How to Make Halloween Fun

Guest post

Whether you are having a party or you just want to make your children’s Halloween a memorable one here are some really cute recipes you can try this year. These are such easy treats that you and your children will have a blast making them together. Halloween is right around the corner so it’s time to get started!

1. Bed Bugs – These are No Bake Peanut Butter Choco-Oatmeal Cookies. They sound perfectly yummy all on their own and with the addition of eyes and legs they become bed bugs! The author said that she originally intended to use black licorice strings for the legs but couldn’t find them anywhere so she substituted chow meinnoodles. For the eyes she used red Sixlets candy or cinnamon Jelly Belly’s, but you can use your imagination. Again, these cookies are no bake and wouldn’t take long at all to put together. They call for white sugar, milk, butter, cocoa powder, peanut butter, oats, coconut flakes, and vanilla. I wouldn’t mind taking some of these bugs to bed with me!

2. Peanut Butter Spider Cookies  – You can make your own peanut butter cookies or use the recommended Betty Crocker Peanut Butter Cookie Mix. They are extremely easy and cute. After baking the cookies they say to stick on a “chewy caramel in milk chocolate” which looks to me like a Rollo. I think you could also use those Mini Reese’s Cup candies. You put them on when they come out of the oven and they melt on. Then you attach string licorice legs in either black or red out the sides of the candy. Using Mini M&M’s for eyes with a dot of black gel icing (or you could melt chocolate chips and dab on with a toothpick).

3. Spooky Brownies (Franken Brownies, Boo Brownies, Spider Brownies)  – Simply make your brownies and decorate with icing covered large marshmallows. They are so cute, you just have to click on this link and look at the pictures. You need white icing; gel food colors in regular and neon colors, Miniature M&M’s (candy-coated chocolate baking bits), decorating gel, Fruit Roll-Ups, Chewy Fruit Snacks, and Gummy worm candies. Or take a look at the pictures and use your imagination. These are just the cutest little scary monsters that would make anyone smile.

4. Spooky Monster Cookies – Besides making the chocolate cookies (which you could purchase if you have a favorite brand or bakery near you) these take just a short time to make. All I can say is that you have to be a fan of icing, and I can’t say that I’ve met any children and few adults who are not. They are filled with icing and have icing eyes to boot! Each cookie has a monster just dying to get out and come to the party!

5. Monster Cake  –This monster has a similarity to Frankenstein, green and square. Start with a chocolate fudge cake mix and baked as a sheet cake. You will need white frosting, black food coloring, neon green gel food coloring, black decorating icing, and black string licorice. They say to use the picture on the site as a guide for decorating. I was looking at the cake and thinking about those nuts and bolts that were always sticking out of the side of Frankenstein’s neck. Why not put a Rollo or Mini Reese’s Cup on the sides? Or better yet use Tootsie Rolls and shape them to look like nuts on bolts? Just an idea.

6. Spider Web Cake  – It looks like a spider has made his web on top of your bright orange cake and is dangling from the side making his way towards the bottom! What a cute cake idea. Start by baking a layer cake either by using a mix or from scratch. Use vanilla frosting that you dye orange with food coloring. Betty Crocker apparently has something called Black Cookie Icing that you need to ice the chocolate wafer cookie (like an Oreo) with and let dry for an hour before putting it on the cake. I would think you could do the same thing with a semi sweet chocolate chip and shortening mixture. You also need black licorice candy; it looks like the regular twist kind to decorate the bottom edge of the cake. This is really an adorable cake and not at all hard to make.

7. Mini Pumpkin Bundt Cakes  – I love these little cakes. When I saw them I think I squealed just a little. What is more precious than a mini Bundt cake? Two mini Bundt cakes bottom to bottom to make the shape of a small pumpkin! With orange icing, green sour straws for stems, and green gum drops rolled out with a rolling pin to look like leaves, this cake would be the hit of any party. This would work for Halloween or even Thanksgiving. Someone had a great idea when they came up with this one. You can either use a box cake mix or make it from scratch with some homemade icing. I can imagine these as a center piece for the table. The best thing is that it’s extremely easy.

8. Halloween Mummies  – These would be really cute for a school Halloween party as treats if they were individually wrapped with a bow. These treats wouldn’t take long at all to make. You need the sticks, the Oreos, white chocolate melts or almond bark, and a little dark chocolate or maybe mini chocolate chips? I imagine the hardest part in making these is to open the Oreos without being tempted to eat out the icing! The directions say to open the Oreos and put a dab of white chocolate inside to make the stick stay in place. Put the cookies back together and refrigerate for a few minutes to make sure the sticks stay stuck (say that ten times). Then dip the Oreos in the white chocolate and let cool. Put a couple of dabs of white icing for the eyes while you are at it. After they have cooled you drizzle the white icing back and forth to make it look like mummy wraps. Add a dot of chocolate for the pupils of the eyes and viola there you have it!

9. Cheese-Finger Food or Cheesy Monster Digits  – I have seen these monster fingers done in many ways, mostly with string cheese like these or with bread stick dough shaped into fingers. They suggest you use plastic gloves or sandwich bags to keep the mozzarella cheese sticks from getting finger prints all over them while you are cutting out the finger nail area or carving in the “joints” of the fingers. This recipe uses pieces of green pepper for the nails with cream cheese as the “glue”. I’ve seen people use sliced or whole almonds as the nails also. These will be very popular with the kiddos. What kid doesn’t want to eat monster fingers made out of cheese?

10. Hairy Daddy Longlegs Cupcakes  – Start with chocolate cupcakes (or I suppose any flavor would work) and frost with chocolate frosting (this is a must because who has ever seen a scary spider that isn’t black?). Cover it with chocolate sprinkles for the “hairiness”. The recipe says to add two pieces of eye-type candy and they used a candy that I am not familiar with. I was thinking about what I would use and I thought of using Gummy rings with a large gumball stuck in the center. That would turn him (or her) into a big old scary eyed monster spider! The legs are made out of black licorice strings. I’ve heard that many people have trouble finding the black licorice strings these days however so I would suggest buying the twisted kind and just pulling it apart. Or you could always use sour straws instead.

I hope these some of these recipes will work for you and make you the hit of the party with friends and family. There are all kinds of hauntingly good ideas out there this Halloween season. My motto is to keep things simple, cute, and always yummy.

Author Bio:
Jason Miner plays a vital role for www.blogcarnival.com. He is an expert in writing topics of different categories. He is helping the carnival team to grow & working on making this an even better place for bloggers.