Hosting a houseful of hungry ghosts and goblins this year? You're going to need a few sweet treats (and we're not talking about the cauldron of Halloween candy you put out for the neighborhood kids as they go door to door). We're talking about going all-out with fun, festive desserts for get-togethers big or small: creepy-cute cookies for some pre-trick-or-treating fuel, dinner party-worthy cakes and cupcakes, frightfully fun rice cereal brains for your at-home haunted house — and even more. With so many eerie-sistible choices, where do you start? You can't go wrong with any of the desserts in this roundup but we think that these haunted buckeyes are a must. Crispy rice cereal, seasonal sprinkles, a dab of food coloring and some googly eyes add delightful crunch and a festive touch to this classic peanut butter and chocolate treat. Kids will have a blast helping whip up these sweet desserts, too!

These cheery pumpkin-flavored cupcakes are decorated using the trendy flat frosting technique that’s looks super professional but is surprisingly easy to master. Believe it or not, our secret to creating a smooth, even iced top of delicious buttercream is to frost the cupcakes, then flip them over and let them chill until firm. Once the cupcakes are turned right-side up, they’re easily transformed into festive, picture-perfect fall treats.

These spooky little white chocolate skulls with glowing red eyes are almost too easy to make, and way too much fun not to! With just two ingredients — maraschino cherries and white chocolate — and a silicone skull mold, they deliver big Halloween vibes with minimal effort. Serve the little candies solo for a sweet treat, or use them to top cupcakes, sundaes or anything else that could use a little festive fright.

Spooky? Silly? Sultry? There’s no wrong answer when you’re creating a monster. The basic crispy rice treat recipe we all know and love gets a splash of green to make the perfect canvas for creativity. A dip in chocolate for some hair and a couple of mini marshmallows for neck bolts, then you get to be the mad scientist with candies, icing and whatever edible decorations you can find. They’re frighteningly delicious!

What looks like a gory encounter with the Count himself is just raspberry jam brightened with a drop of red food coloring. And if you dare sink your own teeth into them, you'll find that more raspberry jam and chocolate await in the center.

You can’t go wrong serving dirt pudding at a Halloween party and this delightful chocolate and vanilla treat has a twist. Chocolate pudding is usually the base of the dessert, but here we swirl the pudding into an easy no-churn vanilla ice cream. It’s rich, creamy and delicious—no ice cream machine required! We top it with a whimsical “dirt” topping made from crushed chocolate sandwich cookies, plus colorful gummy worms for the perfect creepy-fun finish.

If you love elaborately decorated cakes but don’t always have the time or championship baking skills to make it happen, this is the perfect Halloween party dessert recipe for you. Store-bought yellow cake mix, pumpkin spice instant pudding and simple designs make it easy to pull off this festive jack o’ lantern cake. The pudding mix makes the cake sturdy and bouncy — the perfect texture for slathering on the 3-ingredient marshmallow cream frosting. It’s finished off with chocolate eyes and a cute, toothy grin.

These mini floating ghosts are a perfect treat for mochi lovers and a fun and easy Halloween party dessert. The center of these treats is a sweet black sesame filling that’s formed into cones and placed on top of miniature chocolate peanut butter cups. The soft, chewy mochi dough topper comes together with just rice flour, milk and sugar and draping rounds of the dough over the filling creates adorable little ghosts with ruffled hems that appear to float in the air. Using peanut butter cups as the bases gives the ghosts height and a deliciously original flavor that’s perfect for Halloween celebrations.

This whimsical break-apart treat may look intricate, but it’s actually frightfully easy to prepare. Gently melting candy wafers on a lined baking sheet in the oven—instead of melting them on the stovetop or in a microwave—makes this bark a cinch to pull together. Assemble a few easy decorations to place on top and you’ll have a wickedly good bark for Halloween parties or “The Wizard of Oz” viewings. Feel free to add your favorite candy to make it even more festive.

These Halloween-themed pudding “dirt” cups have the spooky addition of black cocoa whipped cream plus white spiderwebs. The spiderwebs are easy: you pipe them over a crushed-ice bath so they set almost immediately. For the best results, be sure to flatten the surface of the crushed ice as much as possible before piping the webs. Little “spiders” made from sugar-coated gummy bears complete the eerie effect.

Cute little monsters share the stage with pumpkins and ghosts on this Halloween dessert platter. For variety, you can create monsters with different colors of sanding sugar–just make sure to match the candy melting wafers to the sugar. You can make these treats several hours ahead and refrigerate them, but don’t refrigerate the monsters for longer than an hour as the moisture in the refrigerator will cause the candy eyes to run.

This adorable Halloween dessert is incredibly simple to make – all you need is one square cake, one round cake and a couple of easy knife cuts. Top the whole cake with a quick homemade vanilla frosting, then pipe on eyes and a mouth, for the friendliest ghost your little goblins will love.

