How to make Halloween cocktails from your pumpkin leftovers

It’s Halloween, and you’re probably thinking about giving your house a few scary touches. But when you’re carving a pumpkin, don’t waste the guts – make cocktails like we did.

Pumpkin pie shot

Our first attempt was adorably called a “Pumpkin Pie Shot” and was a mix of vodka, vanilla and pumpkin puree. We went all out and edged our glass with ginger biscuits for that extra dash of class.

The shot was a very seasonal pumpkin orange colour and it’s always nice to have a little snack with your drink. Unfortunately even biscuits couldn’t hide the disgusting texture.

It reminded us of having seaweed caught round our toes, only this time it was in our mouths. The strings of pumpkin stuck to Alice’s chin as she dribbled some out in disgust.

We gave this a solid zero out of ten.

We weren’t giving up though, so decided to mix the pumpkin purée shot with some flat lemonade someone had left round my house from when he last hosted pre-drinks. It helped a bit, but only because the lemonade made the pumpkin lumps sink to the bottom.

Pretending to love it

This improved the drink to a “sad but fine” four out of ten.

Pumpkin punch

For our next concoction we had to raid the spice rack. Pumpkin Punch was a mix of pumpkin purée, golden syrup, lemon juice, cinnamon, ginger and rum.

It had the consistency of sludge, mainly because I slipped when I was adding the cinnamon. The added spice did give it a nice autumnal smell though – something everyone looks for in a drink.

Alice rated this one a miserable minus one out of ten and said it looked like “a Victorian remedy”

I didn’t mind it as much. All the cinnamon made it taste like an alcoholic grandma’s christmas cake.

Plus, it looked so much like pumpkin baby food that everyone would know about your amazing pumpkin pre-drink gimmick.

Apple pumpkintini

This recipe looked like the most hopeful: cider, vodka, vanilla, ginger ale and (you guessed it) pumpkin purée.

The recipe suggested we use posh, cloudy cider but we didn’t have any around so we went for the next best option – Strongbow.

We also added a cheeky umbrella to pretend we were having an actual cocktail rather than pumpkin smush.

This was Maisie’s favourite. She said she’d rather drink it than vodka and lemonade.

I say the alcohol had gone to her head because it tasted like off-date vinegar with cough medicine.

It’s Halloween. Maybe just go out instead.