Halloween Baking Ideas

October 13, 2016
Oxmoor House
Gather everyone in the kitchen this fall to enjoy a few fun Halloween baking ideas. From cakes to cupcakes to brownies and more, we've got the best Halloween baking recipes, loaded with fun stir-ins such as marshmallows and pumpkin. Whether you prefer baked goods flavored with pumpkin spice or classic cookies decorated with fun jack-o'-lantern faces, we've got the Halloween baking recipes to solve every sugar craving this season. Bag them up to share at tailgates, class parties, and around the office.
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Pumpkin Bundt Cake with Tahini Glaze

Sara Tane
Pumpkin Bundt Cake with Tahini Glaze Recipe

What better fall-inspired dessert to make than this tahini-glazed pumpkin bundt cake. A medley of fragrant, ground spices enhance the rich sweetness of this incredibly moist bundt cake. Topped with a toasty, perfectly bittersweet tahini glaze, this  easy to make and comforting fall dessert is the perfect centerpiece for your next dinner party, Halloween gathering, or special occasion.

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Black Sesame Cupcakes

Photo: Caitlin Bensel
Black Sesame Cupcakes Recipe

There's nothing artificial about these dramatically hued treats. Supermoist (and whole-grain) chocolate cupcakes get their blackout color from black sesame seeds and antioxidant-rich dark cocoa powder. These desserts are delicious and better for you, with every bit of fun, festive flair you crave.

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Witch's Hat Cake

Time Inc. Video Studio
Witch's Hat Cake Recipe

For a spooky spin on a Halloween-inspired sheet cake, look no further than this festive witch's hat cake. We opted for boxed cake mix for simplicity, but if there's a homemade recipe you prefer, that works too. As long as you're ready to get a little crafty and extra witchy, this easy, Halloween dessert will come together in a flash.

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Lemon-Black Sesame Baked Doughnuts

Photo: Daniel Agee; Food Styling: Tori Cox; Prop Styling: Kashara Johnson
Lemon-Black Sesame Baked Doughnuts Recipe

If you need a break from rainbow-smattered sweets and unicorn-coated everything, these deliciously dark doughnuts are exactly what you’re looking for. A bright lemony glaze balances the warm toasty flavors delivered by black sesame seeds for a balanced, not-too-sweet doughnut. Being an oven-baked doughnut, this recipe is perfect for the first-time doughnut maker or anyone who’s not trying to spend their Saturday morning cleaning up a deep-fry station in their kitchen. We used black food dye to intensify the darkness of these doughnuts, but feel free to leave it out if you’d prefer. Beyond being an incredibly tasty way to boycott rainbow foods, these black sesame doughnuts are the perfect treat to whip out for Halloween. 

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Boo-tiful Pumpkin Cake

Oxmoor House
Boo-tiful Pumpkin Cake Recipe

 

Make two recipes of this pumpkin cake and create your own tasty pumpkin!

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Deserted Graveyard Cake

Photo: Jonny Valiant; Styling: Ed Gallagher
Deserted Graveyard Cake Recipe

Prepare this decadent, chocolate-frosted cake for a festive Halloween dessert. 

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Candy Corn Cookies

Photo: Jennifer Davick; Styling: Linda Hirst
Candy Corn Cookies Recipe

Those fancy Halloween slice-and-bake cookies are a breeze to make at home thanks to a little food coloring. And trust us, these candy corn cookies are infinitely more delicious than the Halloween candy they’re inspired by (no offense if you like candy corn). Easy to make and absolutely adorable, these autumn-inspired treats are as perfect to send for the kids’ school Halloween party as they are to bring to your own fall festivities. You can even prep the dough a few days in advance and refrigerate, so that baking off the candy corn cookies is a breeze on the day you plan to eat them. Just follow the recipe through step 3, and be sure to wrap the loaf pan tightly with a few layers of plastic wrap. 

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Pumpkin-Chocolate Brownies

Photo: Greg Dupree; Styling: Heather Chadduck Hillegas
Pumpkin-Chocolate Brownies Recipe

TIP: Let fresh-baked brownies chill, uncovered, overnight. For a perfect slice, cut while they're cold. Serve at room temperature.

