Creating a spooktacular Halloween dessert table

Halloween is right around the corner and this year amidst the pandemic, it's going to look a bit different. If you're looking for something fun and creative to do with your kids, or friends, or for yourself, below are ideas for creating a fun, creepy, and sweet table! I wish you all could have seen my kids faces when they saw this table. And then after dinner and desserts we had a Michael Jackson Thriller dance party! #spookyfun. The table decor and candy were all purchased from Party City and cost under $25. The spiders were from Target. #winning. For the table, I used a pack of cauldrons and added black cherry lollipops. The creepy cloth at Party City is also a great way to add a little spook pop to the table. I drizzled chocolate to some popcorn and added it to black popcorn containers (99 cents for a pack of 5 at Party City!). Add a fun jack-o-lantern and some spiders and there you go! Simple and fun!

Halloween Cookies:

-2 and 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
​-1/4 cup cocoa powder (I made chocolate sugar cookies, but if you want plain sugar cookies, then just use 3 cups of flour)
-1 teaspoon baking powder
-1/4 teaspoon salt
-1 egg
-16 tablespoons or 1 cup of unsalted butter (room temp)
-1/2 cup granulated sugar (some recipes call for more sugar but you'll notice I always cut my sugar significantly and they're still super sweet)
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.  In a separate bowl beat the butter and sugar until pale yellow.  Add the egg, vanilla and beat again to combine..  Add flour to the wet mixture a bit at time and mix to combine.  Once all the flour has been added, use your hands to form the dough into a ball.  Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight.  To roll out the dough, use plastic wrap to cover the dough to prevent sticking.  Roll the dough to about a quarter inch thickness.  Use a cookie cutter or if you're like me and don't have one, use a round cup or glass.  Using everyday household items is a great way to save money! Place cookie cutouts back in the fridge for about 10 minutes so that they can keep their shape.  Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes.  Place on a cookie cooling rack and then decorate once cookies have cooled!

---

Sugar Icing:

-1 and 1/2 cups powdered sugar
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract
-3-4 teaspoons of milk.  
Add the vanilla extract to the powdered sugar.  Add teaspoons of milk gradually until the icing reaches the right consistency.  Separate the icing into 3 different bowls for the different colors.  Of course you can adjust according to the colors you want.  For the food coloring I wanted orange, black and white colors.  Get the assorted green, red, blue, and yellow that usually comes in a box as these will be what to mix to get the desired halloween colors. Orange: Mix 1 part red and 1 part yellow food coloring to get orange.  
Black: Mix 2 parts black, 2 parts green and 3 parts red food coloring
White: Leave icing as is
Spread icing on cookies and be creative with your designs . Pumpkins, ghost faces, the word 'BOO', anything you like!  And guess what?  If you have a piping bag, great!  But I didn't and so I used a simple sandwich ziplock bag to create the words and designs. Using everyday house-hold items can really go a long way and save money!  Simply place the icing in a ziplock sandwich bag and cut a very very tiny hole at the tip.  I also used sugar sanding sprinkles to create a little sparkle.  Decorate away!!  If you plan to try this recipe please comment below!