Halloween is very exciting for children, as they get lots of sweets. Of course, a little refreshment is a must, and since we eat with our eyes, we have plenty of ideas here to make your Halloween buffet spooky:

Halloween buffet with children

Sweets for Halloween

Halloween Pumpkin and Monster Muffins

If you want to make muffins for Halloween, you can easily decorate them to make them look truly 'spooky'. Simply use your favorite muffin recipe and decorate them in a fun way.

I recommend this muffin recipe: Surprise muffins with chocolate

For the 'pumpkin muffin', color marzipan with orange food coloring and cover the muffin with it. For the leaf, color the marzipan green and cut it into a leaf shape. The eyes can be piped on using black food coloring or white and black chocolate icing.

For the monster and worm muffins, prepare a cream cheese frosting:

Ingredients:

• 70 g butter
• 400 g plain cream cheese
• 180 g powdered sugar
• possibly food coloring for tinting
• possibly sugar eyes, gummy worms, etc.

Instructions:

Beat the butter until fluffy. Then stir in the cream cheese and powdered sugar. If you like, you can also color the frosting. Keep the cream cheese frosting chilled until ready to use. Fill the frosting into a piping bag; if you don't have one, fill a freezer bag with the frosting, cut off a large corner at the bottom, and use it to decorate the muffins. Top with gummy worms, sugar eyes, etc., as you like.

Place the finished muffins in paper muffin liners and serve.

Bloody Cookies

Ingredients:

• simple cookie recipe, e.g. Recipe for butter cookies – Christmas cookies
• red food coloring

Instructions:

Prepare the cookie dough and use a knife or a cookie cutter to cut out little men or small hands. Always cut something off—a leg, the head, a finger. Bake the cookies and let them cool completely. Now drizzle the cookies with food coloring.

Extra tip: you can also use red jam (strawberry, raspberry, etc.), it tastes better.

Photo by Sabine, idea from my dear friend Carina

Monster muffins

Perfect for a Halloween party with children: Monster Muffins.

Ingredients:

• 200 g flour
• 50 g ground almonds
• 3 tbsp cocoa powder
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 2 eggs
• 100 g sugar
• 80 ml oil
• 300 g yogurt (buttermilk or sour cream also work)
• 150 g chocolate couverture (I used the one from Manner, but you can of course just melt regular chocolate)
• Decoration: sugar pearls, shredded coconut and blue food coloring, candy eyes, small butter cookies (e.g., from Leibnitz)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 180°C (356°F) top and bottom heat. Grease the muffin tin with paper liners or oil and place in the refrigerator. Mix flour, almonds, cocoa, and baking powder in a bowl. Whisk eggs, sugar, oil, and yogurt in another bowl. Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and stir into a smooth batter.

Bake in the oven at 180°C (356°F) for about 15 – 20 minutes. Then let them rest in the tin for 5 minutes before removing them.

And now for the decorating: If you want to use the shredded coconut, take a bowl (preferably ceramic and not plastic) and mix some food coloring with the coconut. Depending on the desired color intensity, add one to three drops of food coloring. If using sugar pearls, put them in a bowl that the muffin fits into.

Now brush or dip the muffins in chocolate couverture. Dip the freshly chocolate-coated muffins (you have to work quickly here, because if the chocolate dries, the rest of the decoration won't stick!) into a bowl of sugar pearls or colored shredded coconut. Also, use a little chocolate to glue on the eyes. For the mouth, make a small cut with a knife and insert the cookie. Set aside to dry.

Extra tip: Plan enough time, decorating takes a bit of time ?

Cake – Worm

Something healthy mixed into the cake, and the children didn't even notice. Carrots, apples, and nuts are in this cake. By the way, it is completely vegan and tastes really good:

Ingredients:

• 220 g ground nuts
• 100 g flour
• 100 g sugar
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 2 carrots, peeled and grated
• 2 apples, peeled and grated
• 120 ml plant-based milk, e.g., almond milk
• 50 ml rapeseed oil
• Oil for greasing the pan
• 50 g dark chocolate or ready-made dark chocolate coating
• Decoration: 2 sugar eyes, 2 wafer rolls, sugar sprinkles

Instructions:

For the batter, mix all dry ingredients in a bowl. Then add the grated carrots & apples and stir in the milk and oil. Mix all ingredients well with a whisk or wooden spoon.

Pour the cake batter into the greased loaf pan and bake at 180 degrees for approx. 45 minutes. Don't forget the toothpick test! Let the cake rest in the pan for a while. Then turn it out onto a plate and let it cool down completely.

For the chocolate glaze, melt the dark chocolate in a saucepan and spread it over the cake.

Now it's time to decorate: Stick 2 sugar eyes onto the still-moist chocolate on one side. Distribute sugar sprinkles all over. For the antennae, insert 2 wafer rolls into the cake.

Extra tip:This worm can of course also be made with other batters, such as a loaf cake or as a roulade.

