For a Halloween dessert table, many people automatically go the horror route with bloody cupcakes, skeleton frosting, and fake spiders in pudding
But when the two big themes of pumpkin and ghost are made cute, they win hearts better than the horror route, especially when a circle of kids sits at the table or there are adults who do not like scary movies. Seeing a plate of round little pumpkins and plump white ghosts, they first say wow, then ask if they can eat them, and finally say they cannot bear to
The designs below can all be made with everyday ingredients and frosting. They are not scary and they all taste great. One set for pumpkins and one set for ghosts, so pick based on what you have on hand
Pumpkin design: round plus orange plus a green stem
Three key elements of a pumpkin design are a round silhouette, an orange body, and a little green stem on top. With these three, any dessert can become a pumpkin
Tangerine pumpkin
This is the easiest one. Pick an easy-peel tangerine, peel it, and gently pinch a few pumpkin ridge lines into the peel with your fingers. Then take a small cucumber stick or a small celery stalk and stick it on top as the pumpkin stem. A mini pumpkin is done with no processing, no oven, just peel, pinch ridges, and add a stem
Pumpkin pudding cup
Put a scoop of chocolate pudding in the cup, or any pudding you like, and sprinkle crushed cookie crumbs on top as dirt. Place a pumpkin-shaped candy or a pumpkin-shaped cookie on top, then insert a small mint leaf or a little leaf piped with green frosting as the stem
A layer of dirt and a little pumpkin make it look like a dessert cup just dug up from a pumpkin patch. Kids scoop away the dirt and find pudding underneath, and the discovery itself is the fun
Pumpkin cupcake
Bake the cupcakes, let them cool, and spread orange frosting on top, made by mixing white frosting with red and yellow food coloring to get pumpkin orange. Pipe a small green leaf on top or squeeze a small green dot as the stem
Or even easier, place chocolate beans on the orange frosting for two eyes and draw a smiling mouth to turn it into a pumpkin smiley face. A smiling little pumpkin cupcake is more charming than any bloody design
Ghost design: white plus round plus a pair of black eyes
Three key elements of a ghost design are a white body, a round silhouette, and one pair, or two, of black eyes. With these three, any white dessert can become a little ghost
Banana ghost
This is the most classic and simplest one. Take a ripe banana, peel it, and cut it in half crosswise. Each half is a plump white little ghost body
Press two chocolate beans or two blueberries into the ghost face as eyes. Use black sesame seeds to make a little mouth, either a dot or a curved line. Served this way, it is a little ghost smiling at you
Marshmallow ghost
In a cup of hot cocoa or milk, stick two or three white marshmallows on the rim. Round and white, they look like a bunch of little spooks peeking out of the cup
To add eyes, dip a toothpick in a little melted chocolate and dot two small black points on the marshmallows. Lined up along the rim, they make kids laugh at first sight
Boiled Egg Ghost
A peeled boiled egg is naturally a white body. Use black sesame seeds or chocolate sauce to dot two eyes, then draw a smiling mouth. With its smooth white egg white and an expression, it becomes a quiet, well-behaved little ghost egg
The benefit of this look is that eggs are already a common breakfast item for kids; with an expression, the breakfast egg becomes a Halloween egg, and kids will be willing to eat one more
Ghost Cupcake
After the cupcakes are baked and cooled, spread a layer of white frosting. Use chocolate chips to dot two eyes, then draw a smiling mouth with dark frosting (or chocolate sauce)
The white frosting is the ghost's body, and two eyes plus a smiling mouth make an innocent little face. To make it more dimensional, use a piping bag to squeeze a few fluffy peaks on the frosting surface, giving the ghost a floating curve
General tips: eyes are the soul, and the expression should smile
These tricks work for both pumpkins and ghosts:
Blueberries, chocolate chips, candy eyes, or black sesame seeds all work for the eyes. Two eyes that are slightly crooked and slightly uneven in size are far cuter than two perfectly straight pupils — crooked eyes are what give it a living feel
Always draw a smiling face, never fangs. A smile is the dividing line between cute and scary. You can make the ghost open its eyes wide, but be sure to add a curved smiling mouth
Frosting makes the design three-dimensional. Orange frosting creates pumpkins, white frosting creates ghosts, and green frosting draws the stem and leaves. Frosting squeezed from a piping bag is far more dimensional than smoothed frosting and looks more like a real design
Plating: let them live on the plate
Putting pumpkins and ghosts together creates a little scene. On a dark plate, line up the pumpkins in a row, circle the ghosts around them, and sprinkle some crushed cookie crumbs as the ground
For more atmosphere, stick a few pretzel sticks in as a fence, or place two candy eyes as floating ghost fire. Carry it to the dessert table, and this plate becomes the center of attention
One Last Thing
A Halloween dessert table doesn't have to use horror to make a memorable impression. Making pumpkins and ghosts into cute designs can make the whole room remember the night — and it's the kind of warm, cozy memory everyone would want to keep
A kid holds a banana ghost and can't bear to bite it; an adult looks at a plate of smiling little pumpkins and laughs out loud. Halloween desserts should be like this: a bit of festive atmosphere, yet not scary at all. Pumpkins and ghosts are actually the two softest and cutest characters
