Nothing is easier to serve at a Halloween party than a big batch of cupcakes.  No cake to cut, no plates or silverware-just grab and go! Here a few fun ideas for decorating Halloween cupcakes:

These monster cupcakes are decorated with candies, marshmallows, mini chocolate chips, and licorice.  The bottom right cupcake’s tentacles are made from strips of Laffy Taffy, and the bottom left is constructed out of gum drops and Good & Plenty licorice candies.  Click on the photo to see a diagram of all the candies used.

These spider cupcakes look like a real chocolate fix!   They are chocolate cupcakes and chocolate icing topped with chocolate sprinkles, red hots for eyes, and black licorice ropes for legs.

Other ideas for decorating Halloween cupcakes:  Candy corn, candy pumpkins, gummy body parts, orange frosting, marshmallow ghosts, etc.

It’s easier and much quicker to make a lot of cupcakes if you have at least two cupcake pans, so you can work on filling one while the other is in the oven.  The pumpkin cupcake pan above turns out 4 jack-o-lantern cupcakes, and it’s available at Oriental Trading Company.  For a non-stick option, try silicone bakeware.

Need more ideas?  Check out our Halloween recipes!

Every year I try to find one new addition for my collection of Halloween recipes.  I think this one is going to be the one this year.  Until now, I had never even heard of pumpkin dip.  This sounds like it would be good with ginger snaps or vanilla wafers…like mini pumpkin pies for my Halloween party.

Easy Pumpkin Dip

• 2 blocks of cream cheese, softened (8 ounces each)
• 1 large can plain pumpkin (30 ounces)
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 tsp. ginger

Whip together all ingredients with a hand mixer, and you’re done!  Serve on a platter with ginger snaps and/or vanilla wafers.  Or, hollow out a small pumpkin and place dip inside for a really creative presentation.

Whatever you do, don’t throw away the pumpkin seeds leftover from carving Halloween pumpkins!  Roasted pumpkin seeds are a delicious and nutritious Halloween treat, and they’ll stay fresh for a couple weeks in a tightly sealed container or bag.  Here’s how to make them:

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Separate pumpkin seeds from the pumpkin pulp and place in colander.  Rinse with water, and sift through with your hands to wash away any remaining pulp.  After rinsing, place seeds on paper towels to dry. When seeds are dry, place them on a cookie sheet, and toss with a drizzle of olive or canola oil.  Add in any seasonings you like such as salt, garlic salt, Old Bay seasoning, etc.

Bake seeds in a 350 degree oven, stirring every few minutes, until golden brown.

Read more about pumpkin seed nutrition facts.

Did you know you can transform your favorite deviled egg recipes into spooky eyeballs for Halloween?  I’ve done this for my Halloween party for the last few years, and they always get gobbled up pretty fast.  With a little bit of ketchup and stuffed olives, it’s a snap.

In a large saucepan or stockpot, boil enough eggs to make the desired amount of deviled eggs.  Adding some salt to the boiling water will make it easier to remove the shells later.  You can make your deviled egg filling from any recipe, but here’s the recipe I use:

• A dozen hard-boiled eggs, peeled
• 1 can deviled ham (4.5 ounces)
• 1/4 cup sweet relish
• 1/3 cup mayonnaise
• 4 tsp. mustard
• 12 green olives (stuffed with pimientos)
• Ketchup

Cut boiled and peel eggs in half lengthwise, remove yolks, and set aside whites.  Place egg yolks in a small mixing bowl and mash with a fork.  Add ham, mayo, relish, and mustard.  Mix well, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Fill egg whites with filling.  Top with olive halves to create the eyeball look.  If you want to make bloodshot eyeballs, use ketchup to create blood vessels.  This is easily done by placing the desired amount of ketchup in a disposable plastic bag.  Make a small hole in the bag and use it like an icing bag.  You can also poke a hole in a fast food ketchup packet. If you’re taking these to a Halloween party, I  recommend using a deviled egg carrier, as they like to slide around.

