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Halloween food for children does not need to be complicated or scary-looking to feel special. A few orange things, something to dip, something warm, and one treat they helped make is plenty. Here is everything on this site that fits, sorted by the kind of evening you are planning.
Sweet treats
- Halloween cupcakes: chocolate sponge with orange and chocolate buttercream. The sponges can be made days ahead.
- Toffee apples: glassy, crackly and traditional for Halloween and Bonfire Night. The hot sugar is strictly a grown-up job.
- Caramel apples: softer and chewier, rolled in nuts or sprinkles. Make them on the day.
- Pumpkin chocolate chip bread: slices neatly for a party plate and freezes well.
- Apple muffins: a gentler option alongside the sugary ones.
Savoury party food
- Sausage rolls: the first thing to disappear at any party. Freeze them unbaked and bake on the night.
- Pumpkin soup: in a flask for trick-or-treating on a cold night.
- Homemade pizza: let children make faces on their own with toppings.
- Cheesy bean quesadillas: quick, filling, and easy to cut into wedges.
For a film night in
- Stovetop popcorn: five minutes and a fraction of the price of microwave bags.
- Roasted pumpkin seeds: the free snack inside your carved pumpkin.
- Real hot chocolate: made with actual chocolate.
Five-minute ideas that need no recipe
- Clementine pumpkins: peel clementines and push a small piece of celery into the top as a stalk.
- Banana ghosts: halve bananas across the middle, stand them cut side down and add two chocolate chips for eyes.
- Monster mouths: apple slices with a thin spread of peanut butter or soft cheese, sandwiching a line of raisins as teeth. Check for nut allergies, and slice apple thinly for younger children.
- Orange and black platter: carrot sticks, orange pepper, cheddar cubes and black olives around a bowl of hummus.
What to make ahead
- Up to 3 months before: freeze the sausage rolls unbaked, and the muffins, pumpkin bread and cupcake sponges.
- The day before: make the pumpkin soup and the buttercream, and roast the pumpkin seeds.
- On the day: ice the cupcakes, bake the sausage rolls, and make toffee or caramel apples, which do not keep.
Keeping it safe for little ones
Many classic Halloween foods are choking hazards for young children. The American Academy of Pediatrics lists popcorn, nuts and seeds, hard, gooey or sticky sweets, whole grapes, marshmallows and sausages among the foods to avoid or modify (AAP choking prevention). At a party with toddlers:
- cut grapes lengthways into quarters, and sausages and sausage rolls into small pieces
- keep popcorn, pumpkin seeds, nuts and hard sweets out of reach
- take plastic decorations off cakes before serving
- ask about allergies in advance, and label anything containing nuts
After trick-or-treating, it is worth sorting sweets before they are eaten: set aside anything unwrapped, and hard sweets for younger children. The NHS explains how to help a child who is choking, and it is worth reading before any party.
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