Fun Halloween Dessert Recipes

Discover fun Halloween dessert recipes to add a spooky twist to your holiday celebrations! Whether you're planning a Halloween party or just want to surprise your family with some eerie treats, these creative and delicious desserts are sure to impress.

From skeleton gingerbread men to brain-shaped gelatin molds, there's a variety of ghoulishly good recipes that are both easy to make and visually stunning. Get ready to unleash your inner mad scientist in the kitchen and create some unforgettable Halloween treats that'll have everyone coming back for seconds!

Fun Halloween Dessert Recipes That Are Frighteningly Delicious

Adapted from Vintage Dessert Recipes

Skeleton Gingerbread Men

Hey, gingerbread cookies aren't just for Christmas anymore; they're a favorite treat any time of year. And when it comes to creepy Halloween food recipes, this one can be as startling as your kids care to make it.

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1 egg
1 cup molasses
1 teaspoon baking soda
1-1/2 teaspoons warm water
1/4 cup raisins for decorating
White colored gel icing

For this fun Halloween dessert recipe, cream together shortening, sugar, egg, and warm molasses. Dissolve baking soda in warm water, and then add to the egg mixture. Next, add flour, spices, and salt; mix it all up until well blended. Cover and chill overnight.

Prepare a floured surface and get out the rolling pin and cookie cutters. Cut gingerbread men (or other Halloween shapes) and place an inch or two apart on a greased cookie sheet for baking.

Add white gel icing to pipe on bones. Then use raisins or cinnamon candies for eyes, mouth, and so on.

HAND-Made Halloween Punch

A large piece of ice shaped as a hand can make a startling addition to the party punch bowl. To make a hand of ice, first wash, and then thoroughly rinse a large vinyl rubber glove (non-latex, non-powdered).

Then, carefully stretch the glove's wrist opening tightly over the rim of a container large enough to hold the glove upright and fill to the brim with pure drinking water. Secure with an elastic band, if needed.

Carefully without spilling, set the glove in the freezer overnight to freeze solid. Once frozen, this will provide a flat base wide enough to position the hand upright in the punch bowl.

An alternative method is to fill the clean glove with drinking water and then carefully tie off the wrist opening tightly with an elastic band, as you would tie a balloon. Then, gently set the glove in the freezer overnight to freeze solid.

Just before serving your punch, carefully cut the glove from the frozen ice and set the molded ice on a plate near the punch bowl. Dribble red food coloring onto the ice, then gently set it floating in the punch bowl.

Halloween Brainy Gelatin Dessert

Halloween Foot Dessert

Use the flesh colored gelatin recipe above, and a gelatin mold in the shape of a foot to create a startling decoration for your Halloween dessert table.

Use parsley or green shredded coconut to simulate ground cover or grass. Gelatin molds can also be gotten in hand and heart shapes to surprise your Halloween party guests.

Halloween Eye Treats

3 ounces lemon gelatin
1 cup hot water
1/2 cup miniature marshmallows
1 cup pineapple juice
1 8-ounce package cream cheese
1 cup whipping cream, whipped
1 cup mayonnaise

For this fun Halloween dessert recipe, dissolve lemon gelatin in 1 cup water in double boiler over medium heat. Add marshmallows and stir constantly to melt.

Remove from heat and add the pineapple juice and cream cheese, beat together until smooth. Fold in whipped cream and mayonnaise. Allow to cool until firm.

Get out the melon-baller and scoop full, round balls of the candy mixture. Decorate with dark pupils and red veins using food coloring and a clean, small paintbrush (the kind that children get with watercolor sets).

You'll have slimy looking eyeball shaped treats ready to surprise your Halloween party guests. And wait for the expressions of delight once they discover how delicious these unique treats really are!

Halloween Surprise Punch

How about a colorful bowl of fruit punch themed for your next Halloween party? Like the other fun Halloween dessert recipes, this one is also very easy to make, and the punch tastes refreshingly delicious.

1 (32 ounces) bottle apple juice, chilled
1 (12 ounces) can frozen cranberry juice concentrate
1 cup orange juice, fresh or frozen
50 ounces (1-1/2 liters) ginger ale
1 apple, sliced thinly
Large marshmallows

Take a large punch bowl or other serving container and combine the apple juice, cranberry concentrate, and orange juice. Stir until any frozen bits are dissolved. Slowly mix in the ginger ale.

To add the surprise, slice the apple in large thin slices to float on top as brain-like slices among the marshmallow eyes.

The ginger ale may be left out until just before your guests arrive to preserve the fizz.

Dracula Dentures Cookies

For a fun Halloween treat, serve Dracula Dentures Cookies. Start by making a batch of old fashioned chocolate chip cookies cut to uniform circle shapes.

