27 Spooky Halloween Treats for Kids That Actually Won’t Give You a Headache to Make
Okay, so here’s the thing. Last year I tried to be that Pinterest mom with the elaborate Halloween treats, and it was a complete disaster. I’m talking fondant nightmares, food coloring everywhere (including on my white kitchen walls, don’t ask), and my 6-year-old asking why the “ghost cookies” looked more like sad blobs.
This year? I’m keeping it real with spooky Halloween treats for kids that look awesome but won’t make you want to hide in your pantry and cry. And trust me, I’ve tested every single one of these because my kids are brutal food critics.
Why These Spooky Halloween Treats for Kids Actually Work
Look, I’m gonna be honest with you. Most Halloween treat recipes online are written by people who clearly don’t have actual children. You know the ones—they call for seventeen different specialty ingredients and assume you have three hours of uninterrupted kitchen time.
My kids want stuff that looks cool and tastes good. They don’t care if the spider legs are perfectly symmetrical or if the orange frosting is the exact shade of a sunset pumpkin. They just want to eat something that makes them giggle and doesn’t taste like cardboard.
So after way too many failed attempts (and a few kitchen meltdowns), here are the spooky Halloween treats for kids that actually work in real life.
1. Ghost Toast
This is so simple it’s almost embarrassing, but my kids go crazy for it. White bread, cream cheese, and two chocolate chips. That’s it. Toast the bread, spread the cream cheese in a ghost shape (doesn’t have to be perfect—wonky ghosts are cuter anyway), and add the chocolate chip eyes.
2. Orange You Glad It’s Halloween Oranges
Okay, terrible pun, but hear me out. Peel oranges, draw jack-o’-lantern faces with food-safe markers. Done. My neighbor’s kid ate four of these last Halloween because they’re “healthy candy.”
3. Mummy Bananas
Peel bananas (leave them whole), drizzle with white chocolate or wrap with white fruit leather strips, add mini chocolate chip eyes. The kids think they’re hilarious, especially when the “mummy” gets a little brown and looks more authentic.
4. Spider Eggs (AKA Deviled Eggs with Olive Spiders)
Make regular deviled eggs, but cut black olives in half for the spider body and slice the other half into thin strips for legs. Looks creepy, tastes normal. Win-win.
5. Pumpkin Cheese Balls
Mix cream cheese with orange food coloring, roll into balls, use a pretzel stick for the stem. I use the mini pretzel twists broken in half. Sometimes they look more like orange golf balls, but the kids don’t care.
6. Graveyard Brownies
Make boxed brownies (no judgment here), crush Oreos for dirt, stick Milano cookies or graham crackers in as tombstones. Write “RIP” with icing if you’re feeling fancy. Last year my 4-year-old insisted one tombstone say “RIP Broccoli” and honestly, fair enough.
7. Witch Hat Brownies
Cut brownies into triangles, dip in melted chocolate, add an Oreo cookie at the base for the hat brim. They never look exactly like witch hats, but they taste amazing and that’s what matters.
8. Mummy Hot Dogs
Wrap hot dogs in strips of puff pastry to look like mummy bandages, bake, add mustard dots for eyes. My kids call them “scary dogs” and request them year-round now.
9. Pumpkin Pancakes with Faces
Add pumpkin puree to pancake mix, make them orange, use chocolate chips to make jack-o’-lantern faces. Pro tip: make the batter the night before because morning Halloween prep is chaos.
10. Ghost Pizzas
English muffin halves, white cheese (I use mozzarella), olives for eyes and mouth. Bake until cheese melts. They look like ghosts and taste like pizza. My kids’ two favorite things combined.
11. Dirt Cake with Gummy Worms
Chocolate pudding, crushed Oreos, gummy worms. Layer in a clear container so you can see the “dirt” layers. Looks gross, tastes incredible. My sister’s kids still talk about this from two years ago.
12. Spider Brownies
Make brownies, cut them into squares, stick pretzel sticks in the sides for legs (4 on each side), add candy eyes or use white chocolate chips. Fair warning: some of the legs will fall off and your kitchen will look like a pretzel graveyard.
13. Halloween Popcorn Mix
Pop popcorn, drizzle with orange and black melted chocolate (or just use food coloring), add in some candy corn and chocolate chips. Mix it all up. Looks festive, tastes like movie theater popcorn had a Halloween baby.
14. Mummy Oreos
Dip Oreos in white chocolate, drizzle more white chocolate over them to look like bandages, add mini chocolate chip eyes before the chocolate sets. The trick is working fast because that chocolate hardens quickly.
