Halloween food ideas and easy recipes for kids and adults including spiced pumpkin cookies and pizza skulls

It’s nearly Halloween – and time to up the spooktacular factor in the kitchen.

But instead of doing boring green jelly “slime” and witches’ fingers, why not throw a Mexican Day of the Dead party and impress all your friends with your individuality and creativity?

Of course it also gives you a great excuse to serve lots of tequila.

The Day of the Dead, which falls on November 1, is a huge deal in Mexico. It celebrates those who have passed away and attempts to lure their spirits back with good times and good food.

I’ve decided to do a bit of both – with some recipes for Halloween treats and a large dash of Mexican to keep everyone happy.

And why not buy or make some traditional calaca (Mexican for skeleton) masks for your guests to wear?

It’ll put them in the party mood. BOO!

1. Pizza skulls

Pizza skulls look impressive (Image: Victor Cardoner)

1 naan bread

1 jar pizza topping sauce

125g mozzarella, grated

2 red onion rings for eye sockets

Black olives for the teeth, nose and cheeks

1 slice salami

1 tbsp sweetcorn and 1 green pepper for eyebrows and flowers on cheeks

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C/Gas Mark 4.
2. Cut the naan bread into a skull shape.
3. Spread a jar of pizza topping sauce over the top and sprinkle with grated mozzarella.
4. Place 2 onion rings for eye sockets and fill the sockets with chopped black olives.
5. Cut a heart shape out of a salami slice to make a nose. Create decorative eyebrows from the sweetcorn
   and pepper.
6. Make a flower on each cheek by cutting slices of pepper into petal shapes.
7. Place a sliced black olive on top of the salami and on cheeks.
8. Bake in the oven for 15-20 mins, or until the cheese has melted. Mmmm.

2. 'Mine is the best' chilli con carne

Tuck into Nadia Sawalha's chilli con carne and give your Halloween feast a Day of the Dead flavour (Image: Victor Cardoner)

We have a running joke in our family that everyone always says their chilli is the best chilli no matter how awful it is. But I’m going to stick my neck out here and say my chilli really is the best...

Serves 6

6 tbsp olive oil

1 kg braising steak, cut into 2cm cubes

2 medium-sized onions, chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 tsp cumin seeds

3-4 small dried chillies,
crumbled

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

2 tbsp tomato paste

300ml beef stock

1 tsp salt

400g can chopped tomatoes

400g kidney beans, drained

1 packet ready-made polenta

4 tbsp soured cream

2 tbsp fresh coriander

1. Preheat the oven to 160C/Fan 140C/Gas Mark 3. Heat 4 tbsp of the oil in a heavy pan, and brown the cubes of beef on all sides, a few at a time.
2. Remove the cubes and set aside. Then add the onions and garlic and cook gently until the onion is softened.
3. Add the cumin seeds and chillies, and sizzle for 10 seconds. Then add the powdered cumin, oregano and smoked paprika and fry for 15 secs.
4. Add the tomato paste and fry for about 30 secs. Mix in the beef stock, salt and tomatoes, and add the cubed beef.
5. Cook on a very low heat for 2 hours. Or bake in the oven until the meat is tender.
6. Add the drained beans and heat through over a low heat for 10 mins.
7. Cut the polenta into 1cm wide slices and heat up a griddle. Griddle the polenta pieces on both sides.
8. Serve the chilli over the top of the polenta slices, either on a large serving plate or on individual plates. Add a swirl of soured cream and garnish with chopped coriander.

3. Margarita cheesecake bites (grown ups only)

These Margarita cheesecake bites have a dash of tequila (Image: Victor Cardoner)

Serves 8

8 digestive biscuits, crushed

80g butter, melted

300g cream cheese at room temperature

100g golden caster sugar

Zest of 2 limes

4 tbsp lime juice (approximately 2 limes)

2-4 tbsp tequila

2 tbsp Triple Sec or
Grand Marnier

2 tbsp double cream

2 eggs (at room temperature)

1. Preheat oven to 180C/Fan 160C/Gas Mark 4.
2. Place digestives in a plastic bag and crush them evenly with a rolling pin.
3. Line a 23cmx23cm baking tin and grease with butter.
4. To make crust: Pour the melted butter into a medium bowl. Stir in the crushed digestives until nicely mixed. Then press gently into the bottom of the greased baking tin.
5. Beat together the cream cheese and sugar until smooth and fluffy. Add lime zest and juice, tequila, Triple Sec or Grand Marnier and cream. Mix until completely combined. Beat in eggs, one at a time.
6. Pour cream cheese mixture over digestive base and be sure to spread it into the corners. Bake for 25-35 minutes until the centre sets (it should have a very slight jiggle).
7. Allow to cool completely in the tin, then refrigerate for at least 3 hours. Cut into squares and decorate with lime slices.

