For a warming Autumn recipe and perfect Halloween or bonfire supper, why not try our delicious pumpkin soup? We made the recipe using butternut squash rather than pumpkin which has a sweeter taste, however the soup would be just as tasty with pumpkin.

This recipe is easy to adapt to be dairy free, gluten free and suitable for vegetarians.

For an alternative recipe, you can also check our Easy Pumpkin Soup for Halloween.

This recipe will serve 8 to 10.

Ingredients

• 2 table spoons of olive oil
• 1kg of butternut squash or pumpkin – peeled, seeded and chopped in small pieces
• 1 onion – finely chopped
• 1 leek – chopped
• 1 courgette chopped
• 1 litre of chicken or vegetable stock
• 1/4 tsp of dried chilli flakes (optional)
• Bread for croûtons

Preparation

1. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan, then gently fry the onions, leek and courgette for 5 mins, until soft but not coloured. Add the pumpkin or squash to the pan and carry on cooking for 8 to 10 mins, stirring occasionally until it starts to soften and turn golden.
2. Add the stock and chilli flakes and season with salt and pepper. Bring to boiling point and simmer for 20 mins or until the squash is very soft. You can now blend the soup.
3. While the soup is cooking, slice the crusts from the bread, then cut the bread into small croûtons. Heat a little olive oil in a frying pan, then fry the bread until it starts to become crisp. These can be made a day ahead and stored in an airtight container. You can also chop lightly buttered toast just before serving. To amuse children (and grown ups too), why not cut out your bread / toast in shapes with a small cookie cutter?
4. Reheat the soup if needed, taste for seasoning, then serve with scattered croûtons. You can add a little grated cheese or a spoonful of cream before serving.

For ideas to help you to make this Halloween one to be remembered check out our Halloween food for a spooky mood post and our A Tricky Problem for a Halloween Party article.

If you want to scare someone on the spookiest night of the year why not send the one of our Halloween balloon gifts? For decorations to create the perfect eerie atmosphere check out our Halloween party balloons.

Whether you’re planning a sit down meal or a party buffet, with a little thought, you can soon create a creepy menu that will put your guests in a spooky mood.

Creepy main courses

Ghoul-ash is an obvious choice but you can also use a bit of imagination with other dishes. For instance, spaghetti meatballs can become worms and eyeballs – lovely thought! Check out our baked eyeballs in bloodsauce recipe for inspiration.

It’s also amazing what a little bit of food colouring can achieve. Ever fancied dishing up green mash potato? Just don’t blame me if your guests refuse to eat anything.

Devilish desserts

Dessert is the easiest course to turn deliciously devilish. Decorate fairy cakes with black icing and spider’s webs, serve up jelly with floating eyeballs (the sweetshop kind, please), drip blood red raspberry sauce over ice cream or you could even serve up one of our cans of chocolate worms or chocolates spiders. If you want to make your own treats with the kids check out our Halloween cupcake recipe and spooky Halloween spiders.

Spooky drinks

Then there are the drinks. For the adults, mixing orange juice with Blue Caracao delivers an interestingly green punch that could easily be mistaken for witches brew. But watch out, it can be equally potent!

For the kids, supermarkets sell brightly coloured fizzy pops. However you might want to check out the ingredients and additives or you could end up with some very hyper monsters at your Halloween party.

More freaky Halloween recipes

For a more conventional menu why not try to cook an easy pumpkin soup?

You can also check out Netmums Halloween party food section for more devilish delights that are easy to make with the kids.

The quantities are very generous so it will be just right if you are hosting a Halloween party. This recipe is also good for kid’s Birthday parties.

The bravest Mums might attempt it with a group of kids and give each child a bag of cookies to take home.

Halloween cookies ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• 3/4 cup of margarine
• 2 cups of sugar
• 1 1/2 cups of brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 2 cups of smooth peanut butter
• 3 teaspoons of baking powder
• 7 cups of oatmeal
• 3/4 cup of chocolate chips
• 3/4 cup of pecans nuts, chopped
• 3/4 cup of coloured chocolate coated sweets like Smarties

Preparation:

Beat together eggs, margarine, sugars, vanilla and peanut butter in a large bowl until smooth.

In a separate bowl, mix together the baking powder and oats. Mix into peanut butter mixture. Add chocolate chips and pecans and stir well until the mixture is perfectly blended.
Place large spoonfuls of dough at regular intervals on non-stick baking tray. Flatten each cookie into a round shape with the back of a spoon. Press the Smarties on top of the cookies (that was my children’s favourite part of the recipe).

Bake at 180C, 350F for 10-12 minutes or until cooked. Allow cooling for 5 minutes on backing sheet before removing.

This Halloween recipe makes 2 to 3 dozen large cookies – plenty for little (and big) monsters to enjoy!

Halloween Witch’s tip: if the dough seems too moist, add 1/2 to 1 cup all-purpose flour until it reaches the right consistency.

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Stuck for a unique Halloween gift idea? Why not try sending Halloween Balloons (delivered filled with helium to the address of your choice) or some Creepy Chocolate spiders from Big Fat Balloons?

