Whether you're throwing a birthday party for someone who was born on October 31 or an individual who loves Halloween so much that a birthday party centered around the holiday will bring them joy, the