Six ideas for a Halloween children’s menu

Halloween – which means “All Saints’ Eve” – is an ancient Celtic celebration celebrated every year on the night of 31 October. Midway through the 19th century, at a time when many Irish people were emigrating to the United States of America, Halloween started to grow in popularity on the other side of the pond too, becoming more and more commercial as the years went by.

Nowadays, you’d be hard pushed to find a country in the world that doesn’t love to celebrate 31 October in some way. It’s all about the kids, of course, who love getting dressed up in scary – but harmless! – costumes.

To give you a helping hand this year, we’ve come up with a ghoulish Halloween children’s menu to ensure that your little Draculas, Frankensteins and other monsters have a night to remember. So, trick or treat?

If you see these mummies drifting around the room at your Halloween party, don't be scared! They've not just emerged from a sarcophagus – they're just delicious finger food, fresh from the oven!
They're easy to make, too. All it takes is few minutes and a healthy dose of creativity.
The “bodies” of our mummies are actually hot dogs, while the bandaged effect is created by using pastry. And you can even decorate them with poppyseed eyes before brushing them with egg yolk and milk and popping them into the oven. How long do they take to cook, we hear you ask? They just take 40 minutes at 180°C in a preheated oven – or the time it takes for them to turn a nice, golden brown.

And just before you serve, decorate your Hot Dog Mummies with some Fratelli Carli Basil Tomato Sauce for a “bloody” effect guaranteed to delight your little vampires.

Another must for any good Halloween party is a carved pumpkin. But while jack o’lanterns look fantastic, they're not great to eat!
We've got just the thing instead: It’s our shortcrust Halloween Tart! This delicious creation ticks all the boxes of your traditional carved pumpkin but also doubles up as a tasty treat thanks to its apple and cherry jam filling.
Our spooky Halloween Tart is easy to prepare as well.
Take a buttered baking tray and place a sheet of shortcrust pastry on top. Spread with cherry jam. Squeeze some lemon and sugar over some diced apples in a bowl, then scatter this mixture over the pastry sheet. Next, take another sheet of shortcrust pastry. Cut out holes to form the eyes, nose and mouth of your Halloween jack o’lantern. Finally, lay the pastry face over the sheet with the apple mixture, brush with beaten egg and bake at 180°C for 40 minutes.

Our Halloween children’s menu continues with another spooky yet delicious sweet treat.
This one is mummy-themed too, but this time it’s a tart filled with Fruit Spread Berries.
It’s a really easy tart to make. First, mix together sugar, eggs, lemon zest, flour and yeast to make a dough. Next, roll this out and cut out a mummy shape. Spread the fruit spread on top, then cover with strips of the remaining dough so it looks like bandages.

After 40 minutes in the oven at 180°C, our Mummy Tart is ready to come out! All what’s left for you to do is watch the kids run to devour it!

What kind of Halloween party would it be without ghosts? Well, don’t worry – the next recipe in our menu is for little meringues that resemble spooky ghouls!
You’ll be surprised by how easy these meringues are to make – and how effective the end result is! They're sure to pique the interest and satisfy the palates of guests, young and old ones.
The first thing you need to do is whisk up the egg whites with a few drops of lemon juice, adding sugar a little at a time.
You’re looking for stiff peaks (if you're feeling brave, hold the bowl upside down above your head – they're done if they don’t fall out!), with the sugar dissolved. Once you've got to this stage, pour the mixture into a piping bag.
Position the bag so it’s vertical to your tray, then squeeze out two or three concentric circles of the mixture, ensuring you build the mixture upwards. Use some chocolate chips to create eyes, then bake at 100°C for one hour.

After a few sweet recipes, it's time for a delicious savory treat: our Witch Fingers.

Finger food in the most literal sense imaginable, Witch Fingers have become one of the most popular Halloween snacks on account of them being quick and easy to prepare.
The fingers themselves are made from a dough containing flour, egg yolk and butter, plus a pinch of salt and pepper for seasoning.
Once you've made the fingers, leave them to rest in the fridge for a while. Add toasted almonds to create fingernails, then bake in the oven at 180°C for 15 minutes.

Whenever it's time for a children’s party, we all know that mini pizzas are a must-have.
And so it’s only fitting that our final Halloween children’s menu suggestion is these Ghoulish Mini Pizzas.
Once you’ve spread the tomato on the pizza bases and baked for 20 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 220°C, the fun can really begin! You could use grated cheese to create a bloody bandage effect, add a couple of Pitted Olives for spooky eyes or even use some edible toy spiders for extra scariness!

Place back into the oven for five minutes and get the kids ready to enjoy these monstrously good mini pizzas!