These adorable no-bake Halloween treat bars combine some of our favorite spooky sweets with crispy rice cereal and melted chocolate. A sprinkle of edible googly eyes is the perfect finishing touch and makes the bars extra fun (and creepy!) for a Halloween get-together.

This easy chocolate roll cake starts with a package of chocolate wafer cookies that becomes a Halloween dessert centerpiece. We upped the spooky effect by decorating the cake with gummy spiders on a “web” made from melted marshmallows. We color the marshmallow with orange food coloring but feel free to change it to green or whatever color you like. When ready to serve, slice through the marshmallow webbing and scary spiders to reveal a beautiful hypnotic swirl.

These Halloween-themed brownies provide a scary-good backdrop for spooky white chocolate ghosts. The ghosts are super easy to make with melted white chocolate and dabs of store-bought black icing for the eyes and mouth. Somewhere between fudgy and cakey, the brownies are spread with a salty-sweet chocolate glaze, which really makes the ghosts pop.

This candy corn-themed pie is one of our favorites. The colorful layers are tinted naturally with lemon juice, fresh mango and coconut milk so the finished dessert has a pleasantly tropical flavor—but looks just like the beloved Halloween candy. The pie is piled high with fluffy meringue (that’s toasted with a kitchen torch until browned and extra delicious) and then decorated with pieces of candy corn for a dessert that’s sure to keep your guests spellbound.

Liven up Halloween with this eerie-adorable dessert that highlights ghostly candy eyeballs peeking out of a crunchy vivid green topping. It’s a perfect spooky mashup of fudgy, chewy brownies and crispy rice treats with lots of gooey marshmallow magic. Bonus: A secret layer of melted white chocolate that’s loaded with festive sprinkles.

These spooky buns are a sticky, chewy treat. The center marshmallow "disappears" into a sweet colorful goo...like magic!

These charming ghost cupcakes are decorated with the social media-famous flat frosting method, a technique that produces a smooth, expert-looking finish that’s super easy once you learn the secret. We start with rich chocolate cupcakes that get their spooky black-as-night color from black cocoa powder, then pipe a simple ghost shape on top with homemade vanilla buttercream. Gently flipping the cupcakes over and letting them chill creates a flat, even surface for decorating. When turned right-side up, just add eyes and a mouth to turn each into a classic Halloween ghost.

Create a haunted scene for your Halloween table with this creepy-cute layer cake. Conjure up your own eerie decorations with a little help from the viral rice paper wrapper trend—but cut the wrappers into spooky ghost shapes instead of flowers. They spring to life in hot oil and only take seconds to cook.

A couple of easy piping techniques transform a simple meringue into spooky ghosts, pumpkins and jack-o’-lanterns for Halloween. You’ll need some orange and green food coloring; make sure they’re not oil based, since fat can make a meringue deflate.

This irresistible snack mix takes the well-known combination of corn cereal, chocolate, peanut butter and confectioners’ sugar and gives it a Halloween twist. Mini candy bars (omnipresent this time of year) stand in for the chips and peanut butter. Salted peanuts and candy corn add color and salty crunch. The combination is scary good for Halloween--and the days after.

These spider cookies are entertaining for little ones and adults to make together. From pushing chocolate candies into warm cookies, to drawing spider legs with chocolate and making silly eyes, there's plenty of fun for everyone.

Want something ghoulishly delicious? This gory brain is really a giant crispy rice cereal treat filled with silky chocolate mousse.

His and hers Halloween shakes (one mint, one vanilla) are made in a single batch, then dressed up for the holiday in this ultimate trick-or-treat.

Add some extra Halloween flair to pumpkin cheesecake with a classic jack-o'-lantern brownie grin.

For an easy Halloween treat, try these adorable ghosts made from crispy rice cereal. All you need is a handful of ingredients and a ghost-shaped cookie cutter. Stamping out and decorating the ghosts can be a fun activity with kids. The treats are dusted with white sanding sugar, which gives them a nice crunch and beautiful sparkle.

Not only does this festive bull's-eye cake slice up into pieces that look like giant candy corns, the inside holds a secret cache of the treats themselves that spill forth when you open it up.

Wrap up your dessert prep with Halloween-inspired hand pies you can make ahead of time and serve later.

Although it looks almost like a cake, this graveyard is made up of individual cupcakes, making it a self-serve party option. Just grab your cupcake and go — no knives necessary.

These easy-to-make pops have tart apple slices underneath a webbed chocolate shell.

This simple method for tempering chocolate will give you smooth, shiny hot cocoa bombs. Use a good-quality bittersweet chocolate with at least 70% cacao for best results. You can make the bombs ahead of time, but wait until right before serving to cover them in the webbing.

Follow Giada's recipe to transform store-bought pizza dough into a sweet two-bite snack with a "bloody" raspberry dipping sauce.

Spook your guests with these "boo-tiful" cupcakes topped with chocolate ghosts. For the design, you simply glaze plain cupcakes with melted dark and white chocolate.

Spook your friends and serve a creepy brain, complete with fruit syrup "blood," on Halloween. This no-bake strawberry cheesecake is made in a plastic mold to look hauntingly real.

