Have a ghoulish Halloween with the kids! Annabel Karmel has come up with these terrifying treats to scare even the bravest party guest

Mini pumpkin cakes
If you are making these for adults it's really nice to add some alcohol, such as Grand Marnier or brandy, to the mixture

Makes 12 mini pumpkin cakes

75g / 2 1/2 oz unsalted butter
100g / 3 1/2 oz plain chocolate
60g / 2 oz raisins, cut in half
1 tsp orange zest (optional)
1 300g / 10 1/2 oz ready-made ginger cake
2 500g / 1lb 1 1/2 oz packs Supercook Ready-to-Roll Icing, which contains black, green, red and yellow icing. You can mix together the red and yellow icing to make orange.
1 tube black Writing Icing

Melt the butter and chocolate either over a pan of simmering water or in a microwave. Stir in the halved raisins and orange zest if using and then crumble in the cake. Mix well and leave to cool slightly.

Roll into 12 individual balls and flatten them slightly into the shape of a pumpkin. Place in the fridge for at least one hour until firm.

Mix together the red and yellow icing to make orange and divide into 12 balls. Using a rolling pin, roll into circles on a clean work surface sprinkled with cornflour. Mould the orange icing around each of the gingerbread balls to cover completely and draw lines on the icing with a blunt knife to look like pumpkins. Make stalks from the green icing, and dampen with a little water to stick these onto the mini pumpkin cakes. Roll out the black icing and cut out triangles for the eyes and noses. Draw zigzag mouths using the black writing icing or use some of the black icing to make a mouth.

Ghoulish ghost cakes
Dariole moulds are the ideal shape for these spooky little cakes but you can cheat and use a mini chocolate Swiss roll under the white icing!

Makes 12 ghoulish ghost cakes

175g / 6 oz butter
175g / 6 oz caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
3 eggs
175g / 6 oz self-raising flour
900g / 2 lb ready-to-roll white icing
pink food colouring
tube of black writing icing

Beat together the caster sugar, butter and vanilla essence until light and fluffy. Add one egg at a time with a tablespoon of flour for each egg. Beat well, then fold in the remaining flour.

Spoon into 12 greased and floured dariole moulds, place on a baking tray and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180C / 350F / Gas mark 4 for 20 minutes (160C for fan oven). Remove from the oven and leave to cool. Cut the top of the cakes off to form a flat surface and then turn out on to a board or plate. Leave until completely cold.

Colour 75g / 2 1/2 oz of the icing pink using the food colouring. Roll out the remaining white icing on a surface dusted with cornflour and cut out 12 15cm / 6 inch circles (you can use a saucer as a guide). Drape these over the sponge cakes to form ghost figures. Cut out oval shapes from the pink icing (you can use a squashed piping nozzle for this) and dampen the pink icing shapes with a little water to attach them to the ghost. Use a blob of black Writing Icing for the pupils and draw a zigzag for the ghost's mouth.

Pumpkin oranges
These are like mini versions of a carved pumpkin. You could add some fruit to the jelly. Mandarin oranges or chopped tinned peaches are good

Suitable from one year
Preparation time 50 minutes

Makes 6 portions
6 large oranges
2 135g packets of jelly

Prepare the jelly according to the packet instructions and put in the fridge to set. Cut a slice from the stalk end of each orange.

Cut out eyes, nose and mouth shape from the orange using a sharp pointed knife.

Hollow out the oranges using a small sharp knife and spoon so that you are left with just a shell. Fill with chopped jelly.

Spider and bat cakes
It's easy to turn ordinary fairy cakes into fabulous Halloween treats. Children will love to help you make these cakes

Suitable from one year
Makes 12 fairy cakes

Fairy Cakes
100g (4 oz) soft margarine
100g (4 oz) caster sugar
2 eggs
100g (4 oz) self-raising flour
(substitute 2tbsp cocoa powder for 2 tbsp of the flour for chocolate fairy cakes)
1 tsp pure vanilla essence

Spider Cakes
100g / 4 oz milk chocolate
Liquorice laces
12 chocolate marshmallow teacakes
Liquorice Allsorts
Mini M&M's or mini coloured candy cake decorations
Coloured writing icing tubes (available in supermarkets)

Bat Cakes
100g (4 oz) softened butter
175g (6 oz) icing sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp milk
1 tube black writing icing
Black Liquorice Allsorts
Edible silver balls

To make the fairy cakes
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 (Fan oven 160C).

Cream the margarine and sugar together until light and fluffy and then beat in the eggs one at a time together with 1 tablespoon of the flour. Add the vanilla and fold in the remaining flour.

Line a bun tin with 12 paper cases, and fill each case about two-thirds full with the mixture.

Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes. Remove and put on a wire rack to cool before decorating.

To make the spider cakes
Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water.

Using a palette knife, cover each cake with some of the melted chocolate. Arrange eight liquorice strips for the spider's legs and stick a teacake in the centre.

Finish with sliced Liquorice Allsorts and mini-coloured candy as eyes. You can stick the candy on to the Liquorice Allsorts using a small blob of writing icing.

