Trick or treat? Give us something good to eat. These Halloween baking ideas are spooky yet sweet and promise to bring an element of fun to the kitchen
Our pick of creative Halloween baking ideas
Eerie Eyeball Pops
Serves 10
Ingredients
- 100g/4oz Madeira cake
- 100g Oreo cookie
- 100g bar milk chocolate, melted
- 200g bar white chocolate, melted
- few Smarties and icing pens, to decorate
You will also need
- 10 wooden skewers
- ½ small pumpkin, or butternut squash, deseeded, to stand pops in
Method
- Break the Madeira cake and cookies into the bowl of a food processor, pour in the melted milk chocolate and whizz to combine.
- Tip the mixture into a bowl, then use your hands to roll into about 10 walnut-sized balls. Chill for 2 hrs until really firm.
- Push a skewer into each ball, then carefully spoon the white chocolate over the cake balls to completely cover. Stand the cake pops in the pumpkin, then press a Smartie onto the surface while wet. Chill again until the chocolate has set. Before serving, using the icing pens, add a pupil to each Smartie and wiggly red veins to the eyeballs.
Recipe sourced from BBC Good Food. Find more Halloween dessert recipes at bbcgoodfood.com
Pumpkin Pie
Serves 8
Ingredients
- 750g/1lb 10oz pumpkin or butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and cut into chunks
- 350g sweet shortcrust pastry
- plain flour, for dusting
- 140g caster sugar
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp fresh nutmeg, grated
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 25g butter, melted
- 175ml milk
- 1 tbsp icing sugar
Method
- Place the pumpkin in a large saucepan, cover with water and bring to the boil. Cover with a lid and simmer for 15 mins or until tender. Drain pumpkin; let cool.
- Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface and use it to line a 22cm loose-bottomed tart tin. Chill for 15 mins. Line the pastry with baking parchment and baking beans, then bake for 15 mins. Remove the beans and paper, and cook for a further 10 mins until the base is pale golden and biscuity. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly.
- Increase oven to 220C/200C fan/gas 7. Push the cooled pumpkin through a sieve into a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the sugar, salt, nutmeg and half the cinnamon. Mix in the beaten eggs, melted butter and milk, then add to the pumpkin purée and stir to combine. Pour into the tart shell and cook for 10 mins, then reduce the temperature to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Continue to bake for 35-40 mins until the filling has just set.
- Leave to cool, then remove the pie from the tin. Mix the remaining cinnamon with the icing sugar and dust over the pie. Serve chilled.
Recipe sourced from BBC Good Food. Find more Halloween dessert recipes at bbcgoodfood.com
Ghost Brownies
Makes 25
Ingredients
- 175 g (6oz) unsalted butter, chopped, plus extra to grease
- 150 g (5oz) dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), chopped
- 3 medium eggs
- 300 g (11oz) caster sugar
- 75 g (3oz) plain flour
- 40 g (1 ½oz) cocoa powder
- 450 g (1lb) icing sugar
- 50 g (2oz) Nutella
- 25 white marshmallows
- Black writing icing
Method
- Melt the butter and chocolate together in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water (make sure the base of the bowl doesn’t touch the water). When the mixture is melted and smooth, lift the bowl off the pan and set aside to cool for 20min.
- Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan) mark 4 and lightly grease and line a 20.5cm (8in) square tin with baking parchment. Using a handheld electric whisk, beat the eggs and sugar together in a large bowl until thick and moussey – about 5min.
- Add the melted and cooled chocolate mixture to the egg bowl and fold together with a large metal spoon. Sift over the flour, cocoa powder and a pinch of salt and fold together.
Scrape the mixture into the prepared tin, level and bake for 30min or until there is no wobble left when you gently shake the tin. Cool completely in the tin. Once cooled cut into 25 squares.
To make the icing:
- sieve the icing sugar over a large bowl and whisk in 5tbsp cold water until smooth and thick, adding a drop extra if it’s too stiff to pour.
- Dot the base of each marshmallow with a little Nutella, sit on the centre of a brownie square and pour over 1tsp icing. Using writing icing to draw eyes and a mouth to create a ghost.
Recipe sourced from Good House Keeping. Find more Halloween dessert recipes at goodhousekkeeping.com
Toffee Apples
Makes: 6
Ingredients
- 6 Granny Smith apples
- 300g demerara sugar
- 3tbsp golden syrup
- 25g salted butter
- 1½tsp cider vinegar
- Lolly sticks or skewers
Method
- Clean the apples and push a lolly stick into the top of each and set aside.
- Gently dissolve the sugar, syrup and butter in a saucepan with 75ml water then stir through the vinegar. Turn up the heat and boil until the mixture reaches 140C when it will have reached the toffee stage.
- Carefully dip the apples into the hot toffee and swirl to coat, if the pan is too shallow use a spoon to coat. Place on a board lined with baking paper to set.
- Eat your toffee apples!
Recipe sourced from Good to Know. Find more Halloween dessert recipes at goodtoknow.com
Scary Spider Cupcakes
Serves: 16
Ingredients
- 150g butter
- 225g sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 200g plain flour
- 60g cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 175ml milk
- 1 recipe buttercream icing
- 1 tube black decorating icing
Method
- Preheat oven to 180 C / Gas mark 4. Grease two muffin tins or line with 16 paper liners.
- In a medium bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Mix in the eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt; stir into the batter, alternating with the milk, just until blended. Spoon the batter into the prepared tins, dividing evenly.
- Bake in the preheated oven until the tops spring back when lightly pressed, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool in the tin set over a wire rack.
- When cool, remove from tin and ice with the buttercream icing. Once all cakes are iced, draw concentric circles on the tops of each using the tube of black decorating icing. The circles should be about half to 1 centimetre apart. Once all the circles have been drawn on the cakes, take a skewer and, starting in the centre of the cake, drag it across to the edge. Repeat this approximately five to eight times around the cake to form a spiderweb pattern. Repeat with remaining cakes.
To decorate, you can place a plastic spider in the centre of each cake if desired.
Recipe sourced from All Recipes UK. Find more Halloween dessert recipes at allrecipes.com