Quick Halloween Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

• Chocolate cake, store-bought or simple recipe here: Recipe for a quick cup cake
• Chocolate glaze: ready-made chocolate glaze product (e.g., from Manner) or ganache
• Butter cookies, rectangular
• Food coloring
• Schwedenbomben
• Chocolate flakes

Instructions:

Bake the cake according to the instructions or take it out of the packaging. Cover with chocolate; either warm up the ready-made chocolate glaze and pour it over the cake, or make a ganache and pour it over the cake. Decorate the cookies with food coloring and stick them into the still-warm chocolate glaze. Also, sprinkle the chocolate sprinkles onto the slightly warm chocolate glaze so they stick better. Now let it cool down. Decorate the 'Schwedenbomben' (chocolate-covered marshmallow treats) with food coloring as well, e.g., paint faces on them and place them on the cake.

Tip: If the glaze is hard, it can break.

Halloween Cake with Dentures

Ingredients:

• Chocolate cake, store-bought or simple recipe here: Recipe for a quick cup cake
• Chocolate glaze: ready-made chocolate glaze product (e.g., from Manner) or ganache
• 1 handful of peeled almonds
• red strawberry sauce

Instructions:

Prepare or unpack the cake. Glaze the cake and use a spoon or just your hand to remove a handful. Yes, simply take a piece out of the cake. Surround this piece with the almonds so it looks like dentures. Now add the red sauce to this. Looks totally funny.

Extra tip: looks even better if the cake is covered in white, e.g., with a Cream cheese frosting

Halloween Skull Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 round cake and 1 small rectangular cake simple recipe here: Recipe for a quick cup cake
• white Cream cheese frosting
• black Cream cheese frosting

Instructions:

Cut the bottom third of the round cake straight and push the rectangular cake against the round one. The round one should be a bit larger than the rectangular one and look like a skull. Now cover the cake with the white frosting. Using a spoon, scoop out 1 eye in the upper third of the round cake and the nose with 2 small holes. Fill the holes with black frosting and add the edge and lines to the lower, rectangular part.

Quick Bloody Puff Pastry Crescents for Halloween

Ingredients:

• Puff pastry, Danish pastry from the refrigerated section
• Jam, chocolate cream (Nutella, etc.), etc.
• red food coloring
• green sugar sprinkles
• Powdered sugar

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 180°C (356°F) top and bottom heat. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Roll out the puff pastry and cut into 14 equal-sized triangles. Place a teaspoon of jam or chocolate cream on each triangle. Roll the individual pieces into crescents and place them on the baking tray. Bake in the oven for about 10 to 12 minutes until golden yellow.

Let the crescents cool down and decorate with red food coloring, green sprinkles, and powdered sugar.

Halloween Ghost Cake Pops

If you want to make a ghost, make elongated cake pops without a stick and use white couverture for the coating. First, pipe the couverture onto a plate to form the arms, let them harden in the fridge, and stick them into the cake pop before coating.

Only now coat the entire cake pop with the white couverture. The eyes can be piped on using white powdered sugar icing and dark chocolate couverture. Then place in paper muffin liners and serve.

Eyeball Cake Pops

Ingredients for the batter:

• 40 g peanuts (salted)
• 30 g flour
• 15 g cornstarch
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 60 g brown sugar
• 60 g butter (room temperature)
• 2 eggs

Ingredients for the decoration:

• 200 g white chocolate
• 1 egg white
• food coloring (black, green/or blue, red)
• 120 g powdered sugar
• 120 g marzipan
• cake pop mold

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 170°C (338°F) top and bottom heat. Finely grind the peanuts in a food processor. Cream the butter with the 2 eggs. Mix the peanuts with the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and brown sugar, and add to the butter cream. Put the mixture into the cake pop mold with a spoon, close it, and bake at 170°C for about 17 minutes. Remove the hot cake pops from the mold and let them cool on a wire rack. Now melt the white chocolate over a water bath. Skewer each dough ball on a fork and dip into the tempered chocolate. Place on parchment paper to dry (using the fork!).

Mix the 1 egg white with the powdered sugar and red food coloring to make an icing. Fill this into a piping bag with a fine tip or a parchment paper cone and use it to paint shaky veins on the cake pops. Let it dry well.

Now add the pupil and iris to the eye. In the meantime, color the marzipan blue and black, and roll each out thinly. If you have small round cookie cutters, use them; one should be about 1 cm and the other about 3-4 mm in diameter. Cut out round circles of about 1 cm from the blue marzipan and cut out the very small pupils from the black marzipan or cut them out with a sharp knife. Place the black circles onto the blue ones and stick them onto the cake pop eyeballs.

Extra tip: Any cake pop dough can be used here.

Faster Eyeball Cake Pops: If you don't want to bake or have no time left, simply use Raffaello's as cake pops. Unwrap the Raffaello's, decorate with icing and marzipan as eyes. Done!

Graveyard Muffins

Anyone looking for a very quick Halloween decoration for their muffins should try the graveyard muffins. Simply bake your favorite muffins and decorate with a frosting made of chocolate and cookies:

Ingredients for the chocolate frosting:

• Muffins (recipe for muffins: Surprise muffins with chocolate)
• 150 ml heavy cream
• 175 g chocolate (dark)
• 1 tbsp sugar, fine
• 75 g butter
• Oval light-colored cookies
• food coloring or dark couverture
• chocolate flakes, cocoa

Preparation:

For the graveyard muffins, label the oval cookies with 'RIP' or years using brown food coloring, melted couverture, or a food marker; you can also draw a cross. Let the tombstone cookies dry well.

