Wickedly Good Halloween Desserts That Your Ghosts and Goblins Will Want to Devour

Whether you're having a party or just want to have something to offer your kids at the end of a long night, the festive Halloween desserts in this gallery are creepy and clever. What's more, many of them, like the Halloween Cookies that you see here, are surprisingly easy to make. These cookies are made from a simple chocolate dough that gets cut into the shapes of bats and cats—it's the type of dessert you can make during a lull in trick-or-treaters arriving at your front door.

Candy lovers will find plenty of inspiration in the slides ahead. Some of these desserts call for candy as decoration, such as cute cake pops adorned with mini chocolate-coated candies, while others use it in the dessert itself (think: ice cream pie where the ice cream is spiked with chopped up candy bars, or mini cupcakes that include a peanut butter cup baked into the batter). If you need an excuse to stock up on extra candy, these recipes give you just that. You'll also find some inspired-by-candy desserts, like crisped rice cereal treats that resemble giant pieces of candy corn.

Looking for something a bit more refined? Consider preparing a beautiful Halloween cake; our Devil's Inferno Cake cranks up the heat on classic devil's food cake with a rich and melty ganache topping and a four-alarm-fire crown. Another good option is our No-Bake Spiderweb Cheesecake, made with a chocolate cookie crust, rich and delicious cream cheese, and chocolate. And speaking of spiders, they're in abundance here: In addition to the cheesecake, you'll find chocolate cupcakes topped with a sugar glaze and piped chocolate web, and Spider Cookies that are a spooky spin on the classic black-and-white cookie.

There are traditional Halloween treats, too, from caramel corn (this one fancied up with white chocolate and cashews) to candy apples tinted black for a dark twist. And if you're really just looking for a quick way to spook up a familiar dessert, Scaredy Cat Brownies and Werewolf Paws are just the thing: they're just creatively decorated brownies and madeleine cakes.