5 Ways to Make Spooky Meals

If you spend any time searching for Halloween food on Instagram or Pinterest, you will find a cornucopia of ideas for spooky meals. Sometimes, however, these recipes and designs require far more skill than the average person possesses. Or, they at least take a lot more time and effort than makes sense for an every day meal.

Custom Wedding Cake by Dessert Deli. Photography by Knight Studio. This took hours to make and years of practice to get it to look (and taste) that good.

Not all of us can be Martha Stewarts or Christine McConnells, but there are many easy ways to transform ordinary breakfasts, lunches, and dinners into spooky meals the whole family will enjoy.

Here are some of my favorite easy techniques to add some Halloween-flair to your foods:

1. Use Skull Baking Pans

One way to add some spookiness to your meals is to use pans with Halloween shapes. Since you have to use pans to make cakes, cornbread, cupcakes, muffins, etc., it is quite easy to switch out a plain square or circular pan for a skull-shaped pan. There are different sizes of pans you can use, from mini skulls to larger ones (like pictured above). Other common Halloween shapes include ghosts, tombstones, and pumpkins. Have fun shopping around during the Halloween season and you can pick up great tools to use all year long!

I used the NordicWare “Haunted Skull Cakelet Pan” for the above-pictured cornbread. Be sure to generously spray or grease the pan and the bread pops out quite easily.

2. Add Halloween Sprinkles

Aside from flour, rice, and sugar, one staple of my pantry is Halloween sprinkles. I am a sprinkle addict and can’t help but to add these sugary toppers to all my desserts and sweet foods. Whether you choose traditional sprinkles in orange and black or specialty shapes like leaves, bats, bones, or pumpkins, sprinkles can add a touch of Halloween to any dessert. I also use them for hot cocoa and smoothie toppers (along with ample amounts of whipped cream).

3. Turn Your Mushrooms into Skulls

Mushrooms have the perfect shape to carve out some Tim Burton-esque skulls. All it takes to do this is a knife and two fondant tools. I use the “Large Ball” and “Flower Leaf Shaper” fondant tools to carve the face.

HOW TO CARVE A MUSHROOM SKULL

Cut the mushrooms in half. Lay the mushrooms flat on a cutting board. Use the knife to cut 3-4 vertical strips on the stems (it is fine if the knife goes all the way through here). Gently make a thin slit horizontally across the vertical strips – do not cut all the way through, only cut halfway or less. These lines are the teeth.
Using a flower leaf fondant shaper, dig two little holes for the nostrils. Just pressing down lightly with the tip of the tool generally will suffice.
Using a large ball fondant tool press down on the head of the mushroom to create the eyes. Push down very gently. Sometimes you have to press then release a few times to get the proper indent. If you press too hard, the mushroom will split. Split mushrooms are still salvageable, but they look more like decomposing skulls instead of fresh ones!

These mushrooms can be used in soups, pizzas, salads, and more.

4. Use Cookie Cutters to Create Spooky Shaped Foods

Despite the name, cookie cutters are not just for cookies! If you have a variety of cookie cutters in various sizes and shapes, you can easily cut your food into spooky designs for your meals.

Pumpkin-shaped biscuits are my go-to for breakfast sandwiches or dinner roll sides. Mini cutters on sour dough bread make cute toppers for chili or chowder soups. You can even get creative with pizza and combine cookie cut-out pepperoni and mushroom skulls.

5. Carve a Design

Like most people stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, I too jumped aboard the bread-making bandwagon. From plain white bread to herbaceous stuffing loaf bread, I baked many loaves. Although they turned out well (after my first few tries), they just didn’t feel spooky enough. One day when I was about to score the top of the loaf, I got the idea to carve a spooky image instead of just scoring in a straight line. I enjoy making bat bread, but you can also design a smiling jack-o-lantern or other Halloween image.

This makes for a fun presentation and adds spooky Halloween fun to an otherwise completely normal dish.

Tell Me About Your Spooky Meals

That’s it for my 5 simple ways to add a little spookiness to your daily meals. I look forward to sharing more tips in future posts.

Now I want to hear from you! How do you add touches of Halloween to your meals? Let me know on Instagram & Twitter @EmilyIsHorror

Want to try some Halloween-inspired recipes? Try:

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Vampire-Repelling Shrimp Scampi

Today’s post will focus on the recipe for Vampire-Repelling Shrimp Scampi. This garlic-rich recipe is simple, yet delicious. I love to make this recipe on a Friday night before watching a horror film or two. Last time I made it, the kitchen smelled like garlic for an entire day afterwards, ensuring that we were safe from creatures of the night (and any visitor, really).

As with most scampi pasta dishes, this recipe can be highly customized and you can change it up depending on the ingredients you have on-hand. For a pop of color – add sun-dried tomatoes. Mushrooms can be added for extra Vitamin D. The possibilities are limitless!

Basic Vampire-Repelling Shrimp Scampi Recipe(Makes about 2 Servings):

Ingredients:

2 tablespoon olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
2/3 cup onion, diced
¼ cup fresh basil
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 tablespoon parsley
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
16 large shrimp, peeled & de-veined
8 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/3 cup white wine
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
2 servings spaghetti
Optional – ½ cup mushrooms, chopped
Optional – ¼ cup sun-dried tomatoes

Step One: Prep Pasta

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and add the spaghetti. Cook until tender.

I chose to use orange and green vegetable pasta for a more Halloween-feel, but once cooked they did not have as bright colors as I had hoped. If you have a higher budget, specialty squid ink pasta has a delightful black color to make this meal very spooky.

Step Two: Brown Onion & Garlic

Heat the olive oil in a large pan on medium heat. Add the onion. Let brown. Add garlic.

It typically takes about five to eight minutes for the onion to brown, depending on your pan. You can stir occasionally and/or rotate the pan to make sure all the onion is browning mostly evenly.

Step Three: Cook Shrimp

Add the shrimp (and optional mushrooms) to the pan. Season with the basil, crushed red pepper, salt, pepper, and parsley. Flip the shrimp once the underside is a bright pink. Cook through.

Step Four: Add Scampi Sauce Ingredients

Add butter, lemon juice, white wine, and parmesan cheese. The optional sun-dried tomatoes can be added as well. Stir occasionally for 5 minutes.

The scampi sauce will reduce during this time. You should be able to smell the garlic throughout your kitchen by this time. Vampires beware!

Step Five: Combine

We have not forgotten about the pasta! Remove the cooked spaghetti from the pot using tongs and place into the pan with the shrimp scampi mixture. Use tongs instead of draining the pasta – bringing over some pasta water with the spaghetti helps the scampi sauce to stick to the noodles more.

Thoroughly coat the spaghetti with the scampi sauce.

Now, you just have to plate it. Add your favorite garlic bread for a complimentary side and you are all set! For those more vampire-friendly individuals, you can reduce or cut down on the garlic, but I love the strong garlic taste.

Enjoy!

Vampire-Repelling Shrimp Scampi

Vampire-Repelling Shrimp Scampi

The Horror of Being Emily

Learn to make this garlic-heavy shrimp scampi, the perfect recipe to repell vampires and other creatures of the night. Easy to cook and made to impress!

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10 mins

Cook Time 25 mins

Total Time 35 mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Servings 2 Vampire Hunters

Equipment

Large Pan
Large Pot
Tongs

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic minced
2/3 cup onion diced
1/4 cup fresh basil chopped
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp parsley
16 large shrimp peeled, de-veined
8 tbsp unsalted butter
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/3 cup white wine
2 tbsp Parmesan cheese
2 servings spaghetti
1/2 cup mushrooms (optional)
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes (optional)

Instructions

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and add the spaghetti. Cook until tender.
Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large pan on medium heat. Add the onion. Let brown. Add garlic.
Add the shrimp (and optional mushrooms) to the pan. Season with the basil, crushed red pepper, salt, pepper, and parsley. Flip the shrimp once the underside is a bright pink. Cook through.
Add butter, lemon juice, white wine, and Parmesan cheese. The optional sun-dried tomatoes can be added as well. Stir occasionally for 5 minutes.
Remove the cooked spaghetti from the pot using tongs and place into the pan with the shrimp scampi mixture. Thoroughly coat the spaghetti with the scampi sauce.

Keyword Garlic, Scampi, Shrimp

5 Ways to Make Spooky Meals

1. Use Skull Baking Pans

2. Add Halloween Sprinkles

3. Turn Your Mushrooms into Skulls

HOW TO CARVE A MUSHROOM SKULL

4. Use Cookie Cutters to Create Spooky Shaped Foods

5. Carve a Design