How To Make A Halloween Hand of Glory

We've all heard spooky Halloween stories about ghosts and witches, but have you heard the one about the Hand of Glory?

A couple of hundred years ago many people believed that the dried or pickled hands of hanged men had magical powers and could make you invisible. We've heard even Harry Potter was a believer.

These dead men's hands were called 'Hands of Glory'. If you fancy seeing a real one, there's one in Whitby Museum in Yorkshire.

So what's that picture of jelly doing there?

Well, whilst a real Hand of Glory would taste disgusting, we're going to show you how to make a Show Me Jelly Hand of Glory, disgustingly tasty Halloween food!

Here's how. It is a bit tricky, but our tester managed even though she had extremely small and hairy hands, so you should be OK.

Just remember to ask for help with the hot water.

You will need:
a pack of red jelly
a new, clean, rubber glove
a strong elastic band
a pair of scissors
some strawberry bootlaces
a few toasted almonds
the use of a freezer

First of all, make the jelly just as it says on the packet.

Next, carefully pour the jelly into the rubber glove and seal the end of the glove with a strong elastic band - a hairband is great for this.

It should look like the picture above.

The next step takes the longest. You need to put the glove full of jelly into the freezer and leave it until it's frozen hard.

We left it in the freezer all night, and it was perfect in the morning. If you're making it for a party, only take the hand out a few minutes before the party begins.

When you take the glove out of the freezer, run it under the cold tap for a minute to loosen the rubber. Then carefully and slowly, take off the elastic band and peel the glove off as far as you can.

Doesn't the stump look delicious? Yumm...

When you can't peel any more, get cutting! Let's hope nobody had planned on using the glove after this. Cut the glove off the fingers to reveal the bloodied, horrible hand.

Once you've got the glove off, use a few of the biggest almonds to make the fingernails - even more yummy.

If any of the fingers fall off, don't worry about it. We reckon it looks even more gory. What do you think?

Now, what's missing? Oh yes, blood. Lots and lots of gory red blood....

This is where the bootlaces come in. Drape them around the hand and stick them in the stump to make it look as if the hand's trailing bloody veins.

That's it really. You could use all sorts of other things if you fancy making the hand even more gory. Strawberry sauce would be good, perhaps pureed raspberries poured over the top if you want to add a few vitamins... it's up to you.

If you make a Hand of Glory for your Halloween party, send us a picture, we'd love to see just how gross and disgusting you lot can be!

If you want to find out more about real Hands of Glory, take a look at the Wizard's Classroom in our Trail for Young Wizards. You'll find the real Hand of Glory spell on the bookcase.

Happy Halloween!