For the glaze, bring the heavy cream to a boil in a pot, remove from the heat, and add the sugar, chocolate, and butter. Stir everything until the chocolate has melted. Slowly pour the glaze over the muffins and spread well.

Extra tip: The glaze is very liquid at first but hardens very quickly, so don't take too much time with further decoration

Now stick the tombstone cookies into the muffins and dust with chocolate flakes or cocoa.

Extra ideas: This decoration can also be used on a cake, or simply on a tiramisu

Graveyard Cake for Halloween

Ingredients:

Cake:

• 6 eggs
• 250 ml oil
• 500 g sugar
• 500 g flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 6 tbsp cocoa powder
• 360 ml milk

Nutella Cream:

• 200 g coconut milk
• 150 g plain cream cheese
• 150 g whipped cream
• 4 tbsp Nutella
• 3 tbsp cream stiffener

Decoration:

• Oreos
• Gummy worms
• Gummy mice
• Gummy frogs

Additionally required:

• Baking tray (or large rectangular baking pan)
• large, preferably rectangular tray for the cake

Instructions for the cake:

Preheat the oven to 170°C (338°F) convection. First, whisk the eggs, oil, and sugar with a mixer until frothy. Add the flour, baking powder, and cocoa with the milk and mix well until you have a uniform consistency. Grease the baking pan (we just used our baking tray!) with oil or butter and dust with flour. Pour the batter into the baking pan, spread it out well, and bake on the middle rack in the oven at 170°C convection for 70 to 80 minutes.

Let the cake cool down well, then turn it out of the baking pan. It is best to place it directly on a slightly larger tray. Our cake was a bit sticky, so we helped it along with a knife. The great thing is that the surface doesn't matter because the cream and crumbs will go on top anyway. If the cake is uneven, you can even remove the top layer and crumble the pieces.

Instructions for the Nutella Cream:

For the Nutella cream, mix all ingredients in a bowl until you reach a creamy consistency. Spread the cream well over the entire cake; this works very well with a long knife or, if you have one, an offset spatula.

Cut the Oreos into tombstone shapes on a small board using a sharp knife. Keep the cut-off pieces in a bowl.

Now for the soil. To do this, separate the Oreos and remove the cream with a knife (that gets eaten right away!). We crushed the chocolate cookies in a small mortar crushed and well crumbled so it looks like soil. In terms of consistency, we crushed the Oreos into very small crumbs.

We also crumbled the cake pieces with a mortar or by hand. We mixed the crumbs from the Oreos and the cake and spread them over the cream. We liked the Oreo crumbs better because they were darker.

Now comes the decoration – our favorite part. Stick the Oreo tombstones into the cream on the cake as you like and distribute them over the whole cake.

Extra tip: If children are eating, distribute as many, if not more, tombstones on the cake as there are children. Saves tears and arguments. Believe me.

Distribute suitable gummy decorations according to your taste. We decided on gummy worms (a must!), gummy mice, and gummy frogs. Before Halloween, there is a lot of choice here.

You can also wonderfully stick the gummy creatures into the cake or slide them under the cake. Our worms were quite long, so we halved a few with a knife and stuck them into the cake.

Extra tip: here too, plan for every child to have every (!) gummy creature. Keep the open bag ready just in case.

Here are the instructions with photos: Recipe Halloween cake: cemetery cake

Halloween Grave Cake

Ingredients:

• Cake (recipe for a quick cake: Cup cake)
• rectangular baking pan
• 1 tbsp chocolate cream, e.g., Nutella
• green couverture
• 1 large rectangular cookie
• Icing writer
• possibly sugar flowers

Instructions:

Bake the cake in a rectangular mold. On the right side, cut out a rectangular 'grave' with a knife. Trim this grave into a coffin shape with a knife, spread with chocolate cream, and draw lines with a fork. Crumble the cut-off cake pieces slightly and pile them up as soil next to the grave. Add an inscription to the cookie with sugar icing and place it behind the grave as a tombstone. Pipe some grass with the green couverture in a piping bag (or freezer bag). If you like, you can add flowers.

Spider muffins

Ingredients for the chocolate frosting:

• Muffins (I baked these muffins for this: Surprise muffins with chocolate)
• 150 ml heavy cream
• 175 g chocolate (dark)
• 1 tbsp sugar, fine
• 75 g butter
• chocolate flakes/chocolate sprinkles
• thin gummy snakes, e.g., strawberry or cola from Hitschler
• Smarties or sugar eyes (available at Amazon, Müller, Toys r us, or also from time to time at Hofer)
• possibly sugar paint

Preparation:

For Halloween, my daughter wanted spider muffins. My son was also eagerly helping with the decorating.

For the glaze, bring the heavy cream to a boil in a pot, remove from the heat, and add the sugar, chocolate, and butter. Stir everything until the chocolate has melted. Slowly pour the glaze over the muffins and spread well. Caution: The glaze is very liquid at first but hardens very quickly, so don't take too much time with further decoration. Now dust the muffins with the chocolate flakes. This works best if you put the chocolate flakes in a bowl and dip the glazed muffins into it. Then insert the 2 Smarties as eyes and stick 3 to 4 gummy snakes on each side as spider legs into the muffin.

