15 of the best Halloween recipes
Stuck for Halloween party food ideas or looking for something spooky for a post-trick-and-trick meal or snack? We've got 15 scarily kid-friendly Halloween recipes right here...
Halloween is the spookiest night of the year (of course), so it should definitely feature properly scary (but tasty) food that makes the most of the ghoulish vibes and gets everyone wickedly fuelled for the trick-or-treating fun.
We've pulled together some terrifyingly tasty Halloween recipe ideas that all look brilliantly scary – and are actually all fairly simple to make. Many of them were created by children' food expert Annabel Karmel, so they come with her legendary reputation for easy-to-follow methods and maximum kid-appeal.
We've included supper dishes, as well as sweet and savoury bakes, and even some pretty healthy recipe ideas, too – just to balance out that candy overload a bit.
So, whether you're thinking of making some pre-trick-or-treat goodies to get the kids prepped for the neighbourhood walk-around or you're planning a full-on Halloween party, we've got it all uncannily well covered.
Here's our pick of the best Halloween recipes for kids...
1. Spooky Pumpkin Soup
Use up the pumpkin flesh you've scooped out of that Halloween lantern to make this warming, spooky nutritous soup.
2. Annabel Karmel's Pumpkin Muffins
Savoury, sultana-filled cupcakes that taste like pumpkins – and look like pumpkins!
3. Fiona Cairns' Little Monsters Cupcakes
Yummy orange-drizzle cupcakes with a scarily good (and easy-to-make) sugarpaste monsters on top.
4. Annabel Karmel's Meatloaf Mummy
Give a comforting family meatloaf a scary makeover with a pasta-ribbon Mummy face.
5. Annabel Karmel's Sticky Toffee Apples
A lighter, less tooth-crackingly thick version of the traditional Halloween and Bonfire Night treat.
6. Annabel Karmel's Chocolate Spider Cupcakes
Give chocolate-topped cupcakes an 8-legged makeover with this creepy-crawly-inspired Halloween decorating idea.
7. Annabel Karmel's Ghost Cakes
Take Halloween cakes to a properly spooky level with these dead-simple-to make ghost bakes
8. Annabel Karmel's Vegetable Skeleton Dip
Yes, it is possible to counter the candy overload (well, a bit) with this brilliantly clever skeleton made of veg, with a sour-cream-and-sweet-chilli-dipping-sauce face
9. Spooky Skull Cupcakes
Spook-up some simple cupcakes with swirly orange icing and some creepily cool white-chocolate skulls.
10. Annabel Karmel's Monster Muffins
These savoury muffins are flavoured with ginger, cinnamon and pumpkin and have a deliciously sweet but monstrously scary green topping.
11. Spider Whoopie Cakes
Treacly, ginger mini cakes, sandwiched with buttercream and topped with a spider's web: perfect for Halloween parties
12. Annabel Karmel's Bat & Ghost Cookies
Spicy biscuits with a deliciously creepy vibe – for Halloween tea or to string up and dangle as party decorations
13. Witches' Fingers
A vegan-friendly Halloween treat, made of dates, prunes, honey and cocoa powder – delicious to eat but how thrillingly gruesome do they look?
14. Beef, pumpkin and ginger stew
A warming meat-and-veg stew that cleverly makes use of any pumpkin flesh left over from Halloween lantern-carving
15. And for the babies: Beetroot and pumpkin puree
Halloween-up an iron-rich beetroot puree with the addition of nutrient-rich pumpkin
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Authors
Helen is author of the classic advice book Parenting for Dummies and a mum of 3. Before joining MadeForMums, she was Head of Community at Mumsnet and also the Consumer Editor of Mother & Baby.
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