Halloween parties are difficult to coordinate because everyone is competing to make sure they throw the best party around. We all know that food is one of the incentives to encourage people to stay for the party, so instead of pulling out fancy equipment or purchasing expensive treats that would leave students more in debt than they already are, here are some quick food hacks and ideas that’ll spice up a party and be easy on the wallet.
1. Sugar Cookie Hack
Image courtesy of Sarcastic Cooking
Everyone loves making sugar cookies, but it gets a tad expensive buying all those cookie cutter molds and having them pile up in the closet never to be used again until the next holiday. Instead, roll out your cookie dough and mold it in plastic wrap or wax paper. Whether you want it in a perfect circle or a specific shape, use a cut-out stencil (from online or of your own design) and mold your roll to the shape. Place the roll in the freezer and done! You have sugar cookie dough ready to be sliced and baked in the mold you want.
2. Ghost S’mores
Image courtesy of Scary Godmother Wiki
S’mores aren’t only for the Christmas season! They are a wonderful treat that you can easily put into your microwave. You will need the standard s’more ingredients: graham crackers, HERSHEY’S (or any other brand) chocolate bar, marshmallows, and the special ingredient: chocolate chips. On a microwavable plate, place your graham cracker, piece of chocolate bar, and marshmallow, in that order. Then, place two chocolate chips as eyes in the marshmallow. An optional decoration is to microwave some chocolate chips with butter and pipe a spooky smile on the marshmallow. Place your ghost s’more into the microwave for one to two minutes and watch your ghost get bigger! Once your s’more is done, your ghost is an ooey-gooey, spooky treat that’s hot and ready to eat!
3. Witch Cookies
Image courtesy of Children’s Museum of Alamance County
These chocolatey witch hats will be so simple, it’s frightening! As cheesy as that sounds, this snack is an easy-to-assemble dessert that will add more Halloween spirit to the food table. The things you will need are: Fudge Stripe cookies, HERSHEY’S Kisses, vanilla icing, and orange food coloring. Flip the Fudge Stripe cookie with the chocolate side up. Mix your vanilla icing with orange food coloring until it’s to your desired color, place the orange icing into a Ziploc bag, and pipe a circle around the hole of the Fudge Stripe cookie. Unwrap a HERSHEY’S Kiss and gently push the Kiss onto the icing. Voilá, the witch cookies are complete and ready to eat!
4. Pudding Gravestones
Image courtesy of Flour On My Face
You don’t have to dig up some graves to find these delicious cups of goodness. The ingredients you’ll need are: chocolate pudding cups, Oreos, Nutter Butters, chocolate chips, butter, and sprinkles. Microwave the chocolate chips and butter together until melted. Put the melted chocolate into a Ziploc bag, cut a corner, pipe the melted chocolate onto the Nutter Butter cookie, and your gravestone is complete! Grab some Oreos, place them into another Ziploc bag, and crush them. Open up a pudding cup, insert your Nutter Butter gravestone, and sprinkle your crushed Oreo dirt into the pudding cup. Ta da! Sprinkle your sprinkles and you’re done! Create multiple pudding gravestones to make a delicious graveyard. The only thing coming back to life is the party!
5. Candy Corn Jell-O’s
Image courtesy of Lil’ Luna
This is a fancier dessert, but it can be simply assembled and cheap to buy. All you’ll need are: clear plastic cups, yellow and orange Jell-O mixes, whipped cream, and your favorite sprinkles. Make the yellow and orange Jell-O mixes individually, according to the packages. Once you finish cooking the Jell-O, spoon in the yellow Jell-O mix into your clear cups about ⅓ of the way. Refrigerate your Jell-O cups and once the Jell-O solidifies, spoon in your orange Jell-O mix another ⅓, and repeat the process. Once all the Jell-O is solidified, spray whipped cream into the final ⅓, add sprinkles, and you’ve made a candy corn Jell-O cup!
6. Ghost Lollipops
Image courtesy of One Little Project
The ultimate cheap and delicious decoration are these ghost lollipops. All you need are: lollipops, tissues, string, and a marker. Wrap a lollipop in a tissue and tie string around the “neck” into a cute bow. With your marker, you can make the eyes or any faces you want on your lollipop, and boo! Ghost lollipops have appeared to boost your Halloween spirit!
7. “Orange” Jack-O-Lantern Cupcakes
Image courtesy of Nialee’s DIY
Here is an easy cupcake treat that doesn’t require you to buy cupcake wrappers! The supplies you need are: oranges, cake mix (or your favorite cupcake recipe), aluminum foil, a Sharpie, whipped cream, and sprinkles! Make your cake mix according to the package or your favorite cupcake recipe, and place the mix to the side. Cut off the top of the orange and carve out the insides (be careful not to break the skin, you’ll need it!). Wrap your foil around your carved-out oranges and spoon your mix into the oranges. Bake them according to your recipe. Once they’re done baking, unwrap the foil and let them cool. They may have shrunk, but that’s okay! It’s time to design your Jack-O-Lantern by using your Sharpie and making any Jack-O-Lantern face you want. After you finish drawing your spooky Jack-O-Lantern, top off your cupcake with whipped cream and sprinkles. You’re done and ready to eat some awesome Jack-O-Lantern cupcakes with a little zest!
There are many more food ideas you can find through the Internet, but here’s a few to get you started. As college students, we want to be as frugal as possible, even when we want to celebrate. Let us know how these spooky treats turn out for you and tweet us a picture @HerCampusDrexel!