While Christmas and New Year’s Eve are undoubtedly great, it’s Halloween that arguably gives the best excuse to go all-out and throw a party. From decor to games to costumes, Halloween is always a scream – even though the scariest part of hosting a party is hangry guests! The spookiest night of the year is always a fun opportunity to theme everything, including food and drinks – but have no fear, we’ve got plenty of ideas for spellbinding (and easy) Halloween party food platters and Halloween snacks.
Add a few Halloween movies in the background, a pumpkin carving station out the front, and some lollies at the ready for the trick-or-treaters – then get ready to party!
Halloween snacks
Frightening fruit: Fruit-lovers will appreciate carved ‘jack o’pineapple’ or a ‘jack o’melon’ instead of a carved pumpkin – perfect for a spring southern hemisphere Halloween!
Fruit spooks: There are plenty more ways to transform fruit into Halloween treats to delight your guests. Cut bananas in half and press some chocolate chips on for eyes and a mouth to make banana ghosts... or if you’re feeling wicked, dip them in melted white chocolate first. You can also dip strawberries in white chocolate leaving a little trail for a ghost ‘tail’, then give them chocolate chip eyes and a mouth for the cutest ghosts around. You can also make mini edible pumpkins by peeling oranges or mandarins and putting a little piece of celery in the top for the stem.
Pumpkin crudites: Take baby carrots or carrot sticks and arrange them in a round shape like a pumpkin, leaving space where the eyes should be for your (ideally triangular) little dishes of dips like hummus or guacamole. For the top stem garnish, you could use some lettuce, spinach,or parsley.
Mummified snacks: Buy or make garlic bread using baguettes cut lengthways, then before baking, lay strips of string cheese on top to ‘mummify’ it, along with olive slices for eyes. Create another delicious ‘mummified’ dish by wrapping strips of puff pastry around a baked brie before putting it in the oven.
Stuffed capsicum jack-o-lanterns: Orange or yellow capsicums can be carved into mini jack-o-lanterns! Cut off the tops, and cut in little eyes and a mouth. Stuff with a mixture of cooked mince, veggies and spices (or replace mince with beans or lentils for some vegetarian versions), pop the tops back on and bake.
Pumpkin devilled eggs: These don’t actually contain pumpkin, they just look like them! Use paprika in the yolk mixture to give it some orange vibrancy, then a sprig of chive to represent the stalk for a cute devilish treat everyone will love.
Monster pizza bites: Bake some pizza bites in the oven — these are perfect for a roaming Halloween party platter. To give them a Halloween touch, use a pesto base for a green colour, sprinkle on some cheese and place black olive slices on top for eyes.
Meringue ghosts: If you’re game you can make these from scratch, but bought meringues work perfectly. Just add eyes and a mouth using a tiny paintbrush dipped in hot chocolate!
Spider doughnuts: Break apart pretzels and push the curved part into the sides of chocolate doughnuts to make spider legs, adding white chocolate chips for eyes.
Halloween bark: Melt white chocolate and add orange food colouring. Spread it on a tray and decorate with licorice allsorts, licorice bullets, dark chocolate shavings and popping candy.
Spooky gingerbread: Decorate gingerbread men with skeletons using white icing, give them Dracula fangs, turn them into monsters – let your imagination run wild!
Candied apples: For a twist on the traditional candied apple, serve ‘poison’ apples with all-black toffee instead of caramel (hint: use a combination of red, blue and green food colouring to achieve black).
Candy corn cupcakes: Make candy corn themed cupcakes using orange and yellow batter. Then, top with cream cheese frosting and candy corn pieces.
Halloween drinks
Bloody Marys: serve them on a tray of ice in individual syringe shooters, if you dare.
Black magic margaritas: Mix up tequila, triple sec and lime, plus a couple of drops of red, blue and green food colouring to turn it black. Don’t forget the salt rim – colour it red for extra drama by adding a couple of drops of the red colouring to salt and mixing it around in a ziploc bag.
Dragon’s punch: What’s a party without a punch bowl (or cauldron)? To tie in Halloween flavours and spices, make a spiced-pomegranate punch with rum — or easily make it non-alcoholic. The blood-red color will be right on theme.
Halloween catering
Halloween catering doesn’t have to be tricky! Whenever you’re the host of the party, it can feel as though you’re spending more time sorting out the food and drinks than mingling with your guests and relaxing. But as experienced caterers ourselves, we understand how time-consuming event planning can be and with a costume to sort, invites to send and decor to source, you probably don’t have time to worry about how you’re going to organise the perfect spooky spread for your office or your family at home.
So whether you’re planning a celebration with clients and colleagues, a fun Halloween feast for family or a knees-up with friends, we have a range of Halloween catering options both savoury and sweet for a fang-tastic experience.
Ordering catering for your Halloween party is both a trick and a treat! Get in touch now to discuss how we can help.