You've already sent out your haunting party invites, completed your DIY Halloween costume, and planned those spooky table settings, but what about the scary Halloween recipes? Bloody meringue bones and witch fingers and dip will get your guests hungrier than a zombie in a morgue. There are a lot of sweets on the menu, but you won't be stuck with just leftover trick-or-treating candy. Get ready for some seriously startling recipes and ideas that'll have you and your guests doing a double-take. Keep your defibrillator handy, because these terrifying treats are not for the faint of heart.
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Mummy Pizzas
Trick your kids into eating their veggies by turning zucchini ribbons into tasty mummy bandages atop French bread pizzas. Take advantage of the Halloween holiday to get extra playful and silly with your food. To start this dish, grab ciabatta rolls or similar rectangular rolls, sun-dried tomato pesto or pizza sauce, grated mozzarella cheese, small zucchinis, and black olives. Halve the bread rolls, add your sauce of choice, sprinkle with cheese and use a vegetable peeler to cut the zucchini into thin ribbons that can be haphazardly placed on the roll at different angles. Use the sliced olives for eyes, and bake for about 20 minutes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Then you can mummy out!
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Ghoulish Red Velvet Cake
Bloody bones, crumbled red velvet, lots of sugar — this dessert is everything a Halloween treat should be. You'll need a few hours to make the cake, frosting and bones from scratch in the DIY masterpiece. Check your pantry and refrigerator for butter, sugar, eggs, flour, cocoa powder, buttermilk, vanilla extract, white vinegar, baking soda and cake release spray for the cake; egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar for the bones; and mascarpone, icing sugar, heavy cream and blackberry syrup for the for the frosting. As far as supplies goes, it'll also be helpful to have a mixer, piping bags, cake stand, a few mixing bowls and a measuring jug.
Image via Brilliant Bites by Maegan Brown
Mummy Meatballs
These meatballs take on the flavors of your favorite pasta dish. The eyeballs, crafted from ricotta cheese and black olive bits, add in the spooky factor!
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Spooky Halloween Popsicles
Autumn weather is notoriously unpredictable. Make a batch of spooky frozen pops in case you find yourself sweating through your monster mask. Your ingredient list for these includes a bar of dark chocolate, heavy whipping cream, a can of coconut milk, condensed milk, a pack of candy googly eyes, and popsicle molds. Also, be sure to set aside about four hours to complete this Halloween party food idea.
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Bug Tuxedo Cake
This bug-covered cake is gorgeous, but it will absolutely creep out your friends and loved ones. We imagine this is what they served when Beetlejuice tried to marry Lydia. For this Halloween menu item, grab a chocolate cake mix, white chocolate, butter, powdered sugar, cream, and vanilla. This recipe will yield a four layer cake with thick frosting and thick chocolate ganache poured over the top. Mm, yum!
Spider Halloween Cookies
These creepy crawlies actually carry everything that's great about dessert – peanut butter and chocolate! They're easy to make after you bake the cookie base. Simply press a PB cup into the dough and decorate accordingly.
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Raw Avocado Zombie Bars
Unlike zombies, vegans don't eat brains, or any other food that comes from an animal for that matter. Instead, serve them up some raw, vegan avocado zombie bars for a healthy treat. You'll get about 16 servings with this recipe, which requires Medjool dates, raw almonds, cocoa powder, coconut oil, avocados, agave nectar, coconut oil, a blender or food processor and an 8x8 inch brownie pan.
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Petri Dish Jello Shots
Usually we *avoid* putting germs in our body, but these Jell-O shot petri dishes look so good, we just can't resist having one for dessert. Oh, and they're make-ahead, leaving you more time to work on your costume.
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Blood Bones co*cktail
Spike your punch bowl with bones made from Jell-O shot ingredients, including whipped cream vodka.
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Halloween Avocado Toast
What's more terrifying than millennials spending all their hard-earned cash on avocados and destroying the real estate industry? Turning those avos into totally freaky breakfast toasts, of course.
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White Chocolate Strawberry Lab Mice
October 31 is the only time of year when seeing mice in the kitchen is actually a good thing. After all, they're made from strawberries and white chocolate! This make-ahead treat is easy to put together and ideal for a mad scientist themed spooky party.
For this Halloween recipe, all you need are strawberries, white chocolate melting wafers, and red food coloring. Set a few of the wafers aside to be used as mouse ears, and melt the rest in the microwave-safe dish for about 30 seconds. Then dip your strawberries into the melty chocolate and place on a flat plate or surface to help them keep their shape. As the chocolate starts to set, place two wafer on top of each strawberry for the ears. To achieve the spooky red eyes, mix red food dye into the remaining melted chocolate and use a fork or toothpick to pick up the color and complete the look. For more mad scientist Halloween food ideas, check out this lime green petri dish jello shot recipe.
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Black Martinis
This co*cktail is sweeter than it seems. It gets its dark color from blackberries, Chambord, and a drop of food coloring.
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Midnight Galaxy Donut Holes
Howl at the full moon while snacking on glorious galaxy swirl donut holes. Just make sure you bring enough to share with the werewolves.
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Halloween Monster Sushi Bites
Get the kids to help decorate these monstrous sushi bites, and they might actually forget about candy for a while.
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Eyeball and Mummy Cake Balls
Nothing like popping an eyeball in your mouth for a sweet snack, right?
