I married a Halloween guy, and then we brought our first baby boy home from the hospital on halloween day, so for years we were doing Halloween themed birthday parties and I needed lots of fun (and EASY) food! I wanted to collect all of these in one place here so that when you’re planning a party you won’t have to search far! If there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that you can turn any food into a Halloween food with the addition of a) eyes or b) plastic spiders. Seriously. But here are some of my favorite things that make appearances at our house around this holiday. Some of these have recipe links, and others are simply easy ideas you can pull off without a recipe. Enjoy!
Crypt Kreeper Crescents
Bananas and Nutella (or cookie butter) are wrapped up in crescent dough and baked. These are super duper easy, and a great make-ahead treat. Recipe here!
Monster Munch
Perfect for a party, or great in individual party bags or container for favors! Click Here for the recipe.
Ghosts in the Graveyard
These cute pudding cups are the perfect combo of sweet creamy pudding and crumbled Oreos. So simple to make! Get the recipe here.
Easy Crescent With Hats
Store bought crescent dough is already in the shape of a witch hat so these are super easy! Take a bit of string cheese and place it at the bottom and roll up, then use cookie cutters to cut pepperoni to decorate. Bake on package directions, knowing that a flat crescent will only take minutes to bake!
Caramel toffee dip in a Pumpkin
A quick makeover for one of our favorite fall recipes. Get the recipe, here!
Mummy Dogs
This is a childhood favorite and always the most popular of our Halloween spreads! Cut crescent roll dough into thin strips and wrap around hot dogs. Bake according to crescent package directions and use ketchup or mustard for eyes. I cut my hot dogs in half to make them bite-sized.
Yeti Cupcakes
These easy cupcakes can be adapted to lots of them, they’d be adorable for a monster-themed party.
Monster Jaws
Quarter apples and take a wedge out of the center of each quarter. Dunk them in water with a little lemon juice to prevent browning. Use slivered almonds for teeth (I toasted mine for color and taste!) Eyes are optional. I stuck pretzel rods in and attached candy eyes with peanut butter.
Bones and Blood
Use breadstick dough (store bought or homemade) and cut into strips. Use scissors to snip the ends into 2 pieces and roll them down to make the bone shape. Dip in “bloody” marinara! For extra flavor sprinkle with garlic and Parmesan or this seasoning.
Candycorn Pizza
Easy peasy! Plain cheese pizza, just make a ring of cheddar around the outside edge and mozzarella in the center. Cut into wedges to make the candy corns.
Cheesy Fingers
Super kid friendly- who doesn’t love string cheese?? Again, I cut them in half to make them kid-sized. Use the flat side of a knife to make the knuckle marks and attach slivered almonds with a dab of cream cheese for the nails. I also used a knife to shave off just a bit of the cheese at an angle before attaching the almond.
Chocolate Cherry Mice
You’ll need maraschino cherries for this one. Make sure you buy ones with stems. Drain them and dry them well with paper towels. Dip in almond bark, or chocolate bark. When they are semi dry, attach a chocolate chip for a nose, slivered almonds for ears, and little candies or sprinkles for eyes.
Dirt and Worms
Another classic. Use chocolate pudding for your mud and put some crushed Oreos on top for dirt. Hide those gummy worms in there for eeek factor!
Pumpkin Sammies
This is a great staple for a Halloween party spread because it pleases both kids and adults, and is something with substance! Use Halloween cookie cutters to cut your bread. I like to fill some with peanut butter or cream cheese and orange-colored jam (like peach or apricot) for the kiddos, and something more sophisticated like Teriyaki Chicken Salad for the grown ups!
Nutter Butter Ghosts
Nutter Butters are naturally ghost shaped, which make them perfect for dipping! Give them a bath in some almond bark and put on a couple of mini chocolate chips for eyes. And might I add that white chocolate covered Nutter Butters taste really good!
Witches Wands
Dipped Pretzel Rods are instantly transformed into “Witches Wands” with a little Halloween pizzazz! I sometimes have a hard time finding them in stores, so you can get them here if you find yourself in the same boat. Put them in containers with candy corns to hold them up.
Spider Cookies
Red Hots and licorice turn Oreos into creepy (but kinda cute) spiders. Shoestring licorice is hard to find these days, but I did find some here. If you don’t want to order online, Twizzlers makes “Pull-Apart” candy that works perfectly.
Spider Web Dip
This trick works for pretty much any dip that you could pipe sour cream on top of! I always do a basic 7-Layer taco dip. Put some sour cream in a plastic baggie with the end snipped off and use it to draw a web pattern. Throw on a fake spider or two and your favorite party dip is instantly creepy!
