Party Menu Planner

A good Halloween spread is five or six things, not fifteen. Pick one from each group and you're done.

Tick items as you decide. Your choices are saved in this browser, so you can come back to the list later. Nothing is sent anywhere.

1. One showstopper

The centrepiece everyone photographs. Pick one.

Purple Velvet Bundt with marigold glaze Graveyard Dirt Cake (no oven, feeds 16) A two-tier cake with a hidden orange filling

2. Something handheld

Easy to grab with one hand and a drink in the other. One or two.

Jack-o'-lantern sugar cookies Spiderweb brownies Monster eye cupcakes

3. A make-ahead / no-bake

Something you can finish days early and forget about. Pick one.

Candy corn bark Meringue bones (keep in a tin) Mummy cake pops

4. One savoury bite

So the table isn't wall-to-wall sugar. Pick one.

Cheese-straw "witches' fingers" with almond nails Mummy pizza scrolls Soft pretzel bones with mustard dip

5. A drink

One themed thing to pour. Pick one.

Purple punch (grape + lemonade + a dry-ice bowl, carefully) Marigold cream-soda floats Hot chocolate with a toasted meringue-bone stirrer

6. The timeline

Rough order of operations so nothing lands on you the day of.

2 days before: bake and freeze cake layers; make bark or meringues 1 day before: build the dirt cake; bake and flood cookies; make buttercream Morning of: assemble and glaze the showstopper; bake savoury bites; chill drinks 1 hour before: add fragile decorations; set the table; dust with cocoa