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Blood-Splattered Petit Fours
Pound cake squares and sugar glass sounds totally scrumptious to us. Those who faint at the sight of blood might want to skip this one, though.
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Bloody Meringue Bones
You don't need any special ingredients to make realistic edible blood. Frozen blackberries, sugar, and lemon juice do the trick nicely.
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Black + Orange Rum Punch
It's the one time of year that a black and orange co*cktail won't freak out your guests too badly.
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(Gummy) Worm Ice Cubes
For a Halloween co*cktail trick and treat, add gummy worms to your guests' ice.
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Monster Eye-Scream Cookies
If you like cute more than creepy, these adorable ice cream cookies have your name written all over them. Grab your favorite sugar cookie recipe, royal icing in a variety of colors, and fondant for homemade candy eyes if you can't find the store-bought kind. You can DIY candy eyes by rolling out fondant and using straws to cut out uniform small circles. Once the fondant dries, you can add on black dots with an edible market to finish the eyes and set aside. Then, before you bake your cookie dough of choice, use cookie cutters to create fun and cute shapes in the dough like hearts, triangles, stars, and more. Think about the colors you want to use for your designs (we opted for a pastel palette with pink, yellow, peach, and blue), and dye the royal icing as needed to match your desired hues. Then get to work on decorating your cute scary monster cookies!
Image via Domestic Gothess
Witches' Finger Cookies and Red Velvet Hot Chocolate
Name a more iconic duo than witch finger cookies and red velvet hot chocolate — we'll wait. This Halloween recipe uses a buttery shortbread dough for knobby fingers, blanched almonds for fingernails, cinnamon for dirt and red food coloring to get the gory bleeding look. The coolest and creepiest part of this dish is the red velvet hot chocolate dipping sauce that looks like a goblet of blood.
Some quick tips: Once your cookie dough is ready to go, you'll want to measure out 1/2 tablespoon quantities of the dough, roll them into a ball, and then into a log shape. Be sure to make them quite thin as they were spread in the oven while baking. For the knuckle indentations, use a knife to make the ridges. Get the full spooktacular treat at Domestic Gothess.
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Halloween Monster Donuts
Kids can make their own frightful Halloween Monster Donuts over pre-made glazed donuts in this yummy no-bake dessert or breakfast.
Image via Half Baked Harvest
Voldemort's Dark Serum
Harry Potter fans will delight in this spooky Halloween co*cktail made with a mix of pomegranate juice, tequila, Chambord (raspberry liquor), lemon, and warming sage.
Image via Boulder Locavore
Slow-Cooker Vampire Punch
Have chills running up and down your spine? Ghouls of all ages can sip on this non-alcoholic crimson punch. For a more potent potion, add rum. To master this recipe and round out your Halloween menu, you'll need a slow cooker, five minutes to mix all the ingredients, and three hours of patience to let it brew. Hawaiian Punch, ginger ale, and Red Hot Candies are the hero ingredients here. To take this to the next level on the spook-scale, use dry ice for a smoky vibe.
Image via Salty Canary
Jack-o-Lantern Pumpkin Ice Cream
Halloween heatwaves don't stand a chance against cones of grinning, grimacing pumpkin ice cream.
Image via Half Baked Harvest
Haunted Orchard co*cktail
After tip-toeing through a haunted orchard, who wouldn't crave a co*cktail to calm the nerves?
Image via Domestic Gothess
Jack-o-Lantern Personal Pies
Carve pie crust jack-o-lanterns to top these personal pies.
Image via Jelly Toast
Spider Web Cereal Treats
Jazz up your usual cereal treats with a thick layer of chocolate ganache and a web of icing on top. Simple, spooky, and superb.
Image via Salty Canary
Halloween Monster Popcorn
When stocking your Halloween pantry, you'd better buy edible googly eyes in bulk. Add them to everything from popcorn to oatmeal to instantly make your meal mortifying.
Image via Texanerin Baking
Whole Wheat Witch Fingers + Dip
Healthy and Halloween don't have to be mutually exclusive. Serve this on days when you're not feeling the sweet stuff.
Image via Curbly
Halloween Bark Recipe
Dark chocolate and bloody red candy melts combine to make this popcorn bark a spooky treat.
Image via Give it Some Thyme
Spooky Chocolate Glazed Cannoli Dip
When faced with a vat of chocolate glazed cannoli dip, the only thing we have to fear is our appetite.
Image via Cilantro Parsley
Graveyard Dessert
This ghostly dessert will haunt your guests taste buds with how yummy it tastes.
Image via Half Baked Harvest
Forbidden Forest Chocolate Butterbeer Cake
No matter how many times we've been told not to venture into it, the Forbidden Forest stills beckons us. Since we know you can't enough of it either, be sure to make this tasty butterbeer cake for your Harry Potter-themed party.
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This post has been updated from a previous post.
Lead image via Half Baked Harvest.
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Justina Huddleston
Justina Huddleston is a food writer living in Los Angeles. When she's not busy writing, she spends her time in the kitchen creating both virtuous and decidedly junky vegan food. Buffalo chickpea pizza, anyone? She's also been known to eat a plain block of tofu or beans straight out of the can for lunch, but somehow those culinary adventures don't make it to her Instagram. You can follow Justina on Twitter or see what's cooking in her kitchen on her blog, A Life of Little Pleasures.
