Halloween is just around the corner, so there is no shortage of seasonal sweets on the blogs this week. As a big Halloween fan, I saw lots of great ideas and found myself bookmarking post after post! Hopefully some of these ideas will get you inspired, too!
- My Friend’s Bakery featured some Black Licorice Whoopie Pies that have a distinctly Halloween look to them. The whoopie pies are made with chocolate cakes, flavored with anise extract to give them a distinct licorice flavor. They’re filled with orange-tinted frosting that is also anise flavored. Anise isn’t a something that you often find so generously used in desserts, so licorice fans will love these treats. If anise isn’t your favorite flavor, you can just as easily turn these into chocolate and vanilla whoopie pies by omitting the anise all together.
- Icebox pies are a dessert that I usually associate with the summer, when you don’t want to turn on your oven and heat up your kitchen, however they can easily by made all year round. Willow Bird Baking used seasonal Pumpkin Spice Oreos as a base for a Pumpkin Spice Icebox Cake, a cool fall treat. The “cake” is made by layering together the cookies and pumpkin spice-flavored whipped cream. These elements bind together while the cake chills, leaving you with a dessert that can actually be sliced and served just like a “regular” cake. It’s sweet, creamy and has loads of pumpkin spice flavor.
- I love my skeleton gingerbread cookies because they’re just as much fun to decorate as they are to eat. Gringalicious baked up some Nutella Cream Filled Chocolate Dipped Skeleton Mini Cakes that take the same idea to a snack cake format! These little cakes are baked in a gingerbread shaped pan – a nice way to use that pan out of the Christmas season! – and they are halved and filled with Nutella after baking. The filled cakes are dipped in chocolate and decorated with cute/creepy little skeletons, which makes them look fantastic on a Halloween dessert tray!
- I recently made a microwave Pumpkin Bread Pudding that is a perfect single-serving version of a classic-food dessert. There are always times when you don’t want (or need) a whole layer cake, a whole tray of bread pudding or a whole batch of cookies. If you’re looking for a seasonal cookie that serves one, you might want to try Kirbie’s Cravings Microwave Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie. This cakey cookie bakes up in less time than it takes to mix up the batter, and it is just the thing when you need to quickly cure a sudden cookie craving. It is made with pumpkin puree, brown sugar and plenty of chocolate chips, so it will deliver the same familiar flavors that you’ll find in a traditionally baked pumpkin cookie.
- If you are looking for a liquid dessert, Barman’s Journal has a Pumpkin Flip that tastes a bit like boozy pumpkin pie. A flip is an old fashioned cocktail that uses an egg or egg white to make the drink extra creamy. This bourbon-based version is perfect for autumn, since it uses pumpkin puree and real maple syrup to sweeten it up. It’s a drink that is both seasonal and sophisticated, making it a great option for the grown-ups at Halloween parties this weekend!