15 halloween desserts so you can eat, drink and be scary!

Spooky season is about so much more than deciding on a family costume or watching bone-chilling movies. It’s also about the food, and nothing says spooky quite like Halloween desserts for kids.

Inspired by your favorite movies, books or really anything that fits the spooky theme, Halloween dessert ideas are plentiful. Crafting easy Halloween desserts is as simple as gathering ingredients that you already have in your pantry or grabbing a few store bought foods to make things easier. A little of this, a little of that, plus a few of those eye candies, and you’ll have spooky Halloween desserts that everyone will love.

15 Halloween desserts for kids for an epic monster mash

1. Sweet and spooky doughnut bats

Break an Oreo in half (you can use a whole Oreo or just the top/bottom piece) and stick each jagged piece into opposite sides of the doughnut. Then use icing to make the eye ball candies stick on top and add candy corn fangs!

2. Orange you just a cute Oreo monster

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Using candy melts (any color!), dip your Oreos in the melted chocolate then decorate with mini chocolate chips, googly eyes, sparkles or anything else you’d like.

3. Witchy cones

Place an upside down cone onto a surface you don’t mind getting dirty. Then cover the cone in melted chocolate. Once it’s dry, attach a cookie to the bottom, using icing to make it stick. Then use any colored icing to decorate the witch’s hat buckle. You can even stuff the inside of the cone with treats!

4. Spider Cookies

Dip your nutter butter cookies into melted chocolate. Then, before the chocolate dries, attach your spider legs using broken pretzels. Place your googly eyes on top and voilà!

5. Ghostly strawberries

Dip your strawberries into melted white chocolate and use the excess at the bottom to create a swirl effect onto the plate. You can also use a piping bag for accurate ghostly swirls. Then melt your milk chocolate and paint the eyes and mouth using a thin paintbrush or anything else that’ll work.

6. Cake pop monsters

Using store bought cake pops or make your own but however you decide to decorate these, you can’t go wrong! You can dip your cake pops into different colored chocolate melts and stick on googly eye candies before the chocolate dries, add some colorful sprinkles, or even paint a jack-o-lantern’s face using tubed icing. These halloween desserts for kids will be the talk of the party.

7. Frankenstein Rice Krispie treats

Follow the instructions on the Rice Krispie cereal box to make the treats. When you’re melting your mini marshmallows, add in a few drops of green food coloring. Once the treats are made, cut them into small rectangles then dip the tops into melted chocolate. Use the same melted chocolate to create a smile and make the eye candies stick using more melted chocolate.

8. Slime popcorn

Pop your popcorn and set it aside in a bowl. Over medium heat, melt butter and brown sugar until smooth then, add mini marshmallows, stirring until it’s all melted. Add a few drops of green food coloring then pour the mixture onto your popcorn. You can also add eye candies for a spookier touch! Plus, if you’re participating in the Teal Pumpkin Project, you can stay on theme by using blue food dye instead of green.

9. Chocolate broomsticks

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Sticking pretzel sticks straight into the bottom of your Reese’s just might break them so you can use melted chocolate to act as the glue instead. Drop a tiny dollop of melted chocolate onto the upside down Reese’s, place your pretzel on the dollop then refrigerate to keep them glued together.

10. Fanged cookies

Slice your cookie in half then take red icing and pipe the insides of both halves. Bring both halves together with a row of mini marshmallow teeth. For the fangs, cut almonds into pointy slivers then stick them onto the gums (red icing).

11. Chocolate spiderweb

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Arrange 8 pretzel sticks in a circle. In a large saucepan with water, put two mason jars filled with chocolate and white chocolate candy melts. Pour the melted chocoalte into ziploc bags and make a small cut on the end. Pipe a dollop of melted chocolate in the middle to lock the pretzel sticks together then create circles until you get to the edge. Add candy eyes to the middle and add sprinkles to the “web” for some color.

12. Bleeding cupcakes

You can use store-bought red-velvet cake mix or throw together your go-to chocolate cupcake recipe and drop in a couple tablespoons of black food coloring. For the red “blood,” you’ll want to heat up some double cream, melt white chocolate inside and add red food coloring to give it that signature color. Once done baking, scoop out the center of each cupcake and pour in the bloody white chocolate. Save some to top your cupcakes with too! Sugar glass is simply made by boiling sugar, water and syrup. Lay it out on a silpmat and let it harden. Then shatter it and place it on your cupcakes.

13. Poison apples

You’ll want to start by washing your apples in hot water and drying them with a cloth. Remove the stems and insert twigs or wooden skewers. Add blue food coloring, sugar and corn syrup to a sauce pan. Mix and let the sugar melt. To check for doneness, you can dip a fork in the mixture and raise it up. If the mixture hardens when you pull it up and forms strands then it’s ready. Dip your apples in the candied sugar then let them set on a piece of parchment paper. You can also add black food coloring to make them darker or dip them twice.

14. Dirt pudding

Easy halloween desserts for kids doesn’t get any easier than this Halloween dirt pudding. Whether you want to cook a chocolate sheet cake or use a store-bought one is completely up to you. Simply layer cake and chocolate pudding in turns in your parfait cups. Top it off with some crushed Oreos and, of course, gummy worms for the classic worms-in-the-dirt effect.

15. Worm-infested cake

No, you don’t have to bake anything from scratch for this Halloween desert idea. Grab some ready-made cupcakes or cake from the store and let those gummy worms go to town with their “infestation.” Kids will love this Halloween inspired dessert. You can even add candy eyes for more spookiness.

A version of this post was published October 7, 2022. It has been updated.