4. Eyeballs in blood

Delicious: How about some gruesome eyeballs?

For a super quick and easy but rather gory looking simple sweet treat, squeeze raspberry dessert sauce onto a plate and then drop in these fab chocolate eyeballs – I got mine from Sainsbury’s.

5. Meringue ghost cakes

Ghoulishous: Kids will love these meringue ghost cakes

10 ready-made fairy cakes

2 large egg whites

100g caster sugar

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Tiny chocolate chips or silver dragees

1. Preheat oven to 105C/Gas mark 1/4. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Have ready a piping bag fitted with a plain tip.
2. In the bowl beat the egg whites on low-medium speed until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and continue to beat the whites until they can form soft peaks. Add the sugar, a little at a time, and continue to beat until the meringue holds very stiff peaks. Beat in the vanilla extract.
3. Put the meringue into the piping bag and pipe high mounds of meringue. Carefully place edible silver dragees, or two miniature chocolate chips, into each meringue ghost.
4. Bake the meringues for about 1 to 1.5 hours or until they are dry and crisp to the touch. Turn off the oven, open the door, and leave the meringues in the oven for a couple of hours to dry. Then pop on top of your fairy cakes.

6. Hot mulled apple juice with shrunken heads

Tasty treat: Spooky apple heads

I cannot take the praise for these brilliant little heads! My friend Patsy, who lives in the States, sent me the idea and I just love it. I’ll be using this for the centrepiece of my Halloween table.

For the heads

4-5 apples

20 whole cloves

Lemon juice

1. Peel and core the apples and then cut them in half through the stem.
2. Then, using a small sharp knife, carve ghoulish faces into each apple. Next, squeeze lemon juice over the apples to prevent them from turning brown.
3. Lay face up on a lined baking sheet. Bake in the oven at 100C/Gas mark 1/4 for about an hour and a half, or until they are dry and slightly browned.
4. Leave to cool then push a clove into each eye socket.

For the drink

2 litres apple juice

Peel of a satsuma orange or clementine

1 cinnamon stick

1. Simmer the apple juice in a large pan with the strips of peel and cinnamon stick for about 5-10 mins until all the flavours have infused. Then pour into a bowl and add your shrunken heads.

7. Scary Halloween cookies

This recipe is by Mari Williams on BBC FOOD .

250g/9oz unsalted butter, softened


250g/9oz golden caster sugar


2 free-range eggs, lightly beaten


½ tsp vanilla extract


500g/1lb 2oz plain flour


red and black food colouring (optional)

1 tsp baking powder

Halloween-themed cookie cutters

red, white and black writing icing

200g/7oz ready-to-roll fondant icing

1 tbsp apricot jam, warmed with 1tsp water

1. Beat together the butter and sugar, preferably using an electric mixer, until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla extract. (If the mixture looks a little curdled, add a spoonful of the flour.) If you’re using food colouring, add a few drops to the mixture.
2. Sift the flour and baking powder in a separate bowl then stir the into the butter mixture and work into a dough using floured hands. Turn onto a floured work surface and knead into a ball. Divide the dough into two portions, wrap in cling film and leave to chill in the fridge for at least one hour.
3. Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/Gas 3. Line two baking trays with greaseproof paper.
4. Roll the dough out to a 0.5cm/¼in thickness on lightly floured work surface. Cut shapes out with the Halloween cutters. Take a few limbs and heads off the gingerbread man for added gore.
5. Place the cookies onto the baking tray, leaving a gap between them in case they spread.
6. Bake for 12-15 minutes, leave to cool.
7. Once cool, let your imagination run wild. Use the red writing icing along the edges of the missing limbs and heads as blood. For the skeletons and mummies, roll the fondant icing out to a 0.5cm/¼in thickness on a work surface dusted with icing sugar and cut out shapes using the same cutters as the cookies.
8. Brush the cookies with the warmed apricot jam and stick the icing onto the cookies. Decorate with the white and black writing icing.

