Yahoo News 62 Halloween Dessert Ideas, from Totally Spooky to Extra Sweet
Goblins, ghosts and ghouls are frightening enough on their own, but what’s truly spooky is heading into Halloween without a game plan for your sweet tooth. After all, it’s the one time of year when it’s totally acceptable to sneak treats from your kid’s candy stash and bake them into a cupcake recipe…right? To get in a spooky mood, we’ve rounded up 62 of the best Halloween dessert ideas, from the cutest jack-o’-lantern cookies to the scariest spider cupcakes. Time to get baking.
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1. S’mores Cookies
This calls for a campfire and a scary story—or skip the campfire and fire up your Netflix scary movie queue instead.
2. Candy Land ‘Jarcuterie’
It shouldn’t be difficult to source ingredients for these single-serve sugar bombs.
3. Peanut Butter Nutella Candy Bar Brownie
As it turns out, a variety pack of bite-size chocolate candy is a very beautiful thing.
4. Glazed Brown Sugar Maple Cookies
If you’re more about treats than tricks, these sophisticated and seasonal cookies have your name on them.
5. Candy Corn Pretzel Hugs
They take, like, two seconds to make. (Good thing, since they’ll be gone in the blink of an eye.)
6. Butterfinger Brown Butter Cookies
We love when the candy haul comes in handy.
7. Easy Pumpkin Cheesecake Cups
No one should have to fuss with a water bath while wearing a Freddy Krueger costume.
8. Halloween Mummy Nutter Butter Cookies
Who’s winning this year’s Halloween party? You are.
9. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars
If a blondie and a pumpkin pie had a very delicious baby.
10. Bloody Spooky Macarons
They’re *just* gruesome enough.
11. Candy Corn Surprise Cake
This cake is business on the outside, and party on the inside. We can never get enough candy corn.
12. Halloween Spider Cupcakes
They’re so cute, they almost made us forget our fear of creepy-crawlies. Almost. (Psst: The spiders’ legs are made out of black string licorice, in case you're curious.)
13. Halloween Banana Popsicles
Adults will love that they’re healthy, and kids won’t know the difference.
14. Monster Mash Cookies
We know you’re wondering, and it’s true: They’re a graveyard smash.
15. Halloween Chocolate Boo Bark
Mix up the candy toppings however you see fit. But whatever you do, don’t skip the spooky-cute googly eyes.
16. Candy Corn Cupcakes
We told you we really love candy corn. (Even you’re not a superfan of the sugary treat, these cupcakes are just vanilla with food coloring.)
17. Halloween Eyeball Sugar Cookies
We only have eyes for these cookies. (Heh.)
18. Creepy Halloween Cupcakes
We kind of wish all spiders were made of gumdrops and licorice, don’t you?
19. Gluten-Free Matcha Cheesecake Frankensteins
These gentlemen are no-bake and take about 25 minutes to assemble, no big deal.
20. Candy Charcuterie Board
We’ve died and gone to Halloween candy heaven.
21. Candy Apples
These apples have a secret: They’re made with melted down Jolly Ranchers for an easy treat.
RELATED: 36 Halloween Snacks That’ll Get Any Grown-Up in the Spirit
22. Halloween Candy White Chocolate Bark
Switch up the usual with white chocolate instead of dark, and plenty of sour candies on top.
23. Mini Peanut Butter Cups
To truly impress, skip the store-bought Reese’s and make your own peanut butter cups.
24. Spooky Halloween Pretzels
The only ghosts we’d like to see are covered in white chocolate and sitting in our snack bowl, thank you very much.
25. Chocolate Bark Halloween Brownies
The more sprinkles and candy, the better. This is Halloween, after all.
26. Chocolate-Stuffed Brownie Bites
Dark as midnight on a moonless night—dark chocolate, that is.
27. Halloween Chocolate Mousse
We could make a cheesy joke about graveyards, but we’ll just say these are delicious.
28. Apple Tart with Soft-Pretzel Crust
Is a soft-pretzel crust a bit of an undertaking? Maybe, but it’s worth every drop of effort.
29. Pumpkin Angel Food Cake with Cream Cheese Glaze
We can’t decide which is more swoon-worthy: the pumpkin cake, or the cream cheese glaze?
30. Caramel Coconut Macaroons
We’ll let you in on a sweet tip: If you dip these cuties in melted chocolate, they taste like a fancy Mounds bar.
31. Caramel-Chocolate Macadamia Tart
This classy tart might not scream “Halloween” from the get-go but go ahead, take a bite. It tastes just like a candy bar.
32. Snickerdoodle Chocolate-Chunk Bundt Cake
For adults, Halloween is definitely about reminiscing on your favorite nostalgic candy. And FYI, this cake tastes like a Twix.
33. Easy Nutella Mousse
For a last-minute dessert, break out a jar of Nutella. We know you already have one in your pantry.
34. Pumpkin Pie with a Chocolate Crust
Halloween color scheme? Check. Autumnal flavor profile? Double check.
RELATED: 16 Non-Tacky Halloween Party Recipes That Your Guests Will Love
35. Dark Chocolate Dipped Pretzels
These toe the line between snack and dessert, which is why we love them so much. Just be sure to use the most festive sprinkles in your pantry.
36. Salted Caramel Apple Sundae
Admit it, you were sold at the mention of salted caramel.
37. Mini Caramel Apples
Forget the gigantic, mass-produced caramel apples you find at the store (or even at the pumpkin patch). Making them at home is easy, fun and worth getting gooey caramel stuck to your teeth.
38. The World’s Biggest Peanut Butter Cup
Let’s be honest: All Halloween candies aren’t created equal. Peanut butter cups > everything. So naturally, we had to supersize them.
39. Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookies
The outside is soft, the inside is creamy. And they’ll melt in your mouth.
40. Creamy Pumpkin Eton Mess
This tastes like the best part of pumpkin pie (the filling). Plus, you can use store-bought meringue cookies, if you want to save time.
41. Sea Salt Chocolate Pumpkin Cups
DIY candy? Trust us, it’s worth it. These guys are a little sweet, a little salty and (surprisingly) pretty healthy too.
42. Jack-O’-Lantern Hand Pies
Fill them with your choice of bourbon-apple or roasted blackberry (and go ahead, use store-bought crust if you want).
43. Milk Chocolate Stuffed Jack-O’-Lantern Cookies
The cookies are flavored with cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg, and would be as delicious on their own as they are when decorated with chocolate.
44. Vegan Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream
No eggs, no dairy, no problem. If you don’t tell anyone it’s vegan, they probably won’t even know.
45. Biscuit Dough Pumpkin Hand Pies
Are these the cutest single-serve desserts in existence? They’re definitely up there.
46. Cinnamon Sheet Cake with Cider Frosting
For a more subtle take on the holiday, you can’t beat this easy sheet cake. The whole thing is ready in under an hour (and the frosting is divine).
47. Halloween Pumpkin Pie
It’s remarkable what you can do with a good pie crust and a few seasonal cookie cutters.
48. Pumpkin Bars
They’re a cross between a pie, a cake and a cookie. And yes, they’re as good as they sound.
49. Black Sesame Ice Cream
Imagine the look on everyone’s face when you serve them a bowl of black ice cream. Now imagine when they dive in with spoons.
50. Halloween M&M’s Chocolate Chip Cookies
Proof that you don’t have to spend all day and night making a festive treat.
51. Apple Cider Caramels
These caramels feel very Martha Stewart, don’t you think?
52. Pumpkin Tiramisu
If you can’t find pumpkin pie liqueur, use something equally creamy and sweet, like Irish cream.
53. Apple-Cider Doughnut Holes
The apple cider adds a hint of seasonal flavor and also keeps these snackable doughnut bites from drying out.
54. Sourdough Doughnuts with Concord Grape Glaze
Psst: Concord grapes are in season. They taste like childhood and look like a mad scientist’s creation.
55. Kit Kat Bar Ice-Cream Cake
Sign us up for any dessert that doesn’t require turning on an oven.
56. Caramel-Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies
If there’s one holiday that requires you to stuff cookies with candy, it’s Halloween. Embrace it.
57. Mini Caramel Pecan Pies with Cinnamon Roll Pie Crust
Want a dessert that looks mighty impressive but can be made in under an hour? These little guys will do the trick.
58. Puff Pastry Apple Galette
This might be the prettiest apple dessert we’ve ever laid eyes on. It doesn’t hurt that it’s easy to whip up in a single skillet.
59. Pumpkin Pie Parfaits
They’re vegan, gluten-free, made with ten ingredients and ready in 60 minutes. Need we say more?
60. Cinnamon Meringue Pie
There’s nothing scary about this gorgeous fall pie.
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61. Sweet Potato Sugar Cookies with Marshmallow Frosting
Sweet potato casserole always felt like dessert to us anyway.
9. SWEET POTATO SUGAR COOKIES WITH MARSHMALLOW TOPPING
Sweet potato casserole always felt like dessert to us anyway.
62. Sticky Toffee Honeycomb Cake
It’s certainly pretty enough for a party, but it’s actually easy enough to make anytime your sweet tooth strikes.
