Cooking with grandchildren: recipes & baking ideas for Halloween

Halloween is just around the corner and no matter whether you want to throw a party to celebrate the event or just want a fun activity that you can do with your grandchildren, baking themed goodies is a great idea. If you suffer from mobility problems meaning you need to use aids such as a stairlift or another aid, then baking with your grandchildren is an activity that is accessible to all.

From a pumpkin cake and pumpkin pie ice creams to Halloween cookies and gingerbread zombies, read on to find out some of the best recipes and baking ideas for Halloween.

The best baking ideas for Halloween

• Pumpkin Cake with Orange and Spices
• Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream
• Halloween cookies
• Gingerbread zombies
• Hats and Bats Chocolate-Peanut Butter Tarts

Pumpkin Cake with Orange and Spices

Not only is this a delicious and moreish Halloween cake, but kids will also love baking this pumpkin cake. This cake is really easy-to-make so it is perfect for making with your grandchildren for Halloween.

Choclette, the writer behind the Tin And Thyme blog, told us why she would recommend making this pumpkin cake with spice and orange:

“It's a really easy to make pumpkin cake, so perfect for making with children. This pumpkin cake is not only easy to make, but it's relatively healthy too. You can't get more Halloween than pumpkin and the fruit gives the cake a lovely orange colour. It's lightly spiced, flavoured with orange and not overly sweet. The fun bit comes with the ‘blood icing’. Drip this over the cake for a gory look. Then decorate to your heart's content.

“It's a good beginner’s cake as it's mostly a question of stirring the ingredients together, which you can easily do by hand. No creaming hard butter and sugar together. It's also an eye opener for kids that you can make a delicious cake with healthy vegetables.”

Ingredients for Pumpkin Cake with Orange and Spices

• 180g light brown sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 150ml flavourless oil, such as sunflower
• 1 organic orange – zest and juice
• A pinch of fine sea or rock salt
• 400g pumpkin purée - most supermarkets stock tins
• 225g wholemeal flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 tsp mixed spice or pumpkin spice

For Blood Icing

• 50g icing sugar
• 1 tsp beetroot powder or a few drops of red food colouring

Read the method for this recipe here.

ALSO READ: What are the top activities to do with your grandchildren?

Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream

Children don’t just love Halloween, most love ice cream too and as Halloween desserts go this ticks all the boxes. You might think that making homemade ice cream is really hard and that you need an expensive ice cream machine, but this isn’t the case.

The reality is you just need to do a few minutes of whisking (you can use an electric mixer if you have one) and will then need to put the mixture in the freezer for a few hours.

Becca Heyes, the freelance writer, blogger and recipe developer at Easy Cheesy Vegetarian explains: “The secret is to use condensed milk and cream - whisk it all up together to make a light, fluffy mixture that freezes into the perfect ice cream texture. You can add whatever flavourings you fancy. My pumpkin pie ice cream has tinned pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice (which is basically just 'mixed spice' in the UK).

“Just because this pumpkin pie ice cream is super easy to make, that doesn't mean it's in any way inferior to a more labour-intensive version - this stuff is honestly the best! I genuinely prefer it to even the most luxury shop-bought ice cream. It's unbelievably creamy, and the flavour is just gorgeous. I can't wait to try out new flavour combinations - the possibilities are endless!”

Ingredients for Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream

• 2 1/3 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 1 can pumpkin puree
• 2/3 Tablespoon pumpkin pie spice

Read the method for this recipe here.

Halloween cookies

Spooky bat and spider cookies will get children excited for Halloween and the great thing about making cookies is you can add some great decorations such as ‘squashed flies’ that are made from chocolate chips.

These Halloween-themed cookies are quick and easy to make with preparation taking about 25-minutes and around 20-minutes to cook in a fan oven at 160C fan.

Something that children will love doing when making these cookies is when they come out of the oven you can spoon melted chocolate into a piping bag and the royal icing into another and get the children to decorate the cookie.

Ingredients for Halloween cookies (makes 20 cookies)

• 150g butter, softened
• 50g caster sugar
• 100g light brown soft sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 250g plain flour
• ¼ tsp baking powder
• 100g milk or dark chocolate chips

For the decoration

• 60g dark chocolate, melted
• 60g royal icing sugar, mixed with 2 tsp water
• 20 Maltesers
• 5 cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies
• 10 caramel-filled chocolates

Read the method for this recipe here.

ALSO READ: How to have successful sleepovers with your grandchildren

Gingerbread zombies

Another ghoulishly good Halloween treat that you can bake for your family or for party guests if you are throwing a Halloween party are Gingerbread zombies.

Grandchildren will love creating their very own scary monsters and this Halloween recipe is not only fun to make but is easy to follow as well. With the biscuits taking 18 minutes to prepare and 12 minutes to bake, plus 30 minutes to cool, it is something quick that you can make for a Halloween party for adults and kids.

Ingredients for Gingerbread zombies (serves 14 people)

• 350g (12oz) plain flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 125g (4oz) butter, cubed
• 175g (6oz) light muscovado sugar
• 1 egg
• 4 tbsp golden syrup
• decorations, such as writing icing, royal icing, coloured pearls, mini razzle dazzles and mocha beans

Read the method for this recipe here.

Hats and Bats Chocolate-Peanut Butter Tarts

If you are a chocolate-lover there are plenty of things you can make to celebrate Halloween, ranging from a chocolate cake to cookies. You can add white chocolate to recipes or use melted chocolate to cover the top of other Halloween baking goodies.

With so much choice it can be hard to choose what chocolate-themed treat to make for Halloween, but a great option is these hats and bats Chocolate-Peanut Butter tarts. They are flaky and are perfectly on theme and they will shine at your spooky Halloween party.

Ingredients for Hats and Bats Chocolate-Peanut Butter Tarts

• 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1/3 cup mini chocolate chips
• 2 cups of all-purpose flour, spooned and levelled, plus more for work surface
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3 tbsp. granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 package (8 ounces) of cold cream cheese, cut into small pieces
• Store-bought white frosting
• White sanding sugar, for decorating

Read the method for this recipe here.

ALSO READ: Art and craft ideas to do with your grandchildren

These are just some recipes and baking ideas for Halloween that you can make with your grandchildren and hopefully, these treats will give you some inspiration for things you can make if you are having a Halloween party.

If you need any help with your mobility at home this autumn, get in touch with us to enquire about installing straight stairlifts – it could be just the thing you need to improve your independence and your enjoyment of home life.

For more tips, guides, and advice, make sure to visit our news page.

This news article is from Companion Stairlifts. Articles that appear on this website are for information purposes only.