Creepy cupcakes, spooky cookies, and devilishly good drinks are the perfect addition to any party spread. Whether you’re hosting trick-or-treaters or having an adults-only celebration, these spooky good Halloween dessert recipes will take your Halloween baking to scary new levels.
HALLOWEEN CAKE ROLL
Halloween isn’t just about the candy—save room for cake, too! This spooky Halloween dessert recipe is sure to be a hauntingly good hit. And don’t skip out on the adorable monster cake balls!
- Prepare the Duncan Hines® Classic Devil’s Food Cake Mix and add in a little black food coloring for a ghoulish touch.
- Pour 1 cup of the cake batter in a greased 8-inch round pan—this is for your cake balls! Now, pour the rest of the batter on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and sprayed with baking spray. Bake for 14-17 minutes.
- Let the 8-inch cake cool on a wire rack. Meanwhile, flip the baking sheet cake on a kitchen towel dusted with confectioners’ sugar. Peel off the parchment paper and you’re ready to roll! Carefully roll up the cake and the towel, starting with the short end of the cake. Let it cool in place for up to an hour.
- It’s time for the monster cake balls! Decorate with fun colored candy melts, sprinkles, and candy eyes. Be sure to make them as spooky as possible—try a couple extra eyeballs 👀!
- Make your whipped cream filling. Now, carefully unroll the cake roll and spread that filling thickly across the entire cake. Almost done! Use your kitchen towel again to carefully roll it back up.
- Decorate and serve!
Ready to roll? Head over to the full, detailed Halloween Cake Roll recipe and get started.
Halloween Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing
Grab a couple of your favorite Halloween cookie cutters and let out your inner artist! You and your little monsters will have a blast decorating these adorable sugar cookies. They’ll be (almost) too cute to eat!
- Stir together flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside. Now, beat your butter and sugar. Once it’s nice and fluffy, add in eggs and vanilla and almond extracts, and mix well. When blended, slowly add in the flour mixture.
- Wrap up your dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled.
- Roll out cold dough on a floured surface and use your cookie cutters to form the cookies. Bake for up to 10 minutes, until the edges are lightly browned.
- Let them cool completely. Meanwhile, make your royal icing! Beat Egg Beaters® 100% Egg Whites, vanilla, and confectioners’ sugar until glossy.
- Get decorating!
Ready to make your own magical mini masterpieces? We have the full recipe for Halloween Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing.
Halloween Candy Brownies
Chocoholics, this one’s for you! The combo of fudgy brownies, creamy chocolate frosting, and all your favorite chocolate candies makes this Halloween recipe to die for. This might be a good one to save for after Halloween—it’s a delicious way to use up leftover candy.
- Mix a box of Duncan Hines Chewy Fudge Brownie Mix with eggs, oil, and water until nice and smooth.
- Bake for 21-23 minutes.
- Top with chocolate frosting and decorate by pressing leftover Halloween candy into the frosting. Make them extra spooky with candy eyes and a few gummy spiders!
Have the chocolate cravings hit yet? Check out the full Halloween Candy Brownies recipe.
Candy Corn Parfaits
Scarves, fuzzy sweaters, cozy blankets—fall’s all about layering, and these adorable desserts are no exception! Get some Snack Pack® Lemon & Vanilla pudding, orange food dye, Reddi Wip®, and candy corn together and layer up this easy Halloween treat.
- Place all of your lemon and half of your vanilla puddings into icing bags and set aside.
- Mix the other half of your vanilla pudding with orange food dye until the pudding is a bright orange color. Spoon the orange pudding into an icing bag.
- Starting with the lemon pudding, create a layer of pudding at the bottom one-third of a mason jar. Repeat this step with even layers of orange and white pudding.
- Add Reddi-wip, sprinkles, and a decorative straw as desired.
VAMPIRE COOKIES
Sink your teeth into these spooky gluten free Glutino® Vampire Cookies! The combination of Glutino Chocolate Chip Cookies, red icing, mini-marshmallows, and almond slivers makes for a bloody good treat.
- Choose two similarly sized Chocolate Chip cookies and add red icing to the bottoms of both. Lay icing-side up.
- Slowly add mini-marshmallows around the edge of one of the cookies (note: you don’t need to fill in the middle… unless you want to).
- Press the second cookie on top of the marshmallows and add two almond slivers, four marshmallows apart, by sticking them into the icing of the top cookie.
- Enjoy!
SPOOKY MUG CAKES
The only thing spooky about these mug cakes is how easy they are to make! Just grab your favorite Halloween mug, whip up a batch of Duncan Hines Mug Cake mix, and get creative with your toppings for an easy Halloween treat.
- Make mug cake per packet instructions.
- Allow mug cake to cool for up to 5 minutes.
- Add Reddi Wip®, sprinkles, and any other toppings to the top of your Duncan Hines mug cake.
- Enjoy!
GHOST HOT COCOA
Scare away the ghosts with this hauntingly delicious hot cocoa Halloween recipe. Mix up your favorite Swiss Miss® Hot Cocoa flavor and pile it high with the most ghoulish grouping of mini-marshmallows you’ve ever seen 👻.
- Make the hot cocoa according to package directions.
- Pour a bit of black food color gel onto a plate.
- Dip the end of a spoon or stir stick into the food gel and use it to create a face on each mini-marshmallow.
- Once the food dye has dried, add the marshmallows to the hot chocolate and enjoy this wicked-good way to warm up.
BLOODY CUPCAKES
These Bloody Cupcakes are one of our favorite Halloween dessert recipes, and are sure to be a hit at any Halloween party. With a GORE-geous combination of red velvet cupcakes, frosting, sugar glass, and red food dye, each bite will leave you screaming for more 😱.
- Bake cupcakes per Duncan Hines Red Velvet Cake Mix packaging instructions for cupcakes and frost when cool. Set aside.
- In a saucepan measure out the sugar and pour in the water. Place the saucepan over medium-high heat.
- Stir the water and sugar until it begins to boil.
- Boil for 3-5 minutes until the sugar starts to change color or until it reaches 300°F/160°C.
- When the sugar has hardened, remove it from the fridge and use a knife to crack. Break into small pieces.
- Place a few shards of the sugar glass into the cupcakes and drizzle over the fake blood.