The photo above shows sliced black olives with a dot of ketchup in the center rather than stuffed green olives, and they’ve colored their egg filling green.  Anything goes here!

Here are more Halloween recipes for an especially fun Halloween night.

If you haven’t tried silicone bakeware, you’re missing out on a easy way to create beautiful and delicious baked goods.  At first,  I was skeptical of the seemingly flimsy baking pans, but decided to try one when I found a silicone muffin pan on sale one day.  It’s the best non-stick pan I’ve ever had.  By simply twisting the flexible pan, the muffins popped out perfectly….without shortening or non-stick spray.

Since we’ve been talking a lot about Halloween recipes, you might want to check out this silicone leaf and pumpkin mold for making individual size cakes (about 20 per cake mix) for your Halloween party.  The pumpkin and leaf silicone pan is oven-safe to 500 degrees, and it’s available at Chef Central.

After munching on all your favorite Halloween recipes, all the ghosts and goblins at your Halloween party are going to be thirsty.   A tall glass of Halloween punch or homemade witches’ brew will certainly hit the spot.  At my Halloween party, I like to fill up a big punch bowl and let guests serve themselves.

Here are a two Halloween punch recipes that will keep even a big crowd of monsters happy.

Bewitching Fruit Punch

• 4 cups ice
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 can (12 oz.) frozen cranberry juice drink concentrate
• 1/2 cup lime juice
• 2 cans (12 oz.) lemon and/or lime flavored soda or sparkling water

Combine ice, lime juice, water, and cranberry drink concentrate in a blender, and blend on high speed until ice is finely chopped.  Pour mixture into punch bowl, and add lemon/lime soda. Garnish with fresh lime slices. Source:  Land O’ Lakes.

Ghoul-Aid

This recipe makes a spooky black Halloween punch.

• 1 packet of powdered grape drink mix
• 1 packet of powdered orange drink mix
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 quarts of water
• 1 liter of ginger ale

Combine sugar, water, and drink packets and stir until well blended. Pour into punch bowl, and add ginger ale just before serving.

Add a frozen hand:  If you want to add a floating ice hand to this Halloween punch, simply fill a clean rubber glove with water, knot the end to close it, and freeze.  Remove ice hand from glove, and float it in the punch.

Like the punch bowl in the photo?  I found it at Neiman Marcus.

Don’t forget about breakfast when it comes to finding Halloween recipes.  Nothing tastes better than warm pancakes in the fall, and there are plenty of creative twists for turning pancakes into real Halloween treats. The pancakes above were made using these Halloween pancake molds by Williams-Sonoma.

Here are some ideas for a fun Halloween breakfast:

Add some color:  Some natural orange food coloring would turn any pancake into a jolly Halloween pumpkin. If you don’t have pancake molds, you could add some eyes, a nose and a mouth using apple or orange slices.

Add more shapes:  Open-top Halloween cookie cutters (metal only) would work for making pancake bats, ghosts, or any other shape.  Spray them with non-stick spray before placing on your griddle or skillet, and remove just before flipping.

Here’s a recipe for apple pecan pancake batter to give your pancakes real autumn flavor:

Here’s a fun idea for Halloween.  A real witches brew with bubbles and steam.  This recipe serves a party of thirty (12 quarts) so cut back if it’s just a few of you.  Or you could do it minus the alcohol for a kids event.  Either way, make sure nobody touches or drinks chunks of dry ice - you could get burnt!   You will need:

• four 48 oz cans pineapple juice
• one 96 oz bottle orange juice
• four 2 liter bottles Mountain Dew
• one 1.75 liter bottle vodka
• one 1.75 liter bottle of rum
• dry ice

All measurements are approximate. Adjust to your own taste.  Mix well. Pour into your cauldron with chunks of dry ice to create the bubbling steam effect.  Remember, don’t eat the dry ice or you will get burnt!

For more Halloween recipes like this one check out britta.com