For the eyes, first put a dollop of chocolate sauce on the muffins and then stick on the Smarties or sugar eyes, then they hold better. The gummy legs don't go in quite as easily. It helps to use a metal skewer to simply pierce the gummy ends into the muffins. My children also painted the white sugar eyes with sugar paint, which looks even 'spookier'.

Extra tip:

• If you don't want to make chocolate frosting, simply melt household chocolate over a water bath; I did that on my first attempt. It's quick and easy and tastes excellent.
• The muffins can also be rolled in various sugar sprinkles

Recipe for a Halloween Graveyard Tiramisu

Ingredients:

• 4 fresh eggs
• 100 g powdered sugar
• 500 g mascarpone
• 40 to 60 ladyfingers
• a splash of rum
• 150 ml espresso
• Cocoa powder
• Cookies, e.g., Messino
• black food coloring

Preparation:

First, prepare the coffee and let it cool well. I simply made a cup of coffee with our coffee machine using a capsule. Separate the egg white from the yolk. Beat the egg white until stiff and stir in 50 g of powdered sugar. Mix the yolk with the remaining 50 g of powdered sugar, add the mascarpone, and mix. Now add the beaten egg white and fold it in. Mix the coffee with a dash of rum in a bowl and briefly dip the ladyfingers. In a nice bowl, first lay out the dipped ladyfingers and spread some cream on top. Repeat this until only one layer of cream remains. Let the tiramisu set in the fridge for a few hours. Before serving, dust with real cocoa. Label the cookies with 'RIP', years, or funny names and stick them into the tiramisu.

Extra tips:

• If you don't have rum, you can also use Marsala or Amaretto.
• If you want to avoid alcohol and espresso, you can use cocoa (milk with sweet cocoa powder) or orange juice instead.
• For children, do not use real cocoa for sprinkling, but rather the sweeter cocoa powder.
• If you also want to avoid raw eggs, use 250 g of curd/quark and 200 g of cream cheese as well as 2 tbsp of sugar instead. Mix these ingredients well and spread over the soaked ladyfingers.

Recipe for a Bloody Halloween Tiramisu

Ingredients:

• 4 fresh eggs
• 100 g powdered sugar
• 500 g mascarpone
• 40 to 60 ladyfingers
• a splash of rum
• 150 ml espresso
• 1 l strawberry juice
• 1 handful of lychees
• 1 handful of dark grapes
• possibly syringes (pharmacy, or Amazon)

Preparation:

First, prepare the coffee and let it cool well. I simply made a cup of coffee with our coffee machine using a capsule. Separate the egg white from the yolk. Beat the egg white until stiff and stir in 50 g of powdered sugar. Mix the yolk with the remaining 50 g of powdered sugar, add the mascarpone, and mix. Now add the beaten egg white and fold it in. Mix the coffee with a dash of rum in a bowl and briefly dip the ladyfingers. In a nice bowl, first lay out the dipped ladyfingers and spread some cream on top. Repeat this until only one layer of cream remains. Let the tiramisu set in the fridge for a few hours.

For the decoration, draw the strawberry juice into a syringe and distribute it over the tiramisu. Stick the grapes into the lychees and place them on the tiramisu. If you like, you can fill a few more syringes with juice and stick them into the dessert.

Eyeball Muffins

Ingredients:

• Muffins (recipe for muffins: Surprise muffins with chocolate)
• 250 g powdered sugar
• 125 g butter
• 2 tbsp milk
• Smarties
• red and brown sugar icing

Instructions:

Whisk the butter with the powdered sugar and milk into a smooth mass. Spread the cream on the cooled muffins. Use red sugar icing to draw 6 red lines from the center at the very top to the edge of the cream as 'veins'. Now place a blue Smartie in the center of the cream and use brown sugar icing to paint the 'pupil' onto the Smartie.

Monster Muffins

Ingredients

• Muffins (recipe for muffins: Surprise muffins with chocolate)
• 250 g powdered sugar
• 125 g butter
• 2 tbsp milk
• green food coloring
• red thin gummy snakes
• small, blue sugar pearls
• red sugar icing

Instructions

Whisk the butter with the powdered sugar, milk, and green food coloring into a smooth mass. Spread the cream on the cooled muffins. Now the monster heads can be decorated. The red gummy snakes are stuck into the cream as hair. The blue sugar pearls are the eyes, and the mouth can be painted on with the red sugar icing.

Halloween Small Cakes

If you want to offer small cakes or chocolates, you can also decorate them nicely for Halloween. One idea is to cover the chocolates with orange glaze and draw stripes over them with dark chocolate. The other way around works too, of course: first coat with dark chocolate and paint a pattern with orange glaze.

If you are skilled, take white couverture and paint a spider web on the pastry with dark couverture; this looks very good, especially on muffins.

Ghost Cake

For Halloween, a cake can also be decorated as a ghost cake. Instead of covering the sheet cake with chocolate, use a ghostly sugar icing.

What you’ll need:

• Sheet cake
• 2 tbsp powdered sugar
• 1 egg white (2-3 tbsp milk also works
• possibly powdered sugar

Instructions:

Mix the 2 tbsp powdered sugar and the 1 egg white with a whisk into a smooth mass. Then use a brush to paint several ghosts onto the finished baked cake using the icing. For eyes, you can use dark, round chocolate lentils or licorice discs. Finally, dust with a little powdered sugar.