8. Witch’s hair and worms

Witch's hair: It tastes better than it looks

1 packet of spaghetti

Black and green food colouring

Baby frankfurter sausages

Whole black peppercorns

1. Cook the spaghetti according to packet instructions and then split between two plastic boxes. Stir in a few drops of food colouring into each box. Toss each one with a little oil and then pile into a bowl keeping each colour separate.
2. Take a baby frankfurter sausage and press a couple of peppercorns into them to look like eyes and arrange among the spaghetti. Serve with grated cheese on the side.

9. Mummies

Halloween wrapped up: Delicious hot dog mummies

8 frankfurter sausages

150g ready-rolled puffed pastry

1. Preheat the oven to 190C/Gas Mark 5. I used a pair of kitchen scissors to cut the pastry sheet into 10 squares, then cut each square
   into four strips so I ended up with 40 pieces of pastry.
2. Wrap four pieces of pastry around each frankfurter leaving space for the face. About 1cm from one end of each frankfurter, separate “bandages” so the frankfurter shows through for the “face”. Put on a baking tray.
3. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes until light golden brown. Then use mustard or ketchup for the eyes.

10. Cheesy bleeding fingers

Pick these! Some ghoulish fingers will go down a storm

For the fingers

100g grated cheddar cheese

25g soft butter

50g plain flour

1⁄4 tsp baking powder

For the nails

Whole skinless almonds

To serve

Tomato ketchup or chilli sauce

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/Gas Mark 6. For the fingers, put all of the finger ingredients (not the almonds) into a food processor and blitz until the dough comes together. Wrap in cling film and leave it to rest in the fridge for 15 minutes.
2. Roll out the dough on a floury surface roughly 1cm thick, cut into fingers with a sharp knife and shape. You can have short stubby ones, long spindly witch’s ones or chopped-in-half ones. It’s up to you! Then squidge in the whole almonds to look like nails.
3. Put them on a lined baking sheet and cook in the oven for 10 minutes. Serve drizzled with tomato ketchup or chilli sauce for maximum bloody effect.

Haunted snack: Mozzarella ghosts

11. Ghostly pizza

This is so, so easy. You can make lots of them if you’re having a big do.

1 packet of ready-rolled puff pastry or pizza dough

1/2 a jar of ready-made pizza sauce

Mozzarella slices

1. Draw a ghostly shape on a piece of paper or card, then lay it on top of the mozzarella. Cut around the shape with sharp, clean scissors.
2. Roll out your dough or pastry and then either cut into individual squares or leave as whole.
3. Spoon the pizza sauce on top and then pop in the oven for as long as the pastry or dough instructions advise – minus five minutes because you will need to add your ghosts at that stage. Let them melt just a little, but not too much or the effect is ruined. Pop in peppercorns as eyes.

12. Shortbread fingers with blood dip

220g softened butter

120g icing sugar

1 egg

2 tbsps vanilla extract

190g wholemeal flour

1/2 tsp salt

Handful of blanched almonds

Small bowl of your favourite red jam

1. Put the butter and sugar in a bowl then beat until light and fluffy. Next, beat in the egg and vanilla. Mix in the flour and salt. pop in a sandwich bag and leave in the fridge for 30 minutes.
2. Heat the oven to 170c/150C fan/Gas Mark 3. Take the shortbread out of the fridge and make into finger shapes.
3. Push an almond into the end of each finger and then lay them on a baking tray, but not too close together.
4. Bake the shortbreads for between 15 and 20 minutes. Arrange on a plate with the bowl of blood (the jam) in the middle to dip.

13. Puking pumpkins

(Image: Douglas McKendrick)

All you need is a small pumpkin, a sharp knife and a magic marker.

Simply draw a very angry face with a wide open mouth on it, and cut it out.

Then place the pumpkin on a piece of board covered in aluminium foil and spread out lots of guacamole or hummus to make it look as if the pumpkin is throwing up!

Gross, I know, but it is Halloween.

Serve with nachos and crudites.

You can do a non-edible version by using the pumpkin innards for the sick.