Easy Treats Kids Can MakeNo. 1783 · The 2026 edition
How to cook with kids: Halloween
Get your little ghouls in the kitchen this Halloween with spooky spider cakes and other fun treats, while keeping mess and stress to a minimum.
Our own summary of the original — the full post and photos live at bbcgoodfood.com.
This guide helps parents cook Halloween goodies with young children, emphasizing creativity and realistic expectations. Features step-by-step ideas for spider cakes and other kid-friendly recipes that turn baking into a playful, memorable activity.
Ingredients
Directions
- Bake the cupcakes ahead of time, while the child is at nursery; a food mixer speeds this up, and a double batch gives lots to decorate.
- Let the cupcakes bake and cool completely before decorating begins.
- Make classic butter icing from 250g butter, 500g icing sugar and a drop of milk, softening the butter first and mixing in the icing sugar (a food mixer multiplies the fine sugary 'smoke').
- Make the spiders first: substitute fizzy cola laces for liquorice and press the legs into the cupcakes — easy for an adult, a little fiddly for a four-year-old.
- For ghosts, mound butter icing on a cupcake, cut a square of ready-to-roll sugarpaste icing and lay it on top, then draw facial features with an icing writing pen.
- Go freestyle: turn the spiders into monster cupcakes using Liquorice Allsorts for one-eyed scariness, and finish with silver shimmer spray.
Tips
- The recipe works really well but is a touch too intricate for a four-year-old to accomplish unaided.
- Cooking and baking with kids is not about perfection — the child loving and being proud of what they created matters most.
- A shortage of liquorice wheels meant the recipe seemed cursed; fizzy cola laces made a fine substitute.
- Discovering something fun by accident is one of the best parts of cooking with kids, such as pouring vinegar onto baking powder.
- Cooking with kids is all about creative play — 'my alien is too ugly to eat' counts as mission accomplished.
The plan
- Ahead of the session — Bake the cupcakes in advance, while the child is out (e.g. at nursery), so decorating can start straight away.
- Accept that a four-year-old's attention span is limited and keep the decorating session short.
- Ahead of the session — Make a double batch of cupcakes so there is plenty to decorate.
- Use a food mixer to speed the baking and icing up.
- Before decorating — Buy in a wide array of sweets and decorations before the child joins in so there is plenty of choice.
- Expect a messy kitchen — the carnage is part of the fun.
- Don't aim for perfection: the point is creative play and the child being proud of what they made.
Decoration ideas
- Spooky spider cakes, with fizzy cola laces (or liquorice wheels) pressed into the cupcakes as legs.
- Ghosts made by mounding butter icing on a cupcake, laying a square of ready-to-roll sugarpaste icing on top and drawing facial features with an icing writing pen.
- Pirate ghosts, complete with a pirate hat, for children who won't settle for a simple ghost.
- Witches' hats.
- Freestyle monster cupcakes decorated with Liquorice Allsorts for one-eyed scariness.
- A finishing dusting of silver shimmer spray over the creations.
Food & drink
- Classic cupcakes baked ahead of time — moist and light.
- Classic butter icing: 250g butter, 500g icing sugar and a drop of milk.
- A spread of Halloween sweets for decorating, including cola laces, liquorice wheels and Liquorice Allsorts.
- Ready-to-roll sugarpaste icing for shaping ghosts' sheets.
- A fizzing 'cauldron' effect made by pouring vinegar onto baking powder, with red food colouring added.
Activities
- Kids decorating cupcakes, starting with the spiders and then going freestyle with the sweet selection.
- Pouring vinegar onto baking powder to make a fizzing reaction — add red food colouring for a cauldron effect.
- Watching the fine sugary mist billow out of the food mixer bowl while making butter icing.
- Letting children invent their own characters, such as pirate ghosts or one-eyed monsters.
More photos
Photos hosted by bbcgoodfood.com.
