Halloween isn’t just for putting yourself in a costume—you can dress up some of your favourite foods too! And here’s a secret: transforming snacks into a boo-tiful Halloween spread is frighteningly easy, which means you can whip up a whole set of hors d’oeuvres quickly before a Halloween shindig. Need some ideas? Try one or two of these creepy treats!
1. Pumpkin Carrots
Let’s begin with a healthy spooky snack. Pumpkin-shaped carrots can be a fun treat on their own for kids, or you can toss them into a salad to give it an instant Halloween upgrade.
Here’s how to do it: first, take a full-sized carrot and peel it. The overall process will be easier if you cut off the top of the carrot and the bottom where it begins to taper off. Now that you have a carrot cylinder, cut it into a pumpkin shape. Finally, slice the carrot to get a whole harvest of little pumpkins!
2. Mummified Hotdogs
This Halloween dish is more adorable than frightening, and children will enjoy mummifying their hot dogs just as much as they love to dress themselves up for the scariest night of the year!
Take crescent roll dough and cut into strips--about half an inch wide is good. These will be your mummy bandages! Wrap them around your hotdogs, but be sure to leave some space open for a face. Bake your mummy dogs in the oven at 375 F until golden brown. Place 2 store-bought or homemade candy eyeballs to create an adorable (and delicious) mummy!
3. Vampire Cookies
Add a vampiric surprise to your favourite cookie! This recipe is quick and easy, but makes a bold visual statement when served: a platter full of vampire teeth ready to bite!
Start by cutting homemade or store-bought cookies in half. Spread red frosting on the bottom of each half-cookie. Now, line half of your frosted cookie pieces with marshmallows along the curved perimeter so they look like bottom-row sets of teeth. It’s a good idea to place some marshmallows behind this row for extra support. Once you’ve made your sets of teeth, top each with another frosted half, like a sandwich. There you go--delicious cookie bites! Now just add almond slivers for fangs, and you’re done!
4. Screaming Pretzels & Donuts
Give pretzels and donuts a scare and make them scream! All you need to do is add some surprised eyes to make these spooky treats.
First, you’ll need royal icing eyes, which you can buy from the store. Melt down some chocolate and put it in a piping bag, as this will be your "glue" for affixing the eyes.
For pretzels: take chocolate covered pretzels and fill the top two holes with one eye each. The bottom middle hole serves as a screaming mouth! You can use a mix of milk and white chocolate pretzels--the white ones look like ghosts, while the black ones can be wailing, shadowy creatures!
For donuts, take a chocolate or white frosted donut and affix a whole collection of eyes across its top. That’s it--you’ve created a multi-eyed monster!