Easy Halloween Party Foods

A party is not a party unless the fun includes plenty of great food and drinks. On Halloween, this calls for special fare. Getting your costumes together may leave little time to bother struggling with a menu. The last thing you want to do is slave in the kitchen making snacks for the family or party guests. The following are ideas for snacks that you can create using store-bought items and a little creativity.

Beverages – You can always count on everyone being thirsty. All you need is some ordinary drinks dressed up a bit.

Punch – One way to wet their whistle is with punch. No matter what the flavor, you want it to look as scary as possible. Use food coloring to darken the punch (black cauldron bubble) or brighten it (bucket of blood punch). To add to the frightful appearance, fashion eyeballs, fingers, or what have you, out of fruit and ice cream and float your ghoulish creations on top of the punch.

Sodas – Ordinary sodas can take on the ghoulish for one night. Use decorative plastic Halloween cups for your sodas. Add different colored whipped cream to the top and orange, black and purple straws.  For more adult beverages, add new labels to the cans and bottles in keeping with the theme of the night (for instance Witch’s Brew, Dracula’s Ale, Lager Of Lost Souls, or Blood Wine).

Finger Foods -In this case, we really may mean “finger foods.” Start with these ideas and see how spooky you can get.

Witch fingers – This is one of the most popular ideas. You can use sugar cookie dough and shape it onto long, thin strips to resemble fingers. While the cookies cool, press half an almond in one end to look like a fingernail. Use red gel to fashion some dripping blood if you like.

Cupcake creations – If you are short on time, buy store cupcakes and add decorative magic. Black or orange icing plus sprinkles or pumpkin candy works for most kids. For older children, add Gummi worms, dirt sprinkles, and skeleton drawings in the icing or licorice strands to become spider legs.

Scary molds – Jell-O molds have been around for a long time. For Halloween use brain molds and also those for creeping hands or skulls. Instead of gelatin, try cheese to fashion the body part along with creepy add-ins like slivered almonds for scales, strawberry or raspberry glaze for blood. Then serve your scary snack with crackers.

You can get as creepy or disgusting as you want with the menu. The scarier, the better. The best part is that the recipes are easy, with many only requiring you use what you already have on hand or can buy cheaply. These Halloween snacks are creepy creativity at its finest!