Place a layer of red strawberry jam on one chocolate chip cookie and add white miniature marshmallows to form the teeth. Slivers of almond can be inserted to create the fangs, a pair on opposite sides.

Layer a second chocolate chip cookie with strawberry jam and lay it over the marshmallow teeth on the first cookie. Carefully cut cookie sandwich in half to form two sets of Dracula Dentures.

Marshmallow Spider Treats

Here's a fun Halloween dessert recipe that's fun for kids to make and eat. Imagine delicious marshmallow spiders with Chow Mein legs, and candy coated eyes.

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon butter
24 large marshmallows
1 (6 ounce) package Chow Mein noodles
1 (12 ounce) package mini candy-coated chocolate pieces

In the top of a double boiler, combine chocolate chips and butter. Heat over hot water until melted. Stir occasionally until chocolate is smooth, then set aside.

Line a cookie sheet with wax paper. Stick 4 Chow Mein noodles into each side of marshmallow for legs, and arrange on wax paper.

Carefully drizzle chocolate over the marshmallow spiders. Attach 2 colored candies to each marshmallow for eyes.

Chill until chocolate hardens firm. This fun Halloween dessert recipe makes 24 marshmallow spider treats.

Giant Wart Cupcakes

1/4 cup butter, cubed
8 ounces Semisweet chocolate
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 bags fun-sized (small) candy bars, chopped into small pieces

Melt butter. Remove from heat and add semisweet chocolate. Cover and let sit until chocolate is melted (3 to 5 minutes approximately) then stir to smooth.

Gradually and carefully add in the heavy cream while stirring, keep stirring while you pour or the chocolate will lose its shine. Refrigerate about 25 minutes to gain a little firmness for shaping.

Roll globs of the chocolate into round wart-shaped balls in the palm of your hand, then roll them in the chopped-up candy bars pressing so that it sticks to the edges.

Instead of chopped candy bars, this recipe offers a great way to get creative with the leftover Halloween candy, after trick or treating. (That's if your kids have any remaining to chop up!)

Make Your Own Fun Halloween Dessert Recipes

The real fun in any Halloween party menu is in the creative names you give to the food. Spider Stew, Bat Burgers, Black Cat Chili, Giant Wart Cupcakes, and Cupcakes with Booger Icing are some suggestions to jump-start your imagination.

Children tend to be fascinated by less-than-attractive food associations that they consider great fun. Fortunately, almost any food item can be chosen, as long as you choose a Halloween themed name and description for the dish.

For instance, spaghetti can be associated with worms and risotto can be thought of as maggots, and if the pasta dishes are offered in a blood-red tomato sauce enhanced with a little red food coloring, so much the better.

Use the fun Halloween dessert recipes to spark your creativity. You can create startling Halloween treats from almost any dessert recipe with the help of a little imagination.

• Cupcakes can be decorated with a menacing fake spider using brown icing and thin strips of black licorice for the legs.
  
• Rectangular iced cookies with the letters "RIP" iced onto them can be made to look like flat cemetery stones when laid on a cake or on top of an apple crisp dessert.
  
• Gummy worms can be inserted in cakes and puddings and left strewn around the table for guests to snack on.
  
• Brownies and other squares can be iced with grey icing to represent tombstones and set upright on a suitably decorated platter, or used as place markers with the names of your guests and their birth dates written on them in icing.
  
• Wispy strands of candy floss can be thinly stretched across a chocolate cake to serve as an icky spider web, with a large fake spider sitting menacingly at one corner.
  

So, start with these fun Halloween dessert recipes and let your imagination run wild. Believe me, your homemade Halloween desserts will be a big hit with your crowd.

Create a Halloween Party Menu

Once you have chosen several fun Halloween dessert recipes and have settled on your food choices, it's a good idea to produce a Halloween Menu that describes the themed dishes you're offering.

Post the menu poster size in the eating area or hand each guest a printed copy as a souvenir. It's sure to be an icebreaker that gets the kids speculating on what they're about to be served. Conversation will flow along with loud laughter and pretend expressions of disgust.

Remember to keep everything fun and in good taste (pun intended). If you cross the line with descriptions that are too gory, young appetites might be turned off, and you'll have unhappy party goers.

Your table setting can also be used to good effect to display your Halloween treats. Look for cheap, dollar-store accessories that you could use to set an eerie Halloween theme.

For instance, float gummy worms in the soup or rubber snakes in the punch bowl. Spread fake spiders and coffee grounds (fake dirt) around the plates.

ALWAYS take proper care for hygiene and the safety of younger children when choosing your decorations. Make sure to carefully wash ALL store-bought items that will come into contact with food.

Above all, have fun with these fun Halloween dessert recipes and make your next party one that will be talked about and remembered.