Ingredients for our Halloween cupcake recipe:
(Filling)

• 8 ounces (200g) of softened cream cheese
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup of caster sugar
• Yellow and red food colouring

(Cupcake dough)

• 8 ounces (200g) of margarine
• 8 ounces (200g) of caster sugar
• 4 eggs size 3
• 6 ounces (150g) of self raising flour
• 2 ounces (50g) of cocoa powder

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 180C, 350F.

Prepare cupcake mix as follows:
Cream the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy, beat in the eggs – one at a time, adding a little flour with each.
Gently fold in the remaining flour and cocoa powder.

To make filling:
Blend in the cream cheese, egg and sugar. Add 2 drops of yellow food colouring and 1 drop of red food colouring. Add more colouring if necessary to reach the perfect shade of orange.

Finish your Halloween cupcakes:
Fill cupcake liners half full with cupcake mixture and place 1 teaspoon of filling at the centre of each. As the cupcakes bake, the dough will rise around the filling. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Enjoy those delicious cupcakes and Happy (or should I say scary?) Halloween!

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Stuck for a unique Halloween gift idea? Why not try sending Halloween Balloons (delivered filled with helium to the address of your choice) or some Creepy Chocolate spiders from Big Fat Balloons?

My children (2 ½ and 3 ½) loved making these Halloween spiders (result pictured here). They particularly enjoyed eating the spiders’ legs first and waving them at me while shouting with delight “Look Mummy, my spider’s got no legs!”. They laughed even more when I pretended to be scared!

Ingredients to make Halloween Spiders:

• 1 Packet of mini digestive biscuits or chocolate chip cookies
• 1 pack of marzipan (I like pre-rolled marzipan best as blocks can be difficult to lay out thin! You might require more marzipan if you want to make lots of spiders. We only made four spiders with a small pack)
• Liquorice rolls (from a sweet shop or supermarket) – unrolled and chopped in 1 3/4 inch pieces (you can unroll the liquorice strands and chop them in advance if you are making those Halloween spiders with smaller children – older children will enjoy doing it themselves)

Preparation:

Roll the marzipan out with a rolling pin and cut out 1 ¾ inch circles of marzipan using a cookie cutter or the top of a small glass – the marzipan discs need to be a little larger than your biscuits.

Take one of your marzipan discs and fix 4 liquorice legs on each side, letting them hang out on the outside. Put a biscuit and marzipan disc on top and press gently to seal the sides. Don’t forget to make eyes for your spiders with small balls of marzipan or tiny pieces of liquorice.

It’s time to scare each other while eating your spiders!

Have a great Halloween party!

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Stuck for a unique Halloween gift idea? Why not try sending Halloween Balloons (delivered filled with helium to the address of your choice) or some Creepy Chocolate spiders from Big Fat Balloons?

This Halloween recipe is suitable for children, adults and ghosts too. If your dinner party guests are brave enough to try this horror recipe, they will ask for seconds so make sure you make plenty.

This recipe serves 6

Ingredients for Halloween baked eye balls:
Blood sauce (buy a jar of ready made tomato based pasta sauce or follow the instructions below)

• 1 lbs (450g) of beef mince
• 1 egg
• Green olives stuffed with red peppers
• 2 oz (50g) bread crumbs
• Mixed herbs (1 tsp), garlic powder (1/2 tsp), black pepper, sea salt

Preparation:
Put on your favourite witch hat, mix the meat, egg, breadcrumbs, mixed herbs and garlic � season to taste. Make 1-inch meatballs and push an olive into each one. Place you �eyes� into a shallow baking dish and pour the blood sauce over (if you are using a jar of ready made sauce you might want to add a little water to ensure it does not dry out during cooking). Bake at 200C for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until cooked.

Serve hot over giant white worms (cooked spaghetti) and dust (grated parmesan cheese).

Ingredients for Halloween blood sauce:

• 1 large onion, 1 carrot and one stick of celery, finely chopped
• 1 crushed garlic clove (optional)
• 2 tins of chopped tomatoes
• 2 tbsp of olive oil
• 1 tbsp of tomato paste
• Mixed herbs
• Salt and black pepper

Preparation:
Fry the onion, carrots, celery and garlic in olive oil for 5 minutes. Add the 2 tins of tomato sauce and the tomato paste. Heat the sauce until it boils gently. Add the herbs and season to taste. Simmer for 25 minutes.

You can pour the blood sauce over the eyeballs as it is or whizz it through a blender for a perfectly smooth finish.

Perfect served with fermented or fresh blood (red wine or cranberry juice depending on the age and taste of your spooky guests). Enjoy and Happy Halloween!

Halloween Witch’s tip: any leftovers can be finished the day after Halloween and served as meatballs in tomato sauce (that�s magic for you).

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Stuck for a unique Halloween gift idea? Why not try sending Halloween Balloons (delivered filled with helium to the address of your choice) or some Creepy Chocolate spiders from Big Fat Balloons?