Halloween Recipes

Throwing a Halloween party provides the perfect opportunity to delight guests with spooky food creations that set the mood for an evening of thrills and chills. Guests are sure to enjoy your scary treats, even if they're a little grossed out by the presentation. Halloween is the ideal occasion to offer such a disconcerting array of creepy, yet tasty options.

Brain Mini Cupcakes

Brains!  That is what every zombie is in quest of so serve your guests these mini cupcake brains.

Ingredients:

·         Red velvet cake mix

·         Cherry or raspberry sauce

·         Candy Brain mold

·         Jello (green) or green fondant

·         Mini cupcake wrappers

·         Cream cheese frosting

Directions:

1.       Make the cake box recipe according to directions on the box using mini cupcake wrappers and pans.

2.       Once cooled, add cream cheese frosting to each mini cupcake.

3.       Make jello according to directions but add to candy mold and let set in fridge until firm. (If using fondant, roll fondant and press into mold, take out immediately).

4.       Carefully, take brains out of mold and add to top of cupcakes. 

5.       Spoon cherry sauce on top and around brain to add effect.

Forked Eyeballs

These scary-good Halloween treats, prepared and eaten on the same fork, begin with a doughnut hole dunked in white chocolate.

Ingredients:

• 2 bags white chocolate chips
• 12 doughnut holes
• Semisweet chocolate chips
• Red decorator frosting

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Directions:

1. To coat the doughnut holes, melt white chocolate chips and oil over low heat (and keep the chocolate warm while you work). With a fork, spear each doughnut hole and submerge it in the melted chocolate to coat it, and then gently tap off any excess.
2. Stick a chocolate chip with its point cut off onto each doughnut hole, cut end first. Place the forks (handle side down) in a glass and allow the chocolate coating to harden.
3. Use a tube of red decorator frosting to add squiggly veins radiating out from the pupils.

Swamp Juice

Filled with gummy creatures and fish eggs, this sweet, bubbly drink looks like something scooped up from a deep, dark bog. Try making a batch for a Halloween gathering or as a spooky after-dinner treat.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup small tapioca pearls
• Food coloring
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• Gummy fish
• Seltzer water
• Lemonade
• Gummy worms 

Directions:

1. Bring 6 cups of water to a boil and add the tapioca pearls. Reduce the heat slightly and boil the pearls, stirring occasionally, for 20 to 25 minutes.
2. Divide the pearls, with the remaining water, between two bowls. Add 4 drops of food coloring (use 3 drops of yellow and 1 drop of green in one bowl, and 4 drops of blue in the other) and 2 tablespoons of sugar to each bowl. Stir the mixtures, and then allow them to sit uncovered for 20 to 25 minutes. Drain and rinse the pearls with cold water.
3. Spoon 2 tablespoons of pearls into each glass and drop in a gummy fish. Fill the glasses with seltzer water, and then add a splash of lemonade. Place a gummy worm around the spoon as a creepy finishing touch.

Monster Toes

Kids will love the gross-out factor of this tasty finger food. Parents will love the fact that it is candy-free. Try some for a party or pre-trick-or-treating dinner.  

Ingredients:

• Cocktail Wieners
• 6 inch tortillas
• Ketchup or BBQ sauce
• Toothpicks

Directions:

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Cut a small wedge into the end of each cocktail wiener to make a toenail.
2. Cut the tortillas into strips about 4 inches long and 3/4 inch wide. Discard the ends.
3. Soften the strips in the microwave between damp paper towels for 10 to 30 seconds.
4. Roll each wiener in a tortilla strip and secure with a toothpick.
5. Bake for 7 to 8 minutes. Remove them from the oven, and then fill the toenail with ketchup or mustard. Remove the toothpicks before serving.