Ghost Chain made of 'Schwedenbomben'

Very original is an edible ghost chain for the table decoration:

What you’ll need:

• Dark and white mini 'Schwedenbomben' (chocolate-covered marshmallow treats)
• white and dark melted couverture, or brown and white food coloring, or white powdered sugar icing
• possibly disposable syringe

Instructions:

Paint eyes on the 'Schwedenbomben' with white or dark melted couverture and let them dry well. For the party, set up the ghosts on the table. The guests are guaranteed to 'open their eyes' in surprise.

I used brown sugar icing and white powdered sugar icing for the ghosts' eyes. I filled the white powdered sugar icing into a disposable syringe from the pharmacy and was able to easily dab on the eyes.

Cake with Worms and Snails

Ingredients:

• Cake (recipe for a quick cake: Cup cake)
• Couverture
• Marzipan
• Gummy worms
• Cocoa powder
• toothpick

Instructions:

As a cake, e.g., a dark cup cake like in the picture can be used. Cover this with couverture and let it dry. Now roll 2 snails out of marzipan and place them on the cake. For the antennae, split the toothpick into 2 parts and dip one side a little into the couverture. Now stick the antennae into the snail. Place the gummy worms around the cake or stick them in. Pile up a little cocoa around the 'holes'.

Cake in the photo by my dear friend Beate

Halloween finger cookies

Ingredients:

• 120 g butter, soft
• 100 g sugar
• 1 egg
• 250 g flour
• 40 pieces of peeled almonds
• red food coloring or strawberry jam

Instructions:

Beat the soft butter with the sugar until fluffy, add the egg, and finally the flour. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180°C (356°F) top and bottom heat, line a baking tray with parchment paper. Take small amounts of dough out of the fridge. Form small pieces of dough into quite thin rolls and place them on the parchment paper. Place the almonds on the 'fingers' and smear with strawberry jam. Depending on the size of the fingers, bake for 15 to 20 minutes at 180°C top and bottom heat.

Extra tip: If you also want red fingernails: put the red food coloring in a freezer bag and swirl the almonds around in it. Pour onto a plate, let dry, and then decorate the fingers with them.

Halloween Spider Cookies

Ingredients:

• 100 g softened butter
• 120 g peanut butter
• 100 g brown sugar
• 80 g sugar
• 1 egg
• 220 g flour
• 2 tbsp milk
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 pinch of salt
• Ferrero Rocher, Merci lovelys, Mozartkugeln, Mini Peanut Butter Cups, Schokobons, etc.
• Candy eyes
• approx. 70 g chocolate, couverture

Instructions:

Keep the chocolate balls in the fridge. Preheat the oven to 190°C (374°F) top and bottom heat, line a baking tray with parchment paper. Beat the butter and peanut butter with both types of sugar until fluffy. Knead in the egg as well as flour, baking powder, salt, and milk. Form small balls from this dough and place them on the baking tray with some space in between. Bake in the oven for about 11 minutes, let cool down a little, and then distribute the chilled chocolate balls onto the cookies and let cool completely. Melt the couverture, fill into a piping bag, and place small dots on the chocolate balls, then stick on the sugar eyes. Then pipe the spider legs on the side next to the chocolate balls.

Halloween Cinnamon Rolls as Brains

Ingredients: 

• 1 packet dry yeast (7 g)
• 170 ml warm milk
• 60 g sugar
• 50 g butter
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 pinch of salt
• 375 g flour

250 – 300 g redcurrant jam

• 50 g soft butter
• 50 g sugar
• 1.5 tsp cinnamon

Decoration:

• red couverture, or food coloring, or red jam
• Kitchen machine is an advantage, otherwise knead by hand
• Rolling pin

Instructions:

In a bowl, mix the dry yeast with a little milk and a pinch of sugar and let it sit for a short while. Melt the 50 g of butter and add it to the milk. Then add the sugar, egg yolk, salt, and flour and knead in a food processor for 10 to 15 minutes until you have a smooth dough. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let it rise at room temperature for approx. 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200°C (392°F) top and bottom heat, mix 50 g sugar and cinnamon.

Roll out the dough into a rectangle about 3 mm thick and about 30 cm long, brush with the soft butter, distribute the cinnamon-sugar on the butter. Roll up the dough into rolls and cut into about 25 slices.

Arrange the rolls in a glass bowl and bake in the oven at 200°C top and bottom heat for about 20 minutes. Pour the red couverture or food coloring or jam over the cinnamon rolls.

Halloween Hands

Ingredients:

• 1 puff pastry
• Cherry compote, strawberry jam

Instructions:

Lay out the puff pastry and place a hand on it, use a knife to generously cut out a hand. Repeat the whole thing again so that you get 2 hands out of the dough. Fill the hand with, e.g., cherry compote or strawberry jam and place the 2nd hand on top, press the edges together well. Bake the hands in the oven at 180°C according to the dough package instructions.

Halloween Decorations for Sweet Pastries

If you have little time but still want to decorate cakes or desserts for Halloween, you will surely find what you are looking for in the supermarket: white mice, Dracula teeth, mouths, etc., made of marshmallow or jelly, or gummy worms are excellent here. For Halloween, there are several suitable sweets with which the dessert can be decorated quickly and appropriately.

