This menu is to give you an idea of what you could prepare and serve if you have a party to prepare for. All of the dishes serve 6 people, and are relatively easy and simple to make – meaning that you should be able to get the help of any children around.

Spooky Fruit Punch

An alternative to an ordinary punch, which looks great and is fun to make! Using the cranberry juice for ice cubes gives a different taste, and also freezes clear so you can still see the Gummy Worms

2 Packages of Gummy Worms

1 litre Cranberry Juice

1 litre Strawberry Smoothie

500ml Orange Juice

3 Cans Lemonade

1.       Put a gummy worm into each ice cube space, with half hanging out. Pour the cranberry juice into the trays and freeze for at least 2 hours.

2.       In a large punch bowl, pour the Strawberry Smoothie, Orange Juice and Lemonade, and stir.

3.       Before serving, add the ice cubes to the punch bowl, and fill glasses with a ladleful.

Carrot Fingers

A healthy snack, which looks lovely and gruesome! Just what’s needed at your party! Great idea, especially if you have any vegetarians at your party, just be careful with Nut Allergies

1 bag of peeled baby Carrots

Enough sliced Almonds for 1 per Carrot

Cream Cheese

Bottled Ranch dressing

1.       Put a bit of cream cheese on the end of each carrot, and place an almond face-down on top of it-  little hint, it should look like a fingernail!

2.       In a bowl, pour the Ranch dressing in it – just enough to allow you to stand four or five carrot fingers in it. On a small platter, lay the other carrot-fingers out.

Pizza Mummies

Very easy, simple and great fun to decorate! You can use tomato Puree to add extra blood, or bits of meat to be cuts and scars, Sweetcorn for pupils, and virtually anything else you can get your hands on really! You can make 1 parge pizza for everyone to have slices of, or even 6 small individual ones

Pizza Dough

Sliced Cheese

Tomato Puree

Sliced Green Olives

Vegetable or Olive Oil

1.       Add extra Tomato Puree to the pizza bases, before cooking the pizzas for 10 minutes less than needed

2.       Lay the sliced cheese out so it looks like bandages, leaving a small space where you can put two bits of sliced Olive to look like eyes. Brush with oil

3.       Cook for the remaining 10 minutes.

4.       Allow to cool before serving

Pumpkin Nachos

No, they aren’t made from Pumpkin. Ordinary Nachos, but cut in the shape of Pumpkins, so you’ll need a cookie cutter (or similar) in the shape of a pumpkin. If you can find another spooky shape, then you can use that, and mix and match them

1 pack of Soft Corn Tortillas

¼ cup Vegetable or Olive Oil

Chilli powder (optional)

Red and Yellow food Colouring

Salt

1.       Use the cookie cutter to cut out Pumpkin shapes from the tortillas

2.       Pour the oil into a small bowl, and add some food colouring to a bowl to get the desired colour – should be a bright orange. You may have to leave it a one or two minutes before mixing the oil to make sure it doesn’t separate

3.       Dip the shapes (or use a brush) so the tortillas are well coated on both sides

4.       Lay the Shapes out on an ungreased tray, and sprinkle with salt (and chilli if you would like). Bake at 175 C/ 350 F for 10 minutes, or until crispy.

Halloween Cakes

Using a range of small cupcakes, you can decorate these in a wide variety of ways, depending on the age of your helpers. The younger they are, the more basic patterns (i.e., Pumpkins, bats, moons), and for the older, you can go for more delicate patterns – spiders webs, bats, haunted houses, skeletons – the list goes on!

Try different decorations depending on the shape of the cake – for example, if you’ve got a large oval cake, look at getting a Pumpkin decorated onto it, or if you’re particularly creative, try a haunting scene!

Photo Courtesy of Ivanx