Break out your gingerbread man cookie cutter early this year; it's just the tool you need to make these easy cookies. With a little icing, you can pipe your way to frightfully fun Halloween treats.

Crushed chocolate cookies are the "dirt" in this no-bake dessert, while gummy worms on top add even more squeal-appeal. For the pudding layers, we folded in whipped sweetened cream cheese for flavor and loft. Be sure to assemble it in a glass dish so you can see the layers.

Conjure up some Halloween fun with these yummy mummy cereal treats. Insert a lollipop stick into the bottom of each treat to make a grab-and-go snack for your favorite little monsters.

Marshmallows are the “web” on top of these classic candy apples, which are guaranteed to bring a touch of sweet nostalgia to your Halloween bash.

You're only five kitchen staples away from having a dozen bones to pick. Use your favorite strawberry or raspberry jam to hold these creepy treats together.

Get crafty with this edible witch's hat: chocolate-flavored rice cereal, green food coloring and edible gold dust transform ordinary crispy rice treats into a sweet Halloween centerpiece.

This versatile pie can morph to fit many moods. Freeze it for an icy delight, or just refrigerate instead if you're looking for something a little softer (or you run out of time). Or leave out the candy all together for something a little less rich. You decide.

These aren't ordinary popcorn balls. Giada's sticky treats contain chopped chocolate bars, chocolate chip cookies, salted almonds and Halloween-colored candies.

Jazz up pumpkin pie with a simple jack-o'-lantern cut-out made with extra dough. It bakes with the pie so there are no extra baking steps; and your guests will love the whimsical attention to detail.

Flip pear halves upside down and you've got yourself skulls! A resealable plastic bag makes it easy to pipe the candy faces.

This deep, dark chocolate cake is the perfect canvas for an eerie holiday dessert. Top it with a spider web or a mummy made from melted and stretched marshmallows.

Add some ghostly character to homemade pumpkin pudding with a dollop of meringue and some candy eyes.

These hi-hat cupcakes hide a sweet surprise of festive candy corn colors.

Short on time and ingredients? A few pantry staples are all you need to make a last-minute treat guests can enjoy by the eyeful.

Sprinkle chocolate-glazed doughnut holes with festively colored nonpareils for sweet treats everyone will want to munch on.

Ree takes her caramel apples to the next level by rolling them in crushed chocolate cookies for a "dirt" finish.

Everyone at your Halloween party will be love these creepy treats: decadently rich and fudgy brownies topped with a gooey marshmallow spider web and adorable candy spiders.

County fair funnel cakes take a haunting turn as cinnamon-spiced fritter "webs." Serve with gummy spiders for the full effect!

Use gooey marshmallow "threads" and candy eyeballs to turn frozen banana treats into mummies for Halloween.

Don’t be scared at the sight of these eyeball-inspired gummy treats — they’re a tasty mix of chocolate chips, jiggly gelatin and coconut milk.

Three ingredients are all you need to make Sandra's easy spider bites. The chocolate-covered pretzels are just creepy enough for young kids to enjoy.

Go ahead and take a big bite out of these enchanting apples! They may look like they're under a spell but you'll find that they're perfectly sweet and delicious.

Ree's homemade popcorn balls, studded with peanuts and candy corn, are party-ready in just 25 minutes.

A pillowy meringue frosting and white candy halos make these super-light cupcakes especially angelic.

These fall-flavored treats are the perfect addition to any monster mash. Spoon vanilla frosting into a plastic bag and pipe in a zigzag pattern to make the deathly delicious mummy wrappings.

Simple, sweet and just a little eerie, these bite-size mummies are a de-frightful party treat.

The secret to this candy corn-inspired fudge is a quick chill in the fridge between layers so the colors set.

Whip up some egg whites and sugar to turn out these phantom meringue cookies.

Giada's Black Cat Pops are a purrfectly sweet Halloween party treat — and healthy to boot!

These scary-cute mini monsters are an easy, kid-friendly take on a baked Alaska. We love the toasty touches from using a torch on the meringue, but if you don’t have one, they are still delicious straight from the freezer. Feel free to substitute your favorite flavor of ice cream.

Meet your apple-a-day quota in the sweetest way possible. These beauties are dipped in an orange-colored candy coating, then drizzled with chocolate.

Give your guests a sweet scare with this gruesomely tasty spider dessert.

Halloween just got a new spooky treat that is decidedly as unsettling as it is delicious. White chocolate domes are filled with vanilla pudding, then sealed in with a delicate layer of sponge cake. Breaking into each dome reveals a pocket of oozing jam that raises the gross-out factor while also upping the yum factor!

Try this fun take on classic caramel apples: Cut fresh pears into wedges, coat with homemade caramel and make mousey "faces" with sesame seeds for the eyes and candy button noses.

These aren't turtles anymore! Give caramel and pecan clusters a creepy-crawly makeover with black licorice "legs."