To make the bat cakes
To make the chocolate frosting, beat the butter until creamy. Sieve together the icing sugar and cocoa and gradually beat into the butter, together with the milk, using a wooden spoon.

When the cakes have cooled, cut off the tops of the cakes and cut into three sections. Use the two curved ends to make the wings (reserve the middle section). Draw a V with black writing icing on the wings.

Spread a thick layer of chocolate frosting over the surface of the cake, position the wings so that they stand up: you will need to cut small squares of cake from the middle section to position under the wings to prop them up.

Stick edible silver balls on top of black liquorice sweets for the bat's eyes.

Note: You could make six of each cake by simply substituting 1 tbsp cocoa powder for 1 tbsp flour for half of the mixture.

Hot potato witches
This is a fun way to jolly up a baked potato! If you like, you can remove the flesh of the potato leaving the skin intact, then mash the potato together with some butter, milk and seasoning and maybe a little grated Cheddar cheese and stuff it back inside the potato

Makes 2 portions
2 medium round baking potatoes
A little vegetable oil
1 sheet of black paper
1 small bunch of chives
2 stuffed olives
2 baby carrots
1 strip of red pepper
Cream cheese for 'glue'

Wash and dry the potatoes, prick all over with a fork and brush with oil. Bake in an oven preheated to 200C/400F for between 1 hour and 1 hour 15 minutes, until tender (alternatively, cook in a microwave/grill combination for about 15 minutes, turning halfway through).

Make little witches' hats by cutting circles from the black paper, cutting a slit halfway through and rolling into a cone, then secure with some sticky tape. Place the chives in the microwave for about 8 to 10 seconds - this will make them more pliable and you will be able to stick them on top of the potato to make the witches' green hair.

Decorate the potatoes to look like witches' faces with slices of stuffed olives for the eyes, the tip of a baby carrot for a nose and a strip of red pepper for the mouth. These can be attached to the potato with a dab of cream cheese. Place the black hats on the witches' heads.

Broomsticks

These look very authentic. To make it easier to tie the chives or strips of spring onion, it's a good idea to heat them for about 10 seconds in the microwave to make them more pliable

1 packet mini Twiglets
6 twisted cheese straws
6 chives or strips of spring onion

To assemble the broomsticks, Tie four Twiglets on to the end of each cheese straw using a knotted chive or strip of spring onion.

Dead man's fingers
These ghoulish sandwiches look terrific!

WARNING: This recipe contains nuts
Suitable from 2 years

Thin sliced white bread, crusts removed
Soft margarine
Cream cheese
Almonds
Tomato ketchup

Gently flatten the slices of bread with a rolling pin to make them more pliable. Spread with a little margarine and some cream cheese.

Roll up the sandwiches and make three indentations with a blunt knife to form the finger joints.

Trim the ends of the fingers into a 'V' shape and stick an almond on to each tip with a little cream cheese to form the nails.

Now for the gruesome bit - squirt some tomato ketchup over the end of the fingers for the blood!

Gruesome sausages
A fun way to present sausages for Halloween

6 sausages
a little mild mustard
1 red pepper, cut into fingernail size pieces
1 squash
cocktail sticks

Cook the sausages and cut them in half lengthways. With a knife cut three slits to mirror the knuckles on your fingers.

To make the fingernails, cut a small sliver off the top of each sausage, near the first knuckle joint. Spread with a little mild mustard and attach a piece of red pepper.

Decorate the squash by drawing a face using a black marker pen. Spear the sausages with cocktail sticks and stick them into the squash.

Skull-shaped pizzas
It's easy to cut bought pizza bases into grisly looking skull shapes. They look scary but they taste delicious

Makes four skull pizzas
2 150g / 5 oz ready-made pizza bases
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato puree
salt and pepper
1/2 tsp mixed dried herbs
150g / 5 oz mozzarella, grated

Decoration
8 pitted black olives

Heat the olive oil in a small saucepan and saute the onion for five to six minutes. Blitz the tomatoes to a fine puree with a hand blender. Pour into the saucepan with the onions and add the tomato puree, salt and pepper and mixed dried herbs and cook for approximately eight minutes until the mixture is thick enough to spread.

Preheat the oven to 200C / 400F / Gas mark 6. Cut four skull shapes out of the pizza bases and place on a baking sheet. Spread the tomato sauce over the surface of each pizza base and sprinkle with the grated cheese. Decorate with black olives to make a scary skull face. Cook for about 10 minutes.

Green slime lemonade
This ghoulishly green drink will go down marvellously well with thirsty trick-or-treaters

Lemonade
Edible green food colouring
Jelly snakes

Add a few drops of edible green food colouring to lemonade or make green ice-cubes by filling an ice-cube tray with green coloured water and watch the cubes dissolve into the lemonade. You can decorate the glass with a slippery edible gummy snake hanging over the side.

All recipes from Annabel Karmel's Complete Party Planner, Ebury Press £12.99

Find more recipes at www.annabelkarmel.com Recipes and ideas from Annabel Karmel's Complete Party Planner published by Ebury Press #12.99.