Halloween Recipes

Who doesn't buy extra Halloween candy? This year, use some in these festive icebox bars and throw a party.

Also known as Devils on Horseback, these sinful bacon-wrapped bites are perfect for a Halloween party hors d'oeuvre. With just two ingredients and about five minutes of prep work, they couldn't be easier to prepare either. They're best served warm, so pop them in the oven right before your guests arrive.

For the ultimate chocolate lover, make this rich, dense chocolate cake with an equally intense, chocolatey frosting.

This easy-to-make beverage is sure to please any crowd—it's made with brandy, orange and apple slices, orange juice, club soda, and of course red wine. Choose a dry wine such as a red Zinfandel and make sure to chill the sangria before serving for the ultimate sip.

This flavored whipped cream is a breeze to make, which goes well with our Angel Food Cake. Cook the caramel cream in a saucepan and chill completely before whipping into stiff, delicate peaks.

We used frozen cherries to make a fruit-studded cake that's sweet as can be. Serve it on its own as an afternoon snack or with whipped cream for dessert.

Celebrate harvest season with "ears" of candied popcorn, reminiscent of Indian corn. Unbleached parchment paper from your pantry is all you need for the pretty presentation.

This family-friendly pasta dish made with bow-tie pasta, chicken sausage, mozzarella cheese, and Parmesan is absolutely batty. It comes together it under one hour, so you can get dinner on the table in a flash before trick-or-treating begins.

This rich Hungarian beef stew is a labor of love and well worth the effort. Stew beef, such as chuck, becomes super tender when cooked with plenty of red wine, diced tomatoes, vegetables, and herbs for about two hours. Serve alongside buttery noodles tossed with caraway seeds.

Fit for Dracula himself! Sweet homemade grenadine serves as the "blood" in this inspired Halloween cocktail made with vodka, grapefruit juice, and fresh lime juice.

Serve up a little black magic in the form of a cocktail made with vodka that's as dark as night—with a scoop of ghostly-white vanilla ice cream floating on top. It's rich, chocolatey, and absolutely spook-tacular.

Faced with the usual pile of apple peels after baking a pie, our food editors came up with this clever snack. Toss apple with cinnamon sugar and bake for about two-and-a-half hours until the peels have crisped.

These soft cookies are like mini pumpkin cakes—and you're guaranteed to get a bit of sweet, brown-butter-flecked icing in every bite. A combination of ground cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger flavor the moist pumpkin batter.

Guests will howl for this creative and super-festive punch. Create the glowing moon by freezing orange juice and water in a bowl, then release it and float it in a mixture of concord-grape juice, ginger soda, seltzer, and fresh lime juice. Spike grown-up ghouls' glasses with an ounce (or two) of vodka.

Black vodka provides the spooky color in this grown-up twist on a Shirley Temple, and black-cherry soda gives this drink its classic sweet flavor. Top it off with what else but a maraschino cherry garnish.

Traditional caramel-covered treats are made even better with the toppings suggested by our food editors. A sprinkling of sea salt enhances the buttery flavor of caramel apples. For a prettier presentation, use apple-tree cuttings as sticks.

Topped with chocolate ganache and studded with cherries, this classic cake recipe is irresistible to all creatures, vampire or otherwise.

Just the thing for easy Halloween entertaining! A touch of chiles in adobo adds intrigue to this simple salsa that starts with a can of beans.

Use vegetables that have crossed over to the dark side, from purple carrots and potatoes to red cabbage and black radishes, to make this creepy crudité platter for Halloween.

Practice your magic with these invisible Halloween lollipops. Bring corn syrup, granulated sugar, and water to a boil, then pour into three-inch circles. Press assorted candies such as licorice whips, pepitas (hulled pumpkin seeds), and candy corn into each individal confection.

This one-of-a-kind Halloween recipe is courtesy of viewer Allison DiNatale. Granny Smith apples are peeled, cored, and halved, then receive a spooky carving. They're baked until dehydrated to give them a "shrunken" appearance. Float in large punch bowl with apple cider, lemonade, and spiced rum (if desired).

Innocents are snared easily by a ganache spiderweb. Spun by a gumdrop spider with limber licorice-string legs, the web is draped over a dangerously addictive and creamy no-bake cheesecake. Candy Spiders make a creepy garnish.

Our riff on the popular finger food devils on horseback swaps out the traditional prunes and bacon for dried figs and prosciutto and ups the ante with goat cheese. Cut into hearts, the no-cook appetizer works equally well for Halloween as it does for Valentine's Day.

The usual gin and tonic gets brushed by a peacock's teal plume thanks to blue Curacao, a bitter-orange liqueur, and green Chartreuse, a French herbal liqueur.