The best Halloween food for throwing a fangtastic family celebration

As Halloween trick or treating was on pause last year, many families are still thinking about how they can get celebrate this spooky event while keeping Covid-safe over half term. Here at What's The Best, we've found the best Halloween food for throwing a fangtastic family event.

Related: The best Halloween sweets for a Covid-safe celebration

While official advice recommends regular testing and letting fresh air in if you meet indoors and wearing a face covering in crowded places, it doesn't cover guidelines for the day itself.

That said, there's still plenty of ways that you can make it special for your kids. Whether it's filling your home with the best Halloween decorations or hosting fun family games like bobbing for apples or pin the face on the pumpkin, there's lots of fun to be had.

Haribo Trick & Treat Pumpkin Cupcakes

Do your mini monsters love to bake? Get them excited to create these spooky pumpkin cupcakes from Haribo. This recipe is perfect for creating six bootiful desserts.

Cupcake ingredients:

60g butter

70g caster sugar

100g pumpkin puree

1 egg

110g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

Pinch of salt

1 tub readymade buttercream icing

Or

180g butter, soft

240g icing sugar

Orange food colouring

5 HARIBO Chamallows

3 packs HARIBO treat or trick

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200_C/180_C fan.

Start with making the cupcakes. In a standing mixer, using a paddle attachment, beat together the butter with sugar until pale and the sugar has dissolved completely.

Add the pumpkin puree and beat for another 10 seconds.

Add the egg and mix again.

Combine the flour with the baking soda and baking powder and a pinch of salt in a separate bowl. Mixing on a low speed, gradually add the dry ingredients to the batter.

Line a muffin tray with six cupcake cases and fill with the batter (each case should be filled to ¾). Bake for 20 minutes.

While you're waiting for your cupcakes to bake, you can make your buttercream by sieving the icing sugar. Beat the butter using an electric hand or standing mixer and add the icing sugar gradually.

Add the colouring to the buttercream and mix well with a spatula. Transfer to a piping bag with a star nozzle.

When the cupcakes have cooled pipe the buttercream over and add a few Haribo sweets on top.

Add the marshmallows to a bowl and melt in a microwave for 15-20 seconds. Leave for two minutes to cool slightly. Then add for decoration.

The best Halloween food

You don’t have to wait until witching hour to come up with supernatural food theme this year. If you’re looking for inspiration on what your family can tuck into, we've been trying out some of the best Halloween themed food available. And, they’re not all sweets!

After spending weeks trying out everything from hot chilli pumpkin hummus to orange dark chocolate, we’ve realised that sugar, spice and all things nice are what should appear on your shopping list to make your Halloween truly terrifying.

Here are all the best last minute supplies to buy to make sure you have a dead-good time.

What to read next:

The best gifts for bakers

The best coffee machines to use at home: machines, savings and deals

Christmas dinner essentials: A guide on what to add to your shopping list today

Lily Anderson is a Senior Commercial Content Writer at Bauer Media, where she tests products for titles such as Heat, Closer, What’s the Best and Mother&Baby.

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