Slimy Worms on a Bun
My son seriously thought these looked too gross to eat-he wouldn’t even touch it! Just slice hot dogs and drop them into boiling water for just a minute or two and they’ll curl a bit. Dunk them in some BBQ sauce and you have slimy worms
Witch Hats
One of the easiest Halloween tricks (and treats!). Place a Hershey’s Kiss on top of a Keebler Fudge Strip Cookie (in case you need a mental image of the cookies I’m talking about, here you go) and you have a little hat. Use the little tubes of frosting you can buy in the grocery store baking isle. Pipe a ring around the outside of the bottom of the kiss and press onto the cookie. It will squeeze out and make the ring around the kiss. Then pipe on the bow.
Candy Corn Cookies
These sweet cookies are so super easy! No rolling or cutting with cookie cutters, just slice and bake. Click here for the recipe.
Witch Brooms
A witch with a cute hat needs a broom to match! Use cookie dough to form a broom shape around the end of a large pretzel rod. Use a tooth pick to make indentations in the cookies if you want. If your cookies spread too much during baking just use a knife to trim the edges when they come out of the oven and are still warm. Then decorate as desired. I just used a packaged PB cookie mix to make it easy, but I added a bit of flour to make the cookies hold their shape better. You could also use this PB cookie dough or this sugar cookie dough.
Skeleton Cookies
Who says gingerbread men are just for Christmas?? These little cuties get a spooky, chocolaty makeover for Halloween! Easy piping with a chocolate cut-out cookie recipe. Also included in that post is an even easier, and quicker, mummy cookie! Find the tutorial here.
Shrunken Apple Heads
These will WOW! Shrunken heads are actually really easy to make with apples! Get the tutorial here.
Halloween Cookie Pops
Here’s a great sugar cookie recipe and a tutorial on both glace icing and cookie pops. Make some spooky shapes and let people pick up some yum on a stick! Click here for a tutorial on making the spider web designs.
Candy Corn Cupcakes
We started a trend with these adorable candy corn themed cupcakes. Click here for the recipe, and also a how-to on making those pretty swirly tops!
Autumn Pretzel Turtles
These quick and easy bites get a quick fall makeover by using Reeses Pieces in the centers, or drizzling colored candy melts over traditional nut centered ones. Click here for the recipe.
Stovetop Kettle Corn
You don’t need a fancy machine for this classic fall treat. Just a pot on the stove top and our tutorial and you’ll be snacking in no time. Click here for the recipe.
Caramel Apples
What’s a fall party without caramel apples?? Get the for our gourmet style caramel apple recipe here.
Honey Caramel Apple
Speaking of caramel apples, here’s a great honey version. This homemade caramel only requires 2 main ingredients! Click here for the recipe.
Caramel Apple Cider
Need a drink to serve with all these goodies? Look no further than this delicious Caramel Apple Cider. Click here for the recipe.
Mason Jar Lanterns
These easy-to-make mason jar lanterns instantly add festiveness to your party!
Click here for the tutorial.
Questions & Reviews
Thank you SO much for the great ideas! I love the look of the slimey worms, but I could never eat them!! I will definitely be trying some of those easy recipes those–Definitely the spider web dip, the mummy dogs, and definitely the nutter butter cookies!
Thanks!! The preschool kids loved the mummy dogs!
goosemonkey- I just used a little dab of frosting from a tube to attach the red hots to the spiders.
And yes, I have made a pumpkin cake that way- they're super cute! My one piece of advice is to fill the bundt pans as full as you can (without it cooking over obviously) because otherwise you get a really flat pumpkin. But it's super easy- nothing to be nervous about!
i'm throwing a birthday/halloween party this weekend for my son and i bought all the stuff to make the oreo spiders. how did you attach the red hots to the oreos?
also, have you heard of (or tried) making a pumpkin cake with two bundt cakes stacked together? i plan to attempt it but am kind of nervous about it. any pointers?
Karrissa- nope, just wrap the uncooked dough around an uncooked hot dog and they both cook up in the oven!
For the mummy dogs- do you cook the hot dogs first before wrapping them in the dough?
Sooo many great edible ideas! Thank You!
ps. I linked to this post today. 🙂
Those ghosts look awesome. I haven't really dipped stuff before. I hope it's not rocket science.;)
Thank you for this great recipes, I'll use some of them this year on Halloween and I know my guests will love it.
Alissa,
Almond bark is usually by the chocolate chips. It comes in a 1 pound brick and you just break off squares. It's similar to white chocolate, but it's made with some oils as well so it melts and dips really easily. You could use white chocolate too, but almond bark will be much easier. Hope that helps!