Halloween Party Buffet

My friend Maureen, is a party genius! She throws many beautiful parties for all sorts of occasions, but her Halloween parties are simply SPOOCTACULAR!!! Unfortunately, I arrived a bit late to photograph the buffet before other guests arrived, so you are seeing things which have already been enjoyed.  But I think you can get some fun ideas and inspirations if you are planning your own Halloween party.  One of the things that I loved is she set-up this entire spread on her pool table.  This gave her plenty of room to have a large buffet without having to put two tables together or take up extra room with more set-up.

I think Maureen included almost every Halloween recipe.  The puking pumpkin, hot dog wrapped mummies, witchs’ fingers, pumpkins, skeletons, green dips, white dips, cakes, chips, pizza… I can go on and on!

Kudos to Maureen for all her fun ideas.  It was a real treat for everyone who attended!

Two of the moms who made the party possible!

As some of you may know, Halloween is my FAVORITE time of year.  I love Christmas and Thanksgiving, but Halloween…. OH… it just gives me so many more opportunities to be creative! Plus, I also love seeing how creative other people can be and this is why I spend way more time than I should on Pinterest and Instagram looking for fun and innovative recipes for my Halloween parties.  Each year, I throw a Halloween bash (or what I like to call a Halloween Taste Testing) every Friday for the entire month of October.  I invite my friends, my sons’ friends and their parents, and anyone who wants to come! I ask everyone to bring a Halloween dish they love and we set it out on the buffet. Then, we all try what was created and talk about our favorites.

The below goodies were created by the many parents who attended and were considered the favorites of the taste testing! Enjoy!

Delicious Rice Krispie Treat Monsters.

The above Halloween Rice Krispie Treat Monsters are made just like any Rice Krispie treats.  However, I also dipped the top portion in candy melts and my son decorated them with various sprinkles and candy eyes.  They came out adorable.

Yummy vegetable jack-o-lanterns filled with healthy vegetables.

My friend Rhae brought these healthy jack-o-lantern pepper snacks.  A wonderful and healthy addition to the table!

Halloween Cheese and pretzel broom sticks… so CLEVER!

This pretzel and mozzarella stick broomsticks are ADORABLE.  I love the presentation as well.  Just two ingredients and a wonderful salty addition to a sweet buffet!  Way to go, Carrie!

Candy Corn Rice Krispie Treats

One of the moms brought these Halloween Candy Corn Rice Krispie treats.  I love how she packaged them (many kids took one home as a favor), brought them in a basket, and even displayed the recipe for anyone else who wants to try making them.  So thoughtful!!

Halloween Skeleton Slow Cooked Weenies (A.K.A. Guts)

Halloween Skeleton Weenies (A.K.A. Guts)

Helping herself to some Skeleton Guts!

OOOOHHHH… SOOOO GROSS!!! But it’s Halloween… RIGHT??!! My friend Gina (not the one pictured above), is super creative and brought the ULTIMATE snack to the party!  She needed some extra space and set-up time, but this incredible treat was a SHOW STOPPER!!! The kids loved it.  She dressed up a skeleton and inserted a slow-cooker inside his chest filled with BBQ mini hotdogs or cocktail smoked sausages.  She also brought Hawaiian buns to pair with the mini hotdogs. The kids  (and adults) had a treat scooping the “guts” or hot dogs on to their plate.  I know… I know… not for the faint of heart, but it’s HALLOWEEN!!!

Yummy cookie pizza

You can’t go wrong with a cookie pizza and this dessert was a fun treat for our guests.  Loved this creative idea from one of our moms!

Brownie Monsters

These adorable brownie monsters made everyone smile!  They are simple brownies with candied eyes and a gummy worm as a tongue! Another dessert winner on the buffet!

Mini Chocolate Bar Robots for Halloween

This dessert was such a fun idea  Simply take any mini chocolate bar, insert pieces of pretzels for the legs and arms, and decorate with candy sprinkles on the body.  You can make them look like anything, monster, spiders, and in this case, robots!

Halloween Candy ghosts

Hate trying to make your cake pops look perfect? Here’s the answer! These wonderful cake pops did not have to be perfectly round to be  winners.  Once they were dipped in candy melts, they simply were allowed to free form.   After the candy melts set a bit, the mom carved in some faces, which also did not need to be perfect.  Two thumbs up for this fun and creative dessert!

I love how these adorable desserts looked together!

My Halloween flowers. I love how some stores dye their flowers black during Halloween. It gives me so many ideas for arrangements.  I also love the background of the skeleton.  Sort of reminds me of a grave!  Okay, now I’m getting a bit gory!

Adorable Halloween guests.

Halloween Orange Jack-O-Lanterns filled with fruit salad.

I always give two thumbs up to anyone who brings healthy desserts.  This mom went all out and created these fun Halloween orange Jack-O-Lanterns.  She filled them with fruit salad and voila!

My collection of easy Pin Push Pumpkins.

I loved this segment I did with Better Kansas City on super easy pin push spray-painted pumpkins.  I also made them two-sided, which means I made one side Halloween themed and the other was Thanksgiving themed. I also made some universal designs which can be displayed during Halloween and Thanksgiving.

Halloween Rock Stud Pumpkin

This is a black pumpkin which I designed to look like the Valentino “rock-stud” collection.  It is a fun and colorful way to bring a little influence of fashion into your pumpkin decor.  This was the “Thanksgiving” side, the other side was a Halloween side which had pins made into a web.  Check out the previous photo.  It’s the black pumpkin on the right.

Halloween side of all the pumpkins.

This is the Halloween Side.  Each pumpkin has a Halloween theme.  The silver one has a silhouette of a witch on a broom.  The white has silver pins saying “Boo” and the black one has the spider web.

Thanksgiving side of the pumpkins

This is the “Thanksgiving” side with the silver pumpkin having a turkey, white pumpkin having a wood-grain theme, the black pumpkin having the “Valentino Rock-Stud” look.  I also love my silver and gold thumb-tack pumpkins.  Be warned, they take HOURS to create.  I started in September pushing in the thumbtacks while watching TV with my husband.  They are time consuming but are well worth the time.  I also used a real pumpkin stalk as a finishing touch.  The stalks last for years and years, so you don’t have to worry about them rotting.

Loving this beautiful Halloween Cake with Green and purple witches fingers.

I have thrown fun Halloween parties for many years.  I usually throw a party every week in October… yes, every Friday, I will have some sort of a Halloween party.  I like to call them “taste testing parties” since the guests are bombarded with fun Halloween goodies and they get to choose their favorites.  Sometimes I create all the items for the buffet, but most of the time, other parents bring their creations and we all just watch the kids devour their favorites.  It has become one of my most fun and exciting events which I look forward to.  As you will see, I try not to do anything super scary, although I have been known to create some gory dishes on occasion (like my severed fingers hot dogs, which is a Pinterest favorite!).

Here are some fun photos from one of my parties, which I like to call Purple Witch’s Finger Cake (shown above).  You may say… “Why Arina, I had no idea you were a cake baker!” Well, rest assured… I AM NOT!!! If you know me, you know that I am well aware of my limits.  Throwing a party for 60 children means I do as much outsourcing as possible.  This cake was ordered from Sam’s and I simply chose it from one of their cake catalogs, available in the bakery section..  It came with the purple, green, and white frosting, clouds and bats.  The cake bakers did a great job making a two tiered cake.  There were times when I would order the three tiered ones, but they always came out crooked, so I stick with the two tiered cakes.

To customize it to be a Witch’s Cake, I went to Michael’s and purchased the fingers and witch silhouettes separately.  I have NO idea how the colors came out so perfectly, but even if they didn’t match, … my motto is and will always be… kids don’t care! I was very happy with the cake and so was everyone else. Oh, and it was soooo affordable, only $40!

Cake with fun Halloween plates, my friend Heidi gifts me with every year.

My sons’ decorations.

Buffet set-up for Halloween Party

I typically do a buffet set-up and provide the cake and a few other dishes.  Then, the parents of the guests bring their favorites.  Parents are always invited to the parties and are encouraged to stay and enjoy the festivities.

Here are some of the fun and creative Halloween inspired desserts created by my guests’ parents.

Adorable cupcake ghosts created by my friend Deborah.

Cheese Stick Ghosts… so clever and easy!

My friend Nina prepared these wonderful and healthy cucumber eyes made with cucumber slices, cream cheese, and black olives. She sprinkled a bit of cumin for the “red”

These wonderful Donut Monsters were created by my friend Maureen, who is incredibly creative and no stranger to wonderful Halloween parties. Apparently, they took her no time to create.  She purchased ready-made donuts, then stuck fake teeth and skeleton arms inside them and some candy eyes. That’s it! The kids loved playing with the fake teeth afterwards and took them all home as favors.  

Yummy and healthy pumpkin bread, prepared by my friend Dana.

This is such a wonderful and easy Halloween dessert, created by my friend Nicole. They are witch’s brooms. Two ingredients … Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups and Pretzel sticks… you’re done!

This skeleton appears in different parts of the house at every party. At this party, he’s hanging out in the sunroom!

I re-use many of my decorations at each Halloween Party. As I said, kid’s don’t care and there is really no reason for me to keep buying decorations when I have plenty stored away from my previous parties. Sometimes, I even get decorations gifted to me by other moms who’s kids may no longer be living at home. I truly believe that re-puposing and re-using, as well as borrowing is the best way to decorate for a party.

Fun table place settings

A few years ago, I had the pleasure of being a regular guest on Better Kansas City.  Mother’s Day was coming up and the producer wondered what great ideas I may have to save people time and money.  I came up with three cake hacks which were easy to implement and didn’t cost a lot.  As Lisa Teachman, one of the wonderful Better Kansas City hosts,  was preparing for my interview, I was quickly assembling these cakes on set.  Believe it or not, this was my easiest assembly EVER!  Typically, I’m assembling my food and setting up to the very moment my segment is about to start.  This time, it was so easy, I had a chance to even chat a bit with some of the audience members.

My first two hacks were simple store-bought cake decorations.  For one, I used fruit.  Simply adding some fruit on top and around the cake made for a much prettier presentation than the store-bought cake decorated with sprinkles.  My second cake had fresh flowers and feather butterflies. I made sure the roses were organic and were not sprayed with any type of chemicals.  The feather butterflies were purchased at Michaels and came on a metal twine which I sterilized and inserted into the cake. None of these items are edible, but if you are having a party and you want to display your dessert, this would be a stunning way to do it.  Just remove the flowers and butterflies before you cut and serve the cake.  You can also use edible flowers, if they are available in your area.

M & M Magic Waterfall Cake

For the chocolate lover, this M&M Magic Cake is super easy to create and will WOW your guests.  Just cover a pretzel stick in chocolate, roll it in M&Ms or Reeces Peanut Butter Cups, and insert it into the cake.  Arrange  candy to look like a waterfall and pool the rest around the cake.  Place the wrapper of the candy on top of the pretzel  and it will look like the candy is cascading directly from the wrapper.  Trust me, you’ll get ooooh and ahhhs from your guests.