15. Pumpkin Rice Krispy Treats
Make regular Rice Krispy treats but add orange food coloring. Use a round cookie cutter, add a green fruit roll-up stem. They’re not perfectly round, but they’re pumpkin-ish and that counts.
16. Witch’s Brew Punch
Green Hawaiian Punch, lemon-lime soda, sherbet scoops that look like eyeballs. Add dry ice if you want to be extra (and you trust yourself not to accidentally poison anyone—seriously, be careful with that stuff).
17. Orange Slime Smoothies
Orange juice, vanilla yogurt, frozen mango. Blend until smooth. Looks like orange slime, tastes like sunshine. My kids request these all year now.
18. Bloody Milk
White milk with a few drops of red food coloring. Stir partially so it looks like blood swirls. Sounds gross, looks creepy, tastes like regular milk. Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best.
19. Mummy Lollipops
Take regular lollipops, wrap them with white medical gauze or cheesecloth, leave gaps for eyes, add candy eyes with a tiny dot of frosting. Takes five minutes, looks professional.
20. Chocolate Spiders
Melt chocolate, drop spoonfuls on wax paper, add pretzel stick legs while wet, candy eyes on top. They look like abstract art half the time, but kids love them anyway.
21. Pumpkin Candy Cups
Orange cupcake liners filled with candy corn, mini chocolate chips, and orange M&Ms. Instant pumpkin-colored treat mix. Not exactly a recipe, but it works.
22. Ghost Marshmallows
Large marshmallows with mini chocolate chip eyes and mouths drawn with food-safe markers. Put them on sticks for ghost pops or just leave them as is. My kids like to eat the eyes first because apparently they’re tiny monsters.
23. Halloween Cake Pops
Make cake pops using boxed cake mix and frosting, dip in orange or black chocolate, decorate as pumpkins or bats. Fair warning: these take forever and you’ll question your life choices halfway through, but they look amazing.
24. Mummy Pretzels
Dip pretzel rods in white chocolate, add candy eyes before it sets. Sometimes I use regular stick pretzels, sometimes the thick sourdough ones. Both work fine, though the kids prefer the thick ones because “more chocolate.”
25. Pumpkin Bread with Chocolate Chips
Regular pumpkin bread recipe but add mini chocolate chips to look like seeds. Nothing groundbreaking here, but it smells amazing and tastes like fall had a baby with Halloween.
26. Halloween Sugar Cookies
Make sugar cookies, use Halloween cookie cutters, decorate with orange and black icing. Pro tip: make the dough a day ahead because rolling and cutting cookies while kids are asking “are they done yet?” is basically torture.
27. Spider Web Dip
Layer black bean dip and white cheese dip in a circle pattern to look like a spider web, add a plastic spider in the center (make sure it’s food-safe). Serve with orange tortilla chips. It’s actually delicious and looks way more complicated than it is.
What I’ve Learned Making These Spooky Halloween Treats for Kids
After making literally dozens of Halloween treats over the years, here’s what I wish someone had told me:
Buy twice as much food coloring as you think you need. Orange is apparently the hardest color to achieve, and you’ll go through way more than expected trying to get that perfect pumpkin shade.
Embrace the imperfection. The wonky ghosts and lopsided spiders are actually cuter than the perfect ones. My kids prefer them because they look “more real.”
Prep what you can ahead of time. Halloween morning is chaos. Make brownies the night before, mix dry ingredients, set out decorating supplies. Future you will be grateful.
Have backup plans. Keep some extra candy on hand for when the chocolate spider legs break off or the mummy bandages won’t stick. Sometimes you need to improvise.
Remember why you’re doing this. It’s not about Instagram-worthy photos or impressing other parents. It’s about seeing your kids’ faces light up when they see a plate of silly ghost toast or mummy hot dogs.
The Bottom Line on Spooky Halloween Treats for Kids
Here’s what nobody tells you about making spooky Halloween treats for kids: they don’t have to be perfect to be perfect. My kids still talk about the year I made “ghost cookies” that looked more like sad clouds, because they were part of the story, part of the memory.
These treats work because they’re doable for real parents in real kitchens with real time constraints. Some will turn out exactly like you planned, others will be happy accidents, and a few might be complete disasters that you’ll laugh about later.
The best part? Your kids will remember that you tried, that you made something special just for them, that Halloween at your house means homemade treats made with love (and probably a little too much food coloring).
Start with the easy ones, work your way up to the more involved recipes, and don’t stress if your mummy hot dogs look more like abstract art. The kids will eat them anyway, and you’ll have stories to tell.
Happy Halloween, and may your kitchen survive the food coloring explosion! 🎃👻
What are your favorite spooky Halloween treats for kids? Let me know in the comments if you try any of these, I’m always looking for new ideas that won’t make me want to order pizza instead!