Trick or treat!

How about a little bit of both? This Halloween grazing board has it all: creepy crawly candy, homemade sweets, and festive finger foods in every nook and cranny. The trick to creating a cornucopia of treats that's guaranteed to put spell on your guests is including something for everyone. Use the ingredient suggestions below to conjure up a grocery list, follow the easy steps for assembly, then get ready to eat, drink, and be scary!

Halloween treat board ingredients:

First things first: the ingredients. Don't worry, there's no eye of newt involved in this potion. Once you've decided which of the below grazing board suggestions to serve, grab your broomstick and head to the grocery store.

Large serving board

Every good grazing board starts with a sturdy base. Instead of purchasing something single-use, consider grabbing a large cutting board, serving platter, or wide and shallow bowl that you already have on hand. If you want to get extra spooktacular, cover it with a piece of orange paper or line the edges with festive napkins that will poke out when you place your ingredients on top.

Cups and cupcake liners to hold ingredients

To keep your board looking neat and make it easy for guests to grab what they want, mini cupcake liners and small paper or reusable cups are a great option for separating out each ingredient on your Halloween treat board. For the mini smoothies on this particular board, we used small ceramic cups.

Clementine pumpkins

Clementine pumpkins are an easy way to add a nutritious but still festive option between all the sweets on your Halloween treat board. To make them, peel and clean as many clementines as you'd like to include on your board, then cut a skinny sliver lengthwise out of a whole cucumber (you should end up with a long and thin "spear" with one side being dark peel). Trim the ends of your cucumber slice, then cut into 1 1/2 - 2" pieces or about 1/2" taller than your clementines. Push each piece of cucumber down through the middle of each clementine, leaving the top sticking out like a pumpkin stem.

Scary sugar cookies

Classic chewy sugar cookies with a crackly top get the Halloween treatment (AKA candy eyeballs and a touch of color) in this easy peasy recipe. Your guests will love the way these melt in their mouths like magic! If you're working with a small serving platter and don't want these cookies to take up too much real estate, make them mini by following the recipe as written, rolling the cookie dough into roughly 1 tablespoon size balls before rolling in sugar and baking.

Bewitching brownie truffles

With candy googly eyes and chocolate sprinkles for "fur," these bite-size brownie truffles are almost too cute to eat. But once your guests have tasted how scary delicious the fudgy monsters are, they'll be going back for more as if under a spell. Chocolate has a way of doing that, doesn't it?

Spooky smoothies

For another nutritious additon to your Halloween treat board, make a batch of your favorite green, orange, or purple smoothie recipe and portion it out into mini cups for serving. For green, try this kid-approved apple and spinach smoothie, which yields a vibrant color. For orange, a combination of clementine, mango, and banana will do the trick. And for purple, go for a classic concoction of blueberries and strawberries.

Gruesome gummy worms

It's always a good idea to incorporate some yummy gummies onto your Halloween treat board. Stick a few sour gummy worms into the mini smoothies to make them look extra gruesome. After all, every treat board needs a few tricks! You can also use regular gummy worms or even gummy snakes or spiders to fill in any gaps between the bigger items on your grazing board.

Purple people eater cupcakes

Equal parts spooky, adorable, and delicious, these purple people eater cupcakes are the perfect addition to your Halloween treat board. To make them mini, follow the recipe as written, but use mini cupcake tins instead of a standard one and decrease the bake time to 10-12 minutes. Who could resist those wacky one-eyed one-horned faces?

Petrifying pancake cereal

It's scary how quickly trends come and go, but mini pancake cereal will never go out of style. Skip the bowl and maple syrup and simply serve up some green, orange, and purple mini pancakes for munching. To color the batter, you'll need to divide it into three bowls and use natural dye or food coloring to create each hue before cooking.

Creepy candy and other terrifying treats

To round out your Halloween treat board, don't forget to pick up some bite-size candy to serve in cupcake liners. Candy pumpkins, candy corn, and any other favorites from the Halloween candy aisle will do the trick. If you're sticking to a color scheme, look for anything green, orange, or purple. Don't hesitate to balance out the candy with things like green and purple grapes, green apple slices, and even savory snacks like carrot sticks.

How to assemble a Halloween treat board:

Once you have your ingredients ready, it's time to assemble everything. The trick to making a bewitchingly inviting grazing board is to really pile on the treats; make it appear as though the board is overflowing, starting with the larger items and filling in gaps with the smaller ones.

Step 1

Place your clementine pumpkins in 2-3 small clusters on your serving platter. Add your mini smoothies in various spots.

Step 2

Lay the rest of your larger items - such as sugar cookies, brownie truffles, cupcakes, and mini pancakes - on your board, filling in some of the empty space but leaving plenty of small gaps. Try not to group any one particular item in a single area.

Step 3

Finally, nestle your smallest candies into any remaining gaps. Don't be afraid to overlap ingredients and rest smaller items on top of sturdier ones to give your Halloween treat board that overflowing effect!

Photo Credit: MINT + MALLOW Kitchen