Savory Treats for Halloween

Stuffed Eggs with Spiders

Ingredients:

• 6 hard-boiled eggs
• 1-2 tbsp mayonnaise
• a little mustard
• a little tomato paste
• a little ketchup
• Salt
• Pepper
• 6 black olives
• 6 green olives
• Curry powder
• Sweet paprika powder

Instructions:

Halve the hard-boiled eggs and carefully remove the yolk with a spoon and put it in a bowl. Add the mustard, mayonnaise, tomato paste, ketchup, and salt and pepper to the yolk. Stir well until the yolk has formed a smooth mass. Place the egg white halves on a nice platter and put the yolk mass into the indentation with a small spoon.

Now halve the olives. Place one half of the olive upside down on the yolk mass as a spider body. Cut the other olive half crosswise into 4 strips, halve these again so that 8 strips are created. Distribute the strips as spider legs around the olive half on the yolk mass.

Sprinkle the eggs with paprika or curry powder and serve.

Stuffed Eggs with Spiders in the photo by my dear friend Daniela

Meat Patties as Spiders

Ingredients:

• 500 g ground meat
• 2 bread rolls
• 30 g breadcrumbs
• 1 small onion
• 1 tbsp butter
• 2-3 garlic cloves, pressed
• 2 eggs
• a little parsley
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 pinch of pepper
• 1 bell pepper, 5 carrots
• Mayonnaise or ketchup
• Disposable syringe

Instructions:

Sauté the onion in a little butter until translucent and let it cool down. Soak the bread rolls in lukewarm water, squeeze them out well, and pass them through a sieve. Mix the minced meat with the breadcrumbs, eggs, onions, bread rolls, pressed garlic, parsley, salt, and pepper, and form small oval patties.

Cook the meat patties in a little oil until they are done. (I only sear the meat patties until they are brown and then place them in a baking dish in the oven for about 15 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius (356°F) top and bottom heat; this way they stay wonderfully juicy and do not get too dark!).

Now cut the bell pepper and carrots into fine strips and insert them into the meat patties as legs. Use a disposable syringe to draw two eyes with mayonnaise or ketchup, and the spider patties are ready.

Tomato-Mozzarella Toadstools

Ingredients:

• Cocktail tomatoes
• Mini mozzarella (bambini)
• Mayonnaise
• Disposable syringe

Instructions:

Cut the cherry tomatoes in half and scoop out a little of the pulp with a small spoon. Now insert the mini mozzarella into the tomatoes and place them on a serving platter. To make the mozzarella pieces hold better, you can cut the bottom surface a little flat. Fill the disposable syringe with mayonnaise and use it to create the dots on the toadstool.

For better stability and to make them easier to eat, the toadstools should be secured with small skewers.

Extra tip: Laying out the serving platter with lettuce looks great.

Mummy sausages

Ingredients:

• small frankfurter sausages
• Puff pastry

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 200°C (392°F) top and bottom heat. Cut the puff pastry into fine strips and wrap the sausages with them.

If you use large frankfurters, you can also cut the sausages like little people. To do this, leave the top part, then make a small cut just below it so that they look like arms.

Now make a small straight cut at the very bottom of the sausage to create the legs. Now wrap the sausages with the puff pastry and bake in the oven for about 30 minutes until golden yellow.

Mummy sausages in the photo from my dear friend Daniela

Halloween sausage fingers

Ingredients:

• Frankfurter sausages
• almonds, whole, peeled

Instructions:

Cook the sausages in boiling water until done. Drain the water and place the sausages on a plate. Halve the almonds once and cut out a 'nail bed' at one end of the sausages. Insert the almonds here and arrange on a plate.

Halloween sausage fingers in the photo from my dear sister-in-law Karin

Halloween spaghetti

Ingredients:

• black spaghetti
• white spaghetti
• 500 g ground meat
• 500 g tomato sauce
• 2 tbsp tomato ketchup
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• Parmesan

Instructions:

Cook the spaghetti in a large pot of salted water according to the package instructions until al dente. Finely chop the onion and garlic and fry the meat in a pan with olive oil, then fry the onion and garlic. Deglaze with the tomato sauce, add tomato paste and tomato ketchup and mix well. Let it simmer a little. Season with salt and pepper.

Extra tip: serve with Parmesan.

Recipe for a savory sandwich cake with a skull

Besides all the sweets, it's great to be able to offer something salty:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cucumber
• 6 radishes
• 1/2 organic lemon
• 400 g cream cheese
• Pepper
• Salt
• 20 slices of sandwich bread/toast bread
• 200 g smoked salmon
• 1/2 bunch of dill
• 3 eggs, hard-boiled
• 1/2 bunch of parsley (alternatively chervil)
• 130 g cheese (grated, e.g., Gouda)
• 400 g sour cream (Schmand for my German readers)
• 400 g cream cheese 1 bunch of chives or ready-made herb cream cheese
• 400 g horseradish-flavored cream cheese
• For decoration: pepper or hazelnuts
• Springform pan, cake ring (should be quite high, i.e., at least 8 cm)
• Palette knife or large wide knife
• Paper, cut out in the shape of a skull
• Scissors

Instructions

Wash the cucumber and radishes and slice them thinly. Boil the eggs hard for about ten minutes and cut them into fine slices with an egg slicer. Divide the sour cream into three parts and distribute among the three types of cream cheese, optionally season with salt and pepper and mix everything until creamy.

