Cute Halloween Treats: Easy Halloween Desserts

Halloween is always a great holiday to bake for because you can take just about any dessert and make it more fun with a little frosting, candy and a few eyeball sprinkles.

You don’t have to make anything particularly scary, either. I tend to lean toward the cute side of Halloween. Including things like pink and orange monsters, happy little ghosts, black cats, mummies, spider webs and lots of colorful candy.

Over the years, I’ve made everything from decorated Halloween sugar cookies and mini pie cookies to monster Rice Krispie treats, cupcakes and over-the-top Halloween cakes. I gathered some of my favorites here if you’re looking for cute Halloween treats for a party, classroom celebration, dessert table or just a fun October baking project.

Most of these ideas start with recipes you can use again and again. The Halloween part comes down to how you decorate them!

Halloween Sugar Cookies

Decorated sugar cookies are probably one of the easiest desserts to change for every holiday, and Halloween might have the cutest cookie cutter options.

For these Halloween sugar cookies, I used my sugar cookie recipe and cut the dough into all kinds of Halloween shapes, including black cats, ghosts, wrapped candy, pumpkins and BOO cookies.

I also made a pumpkin candy bin cookie, which is such a fun way to add some nostalgia to a Halloween dessert platter.

Use whatever Halloween cookie cutters you already have and choose a color palette before you start decorating. Sticking with just a handful of colors helps all of the different shapes look like they belong together.

These are perfect for Halloween parties, cookie decorating days with the kids or packaging individually as party favors.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie Cookies with Cream Cheese Glaze

If you want something that tastes a little more like fall, these Pumpkin Pie Cookies are such a fun option.

They’re basically miniature pumpkin pies you can pick up and eat with your hands, finished with a cream cheese glaze on top.

I love these for Halloween because they’re festive without needing a ton of decorating. Add them to a platter with the brighter Halloween treats and they bring in all of those cozy pumpkin flavors everyone wants this time of year.

They’d also work well for a fall party or Thanksgiving, so this is one recipe you can keep making long after Halloween is over.

Punny Apple Berry Pie Cookies

These might be one of my favorite ways to turn a fall recipe into a Halloween treat.

My Apple Berry Pie Cookies are little handheld pies filled with apple and berry filling. For Halloween, I cut punny phrases and Halloween-inspired words into the tops of the mini pies before baking. These are the letter cutters I’ve used for years.

The little cutouts make a regular pie cookie instantly feel festive without requiring frosting or complicated decorating.

They’re such a cute addition to a Halloween party and especially fun mixed in with decorated cookies and other bite-sized desserts.

Monster Rice Krispie Treats

These Halloween Monster Rice Krispie Treats are so easy to make and would be a great project to do with kids.

Start with rectangles of homemade Rice Krispie treats and dip them in pink or orange candy coating. Before the coating sets, add eyeball sprinkles and chocolate jimmies along the top for monster hair.

The best part is that none of the monsters need to match. Give one a single eye, another three eyes, change the placement of the sprinkles and make every treat a little different.

They look so cute lined up together on a Halloween dessert table.

Mummy Peanut Butter Cracker Cookies

Peanut butter cracker cookies are one of those simple treats that are ridiculously easy to turn into something festive.

For the first version, I dipped the peanut butter cracker sandwiches in white chocolate and piped additional white chocolate across the tops to make little mummy bandages.

Add candy eyes before the chocolate sets and suddenly you have the cutest little mummy cookies.

These are great if you want a Halloween treat that doesn’t require actually baking anything.

Spider Web Peanut Butter Cracker Cookies

Using the same peanut butter cracker cookie recipe, I made a second version dipped in milk chocolate.

Instead of mummy bandages, pipe little spider webs over the chocolate coating.

Put both versions on the same platter and you have two completely different Halloween desserts from one simple recipe.

I love little shortcuts like this when you’re making a whole dessert table. Not every treat needs to be an entirely different recipe.

halloween chocolate cake

Sometimes Halloween calls for an over-the-top cake.

For this one, I started with a large chocolate layer cake and decorated the outside with black and white stripes. Then I added a bright orange ganache drip around the top.

But the decorations on top are what really make this cake.

I piled on Halloween sugar cookies on sticks, candies, a cake pop, a mini cupcake and pieces of Rice Krispie treatsto create an overflowing Halloween dessert cake.

This is such a fun centerpiece for a Halloween party because you can incorporate treats you’re already making for the rest of the dessert table.

There’s really no perfect way to arrange everything. Start with your tallest decorations, then continue filling in the gaps with smaller treats and candy until the cake feels finished.

More is definitely more with this one.

Halloween Candy Icon Cake

If you want something a little simpler, an icon cake is such a cute Halloween cake decorating idea.

This version starts with vanilla cake and vanilla buttercream. Instead of adding a bunch of decorations on top, I piped little Halloween candy-inspired designs around the outside of the cake.

It still feels festive and playful but has a completely different look from the over-the-top chocolate cake.

You could use this same idea with your own favorite Halloween candy, ghosts, pumpkins, bats or whatever little Halloween icons you know how to pipe.

Orange Pumpkin Ghost Cake

For another Halloween icon cake, I started with pumpkin cake and covered it in vanilla buttercream tinted orange.

Then I piped little white ghosts around the outside.

I love the orange and white color combination because it’s obviously Halloween without needing black frosting everywhere. And the pumpkin cake underneath makes it feel even more appropriate for October.

This would be such a cute Halloween birthday cake or centerpiece for a smaller Halloween party.

How to Put Together a Halloween Dessert Table

If you’re making several of these treats for one party, you definitely don’t need to make every single recipe.

I’d choose one statement cake, two or three smaller desserts and cupcakes or cookies to fill everything in.

Use cake stands and platters at different heights to give the table some dimension. Put the large Halloween cake toward the back, then arrange smaller plates of sugar cookies, pie cookies, Rice Krispie treats and peanut butter cracker cookies around it.

And don’t worry about making every dessert the exact same color.

I actually love mixing the traditional orange, black and white Halloween colors with unexpected touches of pink, chocolate brown and colorful candy. As long as a few colors repeat throughout the table, everything will still feel coordinated.

Easy Halloween Treats for Kids

If you’re looking specifically for something to make with kids, I’d start with the Monster Rice Krispie Treats or peanut butter cracker cookies.

Both are forgiving because they’re supposed to look a little silly.

Let the kids decide how many eyes each monster gets or pipe their own mummy bandages. They’re going to look cute even if they aren’t perfect, which is exactly the kind of Halloween baking project I like.

Decorated sugar cookies are another fun option if you already have the cookies baked and ready to go.

Make Your Favorite Recipes Halloween-Themed

One thing I hope you take away from this list is that you don’t necessarily need an entirely new recipe every time you want to make a holiday dessert.

A favorite chocolate cake becomes a Halloween cake with orange ganache and Halloween treats piled on top.

Your regular sugar cookie recipe becomes Halloween cookies with different cutters.

Rice Krispie treats become monsters with colorful chocolate, sprinkles and candy eyes.

And a simple peanut butter cracker cookie can become either a mummy or a spider web cookie depending on how you decorate it.

Start with recipes you already know you love and change the decorations.

It makes holiday baking so much easier.

Whether you’re planning a big Halloween party or just want to make something fun during October, there are plenty of ideas here to choose from.

Make black cat and ghost sugar cookies for a decorating day, monster Rice Krispie treats with the kids, pumpkin pie cookies for something cozy, or go all out with an over-the-top Halloween cake.

Or pick a few favorites and build an entire Halloween dessert table.

Because if there’s ever a holiday where you’re allowed to put a cupcake, cookie, cake pop, Rice Krispie treat and candy on top of a cake, Halloween is probably it.

If you make any of these Halloween desserts, let me know how it went!

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