20 spooky & scrumptious Halloween dessert recipes

As you’ll soon see, a pair of candy googly eyes can make all the difference in adding some Halloween fun to your snacks and desserts. These healthy monster mouths from Eazy Peazy Mealz are made of apples, strawberries, peanut butter, sunflower seeds, and, yes, candy eyeballs.

A couple of chocolate chips or squirts of black frosting can turn an ordinary banana into a criminally simple Halloween-themed (but still healthy) treat. Or sweeten your spirits even more with these white chocolate-covered frozen bananas from BBC Good Food.

One Oreo and a pair of candy eyes can turn your cupcake into a bat almost as fast as a bat turns into a vampire—or vice-versa. Get the tricks to pulling off these treats via Simply Beautiful Eating.

Spooky only in name, death by chocolate is a delectable dessert that’s great for parties and potlucks. And you won’t work yourself to death making it, as this brownie trifle version from All Recipes contains only four ingredients. Two of those ingredients are brownies and pudding, which you might have to make yourself, but it’s totally worth it.

You might think worms in dirt aren’t scary, but then why was I too afraid to eat this dessert as a kid? Maybe that’s for me and my therapist to work out, so in the meantime, you can work on this dirty dessert made of pudding, crushed Oreos, and gummy worms with some help from Julie’s Eats and Treats.

Some green food dye and melted chocolate can turn ordinary jumbo marshmallows into Dr. Frankenstein’s horrifying (but lovable and edible) creation. Nisa has some tips.

Add a little soul to your next batch of brownies by topping them with an ooey-gooey marshmallow ghost! Betty Crocker knows how to scare up this dearly departed dessert.

This is one of the easiest ways to step up the scariness of ordinary cupcakes. Just pipe out a tall mound of white frosting on a cupcake, stick a couple of chocolate chips near the top for eyes, and you’ve got yourself a frighteningly simple ghost treat. Want a more challenging culinary Casper? Try this cupcake recipe from Tara Teaspoon that uses fondant.

Gingerbread cookies—even the people-shaped variety—deserve attention more than once a year. Instead of waiting until December, kick-off gingerbread season in October with these gingerbread vampires from The Kitchen is My Playground. Only one more step than usual is needed to give them a little bite!

Premade donuts make these adorable little monsters monstrously simple. You just need frosting, sprinkles, candy eyeballs, and—our favorite ingredient—plastic vampire teeth. A Spicy Perspective can give you some eerie inspiration.

Want a simple way to spook up your brownies? Add some crisscrossed stripes of vanilla frosting and a pair of googly eyes, and you’ve got yourself a munchable mummy. Pretty Providence has some pretty good tips, and a link to make the brownies, too. Remember: the mummy always returns...for second-helpings!

Are brownies not classy enough for you? Or maybe you want to go with a whole mummy motif? Try these mummy macarons from Nerdy Momma; they’ll show you how to make the entire thing from scratch.

Sometimes you don’t need anything extra to add some demonic flair to your desserts. If you’re making pie, you can simply carve out a jack-o-lantern pattern in the top of the crust, or arrange strips of dough into a mummy’s face. Real Simple can show you the latter technique in a cast iron pan—with a pie that’s as delicious as it is devious.

Why include candy eyes in a dessert when the whole dessert can be one big, bloody eyeball? This recipe from Sobeys is especially creative, as it uses a blueberry as the pupil, a kiwi slice as the iris, and panna cotta as the cornea...plus plenty of blood made from a simple, homemade raspberry sauce.

Lindt balls nestled into peanut butter cookies are the basis of this spooky dessert from Eat, Little Bird. If you want to make them less cartoony (and set them apart from other members of this list), just skip the eyes!

Looking for a bit of a challenge? This brain cake is sure to horrify your family or guests, but you’ll also knock ‘em dead with the presentation. It’s made of red velvet cake, fondant, and raspberry jam, and although it takes some time, it’s not especially difficult. 4 All Taste even has a video to help!

Here are some finger foods that really look like fingers! They’re actually cookies made from a flesh-free mixture of butter, sugar, egg, almond extract, vanilla extract, flour, baking powder, and salt. This recipe from The Farmer’s Almanac recommends almonds as fingernails and raspberry jam as a bloody dipping sauce.

Some licorice, chocolate jimmies, and candy eyes can transform ordinary brownies, cupcakes, or brownie cupcakes into scary spiders! Okay, they’re more cute than scary, but what’s most important is that they are yummy. Try this recipe straight outta Nestle’s website.

The snack that bites back! This dessert from Nerdy Mamma consists of chocolate chip cookies, raspberry or strawberry jam, and marshmallows. One tweak to simplify things: we suggest using slivered almonds instead of almond bark for the fangs!

This dessert includes a cupcake, frosting, an Oreo, and a Hershey’s Kiss—and the whole thing comes together to form an adorable witch hat! This recipe from Simply Happy Foodie doesn’t have any eye of newt in it, but there’s another surprise inside: a green-colored cream cheese filling!