Now it's time to layer the cakes: Place the outer ring of a springform pan or a cake/baking ring on a cake plate (a cake ring with a diameter of 26 cm was used here; any other shape will work, you just need more or less of the ingredients accordingly).

Line the bottom with sandwich slices and cut them to fit so that the mold is filled. Now spread the slices completely with half of the horseradish cream cheese and then top with half of the smoked salmon. Arrange sandwich slices on top again, spread these with half of the herb cream cheese, sprinkle half of the grated cheese over it and top with a few slices of cucumber and radish.

Repeat these steps once more: so another layer of sandwich with the rest of the horseradish cream cheese and smoked salmon, again sandwich and layer the rest of the herb cream cheese with the cheese. Cover the last layer with sandwich slices.
Now remove the springform pan or the cake/baking ring and spread the natural cream cheese all around and on top of the sandwich cake. This works best with a palette knife or a large wide knife. Then refrigerate for about 15-30 minutes.

Wash the parsley and dill and shake dry. Then pluck off small sprigs and set aside. Like every cake, this one is also beautifully decorated. Cucumber and radish slices are 'stuck' on the outside. On top of the cake, alternate the egg, cucumber, and radish slices. Cut fine slices from the organic lemon, cut the slices on one side to the middle and drape them beautifully on the top of the cake. Decorate the whole thing with the herbs (parsley and dill).

For the skull, cut a skull out of the paper, as well as the eyes and the nose. Carefully place the head, eyes, and nose on the cake and distribute the pepper or nuts on them.

Extra tip: This cake can be individually modified; instead of salmon, you can of course use ham. The spreads inside can be made with a wide variety of cream cheeses.

Cake from my dear friend Maria

Snacks for Halloween

Cheese-Soletti broom

Ingredients:

• Soletti
• Cheese slices
• Chives

Instructions:

Cut the cheese slices into narrow rectangular sections and cut 5 mm wide strips in the lower area – do not cut all the way to the top, otherwise the broom will fall apart. Now wrap the 'broom slice' around the Soletti and tie it with the chives.

Extra info: I find it quite a fiddly job and only managed a few.

Guacamole with tombstone tortilla chips

Ingredients:

• Guacamole
• Tortilla chips
• Balsamic vinegar

Instructions:

Buy or make guacamole yourself, label the tortilla chips with 'RIP' using balsamic vinegar and distribute them in the guacamole.

Drinks for Halloween

Halloween punch with eyes

Ingredients:

• 2 l dark red juice (e.g., red multi-fruit, grape, redcurrant, blackcurrant, pomegranate or cranberry juice)
• 2 l mineral water
• Lychees
• red grapes

Instructions:

For our punch, we mixed one liter of red multivitamin juice with 1 liter of strawberry juice. Insert the red grapes into the lychees. Mix the juices with the mineral water and add the lychees.

Extra tip: You can also mix different red juices, or mix 1 l of red juice with 1 l of apple juice. If the children don't like mineral water, then dilute the whole thing a little with still water.

Punch with frozen hand in the photo from my dear friend Maria

Skull apples for the punch

Ingredients:

• Apples
• Knife

Instructions:

Peel the apples completely and carve a face into the apples, i.e., eyes, small slits for the nose and a mouth. Cut off the back part of the apple so that you can place them well on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Let them dry out a little at 180°C (356°F) until they are slightly brownish. Let the apples cool down and put them in the punch, looks great.

Halloween punch with frozen hand

Ingredients:

• 2 l dark red juice (e.g., grape, redcurrant, blackcurrant, pomegranate or cranberry juice)
• 2 l mineral water
• 1 disposable glove (food-safe)

Instructions:

It is best to rinse the glove thoroughly from the inside and outside with a little vinegar water. Filling the water into the glove works very well if you put the glove into a tall drinking glass and fold the edge over the rim of the glass. When filling, make sure that the fingers are completely filled with water. Finally, close the glove very tightly with a rubber band. Now put the glove in the freezer for at least 2-3 hours.

Then take the hand out of the freezer and pour warm water over it briefly so that the rubber glove can come off. Now cut open the glove and remove it. Mix the juice and mineral water together in a nice bowl and place the frozen hand in the punch and serve. For our punch, we mixed one liter of red multivitamin juice with 1 liter of strawberry juice.

Extra tip: You can also mix different red juices, or mix 1 l of red juice with 1 l of apple juice. If the children don't like mineral water, then dilute the whole thing a little with still water.

Punch with frozen hand in the photo from my dear friend Maria

Halloween drink with lychees

At Halloween, you can greatly fill the red drink (punch, cocktail, juices, etc.) into a nice screw-top jar, add grapes or lychees and serve. Can also be taken along great if you want to bring something to an invitation.

Drinks in syringes and drinking pouches

What you’ll need:

• Syringes, e.g., at Amazon
• Plastic drinking pouches, e.g., at Amazon
• red juice, e.g., red multivitamin, cranberry, strawberry, raspberry, etc.
• Paper with labels
• pens
• possibly printer

Instructions:

Drinks in drinking pouches and syringes look very real. To do this, pour the red juice into a bowl or glass. Draw up the syringes with the juice and place them in small bowls (in case something drips out). Fill the red juice into the drinking pouches and seal them. Label or stick on with appropriate labels.

Extra tip: the blood bags are also available ready-made at Amazon to buy.

Photo and idea from my dear friend Maria

Green magic potion

Ingredients:

• Orange juice
• Blue Curaçao or blue syrup without alcohol
• possibly lychees

Instructions:

Color any amount of orange juice with the blue syrup. It's funny if you add lychees.

Fruit for Halloween

Banana ghosts

Ingredients:

• Bananas
• Brown sugar writing, melted chocolate or very small and slightly larger chocolate lentils
• possibly red sugar pen

Instructions:

Peel the bananas and cut them in half once. Paint a face in the upper third with the brown sugar writing/melted chocolate. Or attach the chocolate lentils as eyes and mouth with the sugar pen. With the red sugar pen, 'blood traces' can also be added. The banana ghosts are ready.

Extra tip: Put the melted chocolate in a cone made of parchment paper or in a freezer bag, cut off the tip and you can paint with it.

Banana ghosts from my dear friend Carina

Strawberry faces

Ingredients:

• Strawberries
• white couverture
• possibly red and/or brown sugar pen
• Sugar eyes, chocolate lentils
• possibly toothpicks, styrofoam board

Instructions:

Melt the white couverture over a water bath. Wash the strawberries, pat dry (leave the green on!) and dip into the white couverture. Let harden on a sheet of parchment paper. Now it's time to decorate: depending on your taste, you can 'glue' the sugar eyes or chocolate lentils with the remaining tempered chocolate. A mouth can also be painted with the sugar pen. If there is still a lot of chocolate left, it can be sprayed in lines onto the strawberries. For this, either use a piping bag with a fine opening or make a cone out of parchment paper. Let the whole thing dry well.

The strawberry faces can be stuck onto toothpicks or nice small plastic skewers and placed on a styrofoam board covered with aluminum foil.

Strawberry faces from my dear friend Carina

Apple dentures

Ingredients:

• red apples
• white chocolate chunks or white peeled almond slivers

Instructions:

For the spooky dentures, wash, halve and quarter the apples. Cut a wedge the size of the chocolate chunks into these apple quarters, because that will be the open mouth. Now put the chocolate chunks into the mouth. Not in a row, because everything should be a little spooky on Halloween. If you don't want to use chocolate, you can simply stick almond slivers into the apple mouths.

Extra tip: So that the apples don't turn brown so quickly, rub them with lemon juice.

Apple dentures from my dear friend Carina

Apple monsters

Ingredients:

• green apples
• Candy eyes
• Strawberries
• Almond slivers
• Peanut butter

Instructions:

Wash the strawberries and cut them into thin slices, these will be the tongue. Wash, halve and quarter the apples. Cut a wedge into these apple quarters, because that will be the open mouth. Drizzle the mouth with a little lemon juice so that it doesn't turn brown. Spread the mouth with a little peanut butter and place a strawberry slice inside. Stick the almond slivers in as teeth around the mouth. Feel free to make it crooked and uneven, because that's supposed to be a spooky monster. Finally, stick on the sugar eyes with a little peanut butter.

Grape caterpillars

Ingredients:

• Grapes
• small sugar eyes
• possibly sugar pen or powdered sugar and lemon juice
• toothpick

Instructions:

Skewer 2-3 grapes onto a toothpick and skewer the last one crosswise, this grape becomes the 'head'. Glue on the sugar eyes either with a sugar pen or with icing (mix powdered sugar with lemon juice). Arrange the caterpillars on a platter.

Mandarin pumpkins

Ingredients:

• Mandarins
• Cucumbers

Instructions:

Peel the mandarins and the cucumbers. Cut the cucumbers into narrow strips approx. 2 cm long. Arrange the mandarins on a bowl and stick the cucumber into the middle as a pumpkin stem.

Children love brightly decorated and beautifully arranged food. This way, even a piece of fruit gets eaten every now and then. For a carnival party, we decorated fruit as monster fruit. Here is my monster fruit platter:

Healthy monster fruit

Ingredients:

• 1 watermelon
• Strawberries
• Oranges
• Banana
• Raspberries
• Mandarins
• Apples
• Grapes
• Blueberries
• toothpick
• Googly eyes
• colorful small skewers
• Glue, such as UHU all-purpose glue
• Playmais in white and 1 blue
• large platter

Instructions:

Cut the 'top' off the melon and hollow it out. Arrange the fruit flesh directly on the large platter. Place the melon on the platter with the hole facing downwards. For the eye, we crafted an eye out of Playmais. To do this, glue the white Playmais together into a ball and finally glue the blue one on top. Skewer the whole thing with a toothpick. For the monster eye skewers, glue the googly eyes onto the toothpicks with UHU and let them dry well.

Cut the remaining fruit into bite-sized pieces, or peel bananas and mandarins and arrange everything nicely on the platter. My daughter sorted the fruit by color.

Of course, any kind of fruit can be served as desired.

Finally, garnish the pieces with the eye toothpicks.

Extra tip:Glue and prepare the monster eye toothpicks the day before so that they stick well.

Read also: Recipes for a finger food buffet

Photos by Sabine, meinhaushalt.at