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Little Monster Cupcakes

Photo: Mark Thomas
Little Monster Cupcakes Recipe

Decorate cupcakes for Halloween by creating not-too-scary monster faces on top of the cupcakes using colored frostings and an assortment of candies.

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Bat Cake

Time Inc. Video Studio
Bat Cake Recipe

For the Halloween crafter inside all of this, this simple Halloween sheet cake is a fun, easy dessert to make. Devil’s food cake is very dark chocolaty color, but a red velvet cake would look just as fitting and festive for the bat, too. Piping bags and tips are found in craft stores or specialty baking shops. Be sure to cut the cake rounds in the prescribed order so that the bat’s head with ears comes out as 1 of the cuts.
 

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Mummified Candy-Corn Cake

Photo: Jonny Valiant; Styling: Ed Gallagher
Mummified Candy-Corn Cake Recipe

This festive candy corn-colored cake is sure to impress your Halloween guests. 

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Spider Web Cake

Spider Web Cake Recipe

This incredibly fudgy flourless chocolate cake is a much better way to satisfy your own spooky sweet cravings than dipping into your kids’ Halloween candy. Dark and delightful, this rich and chocolatey cake only requires five ingredients and about an hour to pull together.

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Spiderweb Spice Cake

Photo: Mark Thomas
Spiderweb Spice Cake Recipe
Colored candies are all you need to transform a chocolate cake into a creepy, crawling Halloween-themed cake. Don't worry, even with the spiders you won't be able to resist this delicious confection.

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Witchy Cookies

Witchy Cookies Recipe
Save time by using refrigerated sugar-cookie dough to make these spooky witch cookies. Use green food coloring and cocoa to dye the dough green and brown then decorate with brown icing and mini chocolate candies.

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Lemon and Black Sesame Baked Doughnuts

PHOTO BY DANIEL AGEE / FOOD STYLING BY TORI COX / PROP STYLING BY KASHARA JOHNSON
Lemon and Black Sesame Baked Doughnuts Recipe
We're here for anti-unicorn breakfasts
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Flying Brooms

Oxmoor House
Flying Brooms Recipe

No Halloween party is complete without a table full of assorted goodies, especially in the form of monsters, ghosts, or ghoulish accessories like these witches brooms!  These cookie brooms are a fun and easy Halloween dessert that are great to serve to adults and kids alike. 

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Chocolate Candy Corn Truffles

Annabelle Breakey
Chocolate Candy Corn Truffles Recipe
Dark chocolate and bitter orange offset the sweetness of candy corn in these fun but fancy truffles. Prep and Cook Time: about 30 minutes, plus at least 2 1/2 hours to chill. You'll need 64 fluted 1-inch paper candy cups for this recipe.

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Owl Cookies

Brown Cannon III
Owl Cookies Recipe

Who gives a hoot if someone takes the last cookie? When the cookies are this cute, can you blame them?

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Pumpkin Toffee Crunch Cheesecake

Photo: Charles Schiller
Pumpkin Toffee Crunch Cheesecake Recipe
Bring Halloween cheer to the dessert table with this too-cuke cheesecake. Keep it simple by preparing just about everything for this cake ahead of time.

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Halloween Spider Cookies

Sara Tane
Halloween Spider Cookies Recipe

Landing somewhere between adorable and slightly spooky, these Halloween spider cookies are sure to fulfill all your creepy-crawly sweet needs for your upcoming Halloween festivities. Using a classic cut-out butter cookie dough keeps the edges of your spider cookies shape neat and clean—no worries about the cookies expanding when they bake. Decorate these Halloween cut-out cookies with black gel icing, royal icing, candy eyes, orangle and black sprinkles, or whatever fun decorations you have on hand. These cookies make for a playful, spooky food craft that grown-ups and kids alike can enjoy.

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Graveyard Cake

Photo: Mark Thomas
Graveyard Cake Recipe

Halloween desserts definitely call for having a little extra fun in the kitchen. This kinda-cute, kinda-creepy Graveyard Cake is easy to make, fun to decorate (so recruit the kids’ help), and is sure to be a perfectly spooky centerpiece for any Halloween dessert table.

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Pumpkin Madeleines

Thomas J. Story
Pumpkin Madeleines Recipe

Make these sweet little cakes throughout the fall. For Halloween, all you need are some edible eyeballs and a bit of black food coloring to turn them into charming pumpkin ghosts. You'll need 2 (12-mold) madeleine pans to make this recipe. Find them at a kitchenware shop or online.

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Trick or Treat Cupcakes

Photo: Becky Luigart-Stayner; Styling: Jan Gautro
Trick or Treat Cupcakes Recipe
This cupcake is the showcase for our Halloween thrills. For the parade of goblins, ghosts, and monsters looking for something sweet, we top it with anything we can find on the candy aisle. There's no trick to this treat—it's scrumptious any time of year.

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Ghost Cookies

Sara Tane
Ghost Cookies Recipe

Prepare for a  sweet scare when these adorable Halloween ghost cookies are all iced, decorated, and ready to party. Super easy and kid-friendly to make, these butter cut-out cookies coated with royal icing are the perfect dessert for your Halloween spread. Candy eyeballs add a playful, whimsical touch to these spooky treats, but you could also use black icing to draw eyes on your ghost cookies. Using a classic cut-out butter cookie dough keeps the edges of your ghost cookies shape neat and clean—no worries about the cookies expanding when they bake. Whip up a batch with the kids and let them go to town with the decorating for a fun Halloween kitchen activity.

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Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies with Brown Butter

Sara Tane
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies with Brown Butter Recipe

Brown butter takes these rich, seasonal pumpkin chocolate chip cookies to the next level, adding a nutty, fragrant flavor that is absolutely perfect for fall. Canned pumpkin puree lends moisture to these fluffy, cake-like treats while warm chocolate chips fill every bite. Make these for a Halloween party or a fall dinner party, and be sure to store any leftovers in an airtight container.

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Skeleton Cupcakes

Photo: Mark Thomas
Skeleton Cupcakes Recipe
Stop the presses! These too-cute cupcakes are a must-bake for your Halloween party. There's room for creativity on these delicious desserts, so make the faces fun or scary--your choice.

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Frankenstein Cookies 

Photo: Darcy Lenz
Frankenstein Cookies  Recipe

Starting with refrigerated, store-bought cookie dough, these cooky Frankenstein cookies are an easy Halloween baking project to whip up this year. That said, packaged cookie dough is made to spread, so if you’d rather your Frankenstein cookies have rectangular or otherwise shaped faces (as opposed to these round-faced cuties), you can use a classic cut-out cookie dough that will better hold its shape.

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Pumpkin Cake

Time Inc. Video Studio
Pumpkin Cake Recipe

For this festive version of a pumpkin cake, we opted for a "spiced pumpkin" box cake mix, but any box mix will do. Adding powdered sugar to the prepared frosting helps make it thicker and less likely to melt off the cake or get too soft and drippy. It's helpful to use piping bags to get a nicel layer of frosting and then blend together on the pumpkin to get green vines and leaves.

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Monster Brownies

E. Spencer Toy
Monster Brownies Recipe

Your little human monsters will love decorating brownies with chocolate, marshmallows, and M&M's to make these sweet treats. For the base, we doubled the recipe for Dark Chocolate Brownies, baking it in a 9- by 13-in. pan and omitting the glaze. Thin, flat chocolate bars work best for the faces.

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Chocolate Ghost Cakes

Photo: Jennifer Davick; Styling: Lisa Powell Bailey, Rose Nguyen
Chocolate Ghost Cakes Recipe
Make super-quick Halloween treats using this 3-ingredient recipe that starts with packaged cream-filled chocolate cakes.
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Pumpkin Coffee Cake with Maple Glaze

Photo: Sara Tane
Pumpkin Coffee Cake with Maple Glaze Recipe

With a rich, gooey pumpkin spice filling, buttery pecan streusel topping, and maple glaze, this fluffy and moist pumpkin coffee cake is sure to impress. Perfect for any occasion, from your next fall brunch to a Halloween party, this coffee cake is easy to make and full of toasty fall flavors.

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