The other day I posted on Facebook a photo of some brownie bites adorned with candy pumpkins, which I made for Sophie’s school’s fall carnival bake sale. A few people asked for the recipe and commented on my “baking” skills. I put baking in quotation marks because here’s the secret: it’s more like assembling.
I have a few Halloween treats that I’ve made over the years that are super easy to make, require very little baking (if any), and are always a hit. If you’re looking for last-minute treats for work, school, or just to impress your Facebook friends, here are three of my favorites.
Pumpkin Brownie Bites
Here’s what you need for the Halloween brownie bites: pre-made bite-sized brownies (I find mine at the local grocery store), chocolate buttercream frosting, a large Ziploc bag (or pastry bag if you’re daring), candy pumpkins, and sprinkles.
For the chocolate buttercream frosting, you can either make your own, buy a pre-made jar, or go to a local cake supply store and purchase it. I buy mine from Do It With Icing, a San Diego shop from which you can also place mail orders. I love this frosting! And it tastes so much better than the canned stuff. Once you have the frosting, scoop it into a large Ziploc bag and cut a tip off the corner to pipe onto the brownie bites. Then top with a candy pumpkin and Halloween-colored sprinkles.
When I made these last year, I placed the bites in these orange and white polka dot cups. This year I used mini cupcake liners.
Candy Corn Cupcakes
So these candy corn cupcakes do require baking; but they’re not difficult to make. Here’s what you need: one box of yellow cake mix (and the ingredients to prepare it), orange food coloring, white buttercream frosting, candy corns, and a mini muffin tin.
Spray your mini muffin tin with non-stick spray. I don’t use liners for these because I like being able to see the two color layers. But you can always get white liners if you prefer to go that route.
Prepare the cupcake mix according to the package. Then divide the mixture in half, and add a few drops of orange food coloring to one batch. Place about 1 – 2 Tbsp. of the yellow cake mix in each cup, then add 1 – 2 Tbsp. of orange mix. Don’t worry if it doesn’t look even or pretty; as you can see, they turn out fine.
Bake them according to the package direction; but since they’re mini, they’ll need less time than cupcakes. My rule of thumb is to use a cake tester and pull them out of the oven when it comes out clean.
Once they’ve cooled, grab your white buttercream frosting and pipe the icing on top the same way as the brownies (and see brownie bite recipe above for how to obtain buttercream frosting). That’s how you make a yellow-orange-white candy corn cupcake. Top with a candy corn and you’re done.
Chocolate Cookie Candy Corn Bark
This super-sweet treat is comprised of Halloween Oreos (or in our case, Trader Joe’s Joe Joe cookies), orange or white chocolate melting candies, candy corns, and sprinkles. For the actual step-by-step instructions on how to make this very simple treat, click over to this post I wrote a few years ago. (Wasn’t Sophie little?!)
Here’s how I packaged the bark for the school carnival bake sale. I got the cellophane bags at the cake supply store. That’s Halloween duck tape I used to seal them.
Make one of these treats this week and everyone will be so impressed by your hard work!
Happy Halloween!
Other Posts You May Like:
- Candy Corn Confections
- A Bounty of Pumpkin Desserts
- Farewell October 2013 and Halloween Wrap-up
- Wordless Wednesday: November in Photos (with Halloween 2012 photos)