, an increasing number of newlyweds are using their original surname (or maiden name) as their middle name postwedding.

There are certainly benefits to using your original or maiden name as your middle name postwedding. Maybe you're marrying later in life, and you've established a professional identity you want to remain associated with. Or maybe, you'd like to keep your original family name close for more sentimental reasons. Whatever the case, legally changing your middle name after marriage can be tricky. The Knot is here to walk you through the process.

How to Change Your Middle Name After Marriage
Wondering how to change your middle name? In some states, you can use your marriage certificate to make your original surname your middle name; in others you can't. It all starts with your marriage license—the document you complete prewedding, submit in order to be legally married, and use to obtain a certificate postwedding. Wolff says, in general, there are three types of marriage licenses:

Category 1
This marriage license asks for just you and your partner's current names. After tying the knot, you can use your certificate to make any name change based on you and your spouse's previous surnames. That includes making your original last name your new middle name.

Category 2
This marriage license asks you to write your desired married names down. If you indicate a middle name change then, you can use your certificate to officially make the switch. If you don't, you'll have to change your middle name through the court system. (Unfortunately, that costs extra time, energy and money, thanks to the paperwork, fees, hearings and even newspaper announcements—yep—that could be required.)

Note that even if you jot down a new name, it won't automatically take effect postwedding. Instead, writing a new name down gives you the option to use it later on. You'll have to take legal steps, like notifying the Social Security Administration, to actually set the change in motion.

Category 3 
This marriage license lets you write down a new surname and only a new surname. You can't use it to change your middle name—for that, you'll have to petition the court.

Because changing your middle name after marriage may get complicated depending on where you live, it's best to investigate your state's laws ASAP (read: well before you tie the knot). When possible, use your marriage certificate to make the swap. If you can't, don't stress—there's always the court route.

Don't sweat the surname process! Take The Knot's advice and devour the details of changing your name after saying 'I Do'.

This is Sure to be A Real Hoot

According to Boston.com, Everett-based Night Shift Brewing is has thrown its hat into the carbonated category with Hoot, a new line of hard seltzers which debuted on Oct. 21.

Hoot launched at Night Shift’s Everett and Lovejoy Wharf breweries (as well as its wholesale partners) with three flavors — raspberry lime, black cherry lemon, and pomegranate tangerine — though it isn’t the first time the brewery’s fans have been exposed to the product. Limited-edition experimental batches were released at both taprooms earlier this year, starting with mango and evolving with lime and lemon-lime iterations.

Despite hard seltzer’s rapid rise in popularity, getting into the category wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision for Night Shift. Owners Rob Burns, Mike O’Mara, and Michael Oxton began experimenting with the beverage in early 2018. But for a year, they couldn’t land on something that they were proud of.

Batch after batch went down the drain, recalls Oxton, until in early 2019, the brewery started producing hard seltzer that they could get behind. One of the biggest breakthroughs came when Night Shift started using wine yeast in the fermentation process instead of a more traditional distillers yeast. Despite being a slower, more expensive tactic, Oxton said that using wine yeast resulted in a seltzer that was crisp instead of cloying — and, coming in at 4% ABV and 90 calories, was slightly less alcoholic and caloric than some of the other big seltzers at the market, which generally fall around 5% ABV and 100 calories. Hoot seltzers are also gluten-free, a bonus that Oxton said helps solve the problem of previously not being able to accommodate gluten-free customers.

Sold in four-packs of 16-ounce cans to start, the hard seltzers are packaged in a spray painted, two-tone design that reflects each seltzer’s fruit combinations, like deep purple and yellow for black cherry lemon. (Oxton said that they intentionally tried to stay away from packaging that skewed masculine or feminine.) In 2020, the brewery will likely start selling Hoot in other formats: 12-ounce cans, six-packs, 12-packs, etc.

Hoot is just the latest addition to Night Shift’s growing portfolio. In 2019 alone, the company opened an innovation brewery at Lovejoy Wharf, launched Night Shift Coffee, and announced the addition of a Night Shift brewery in Philadelphia, which is set to debut in late 2020.

We're looking forward to all 2020 has in store for Night Shift and can't wait to devour the details of a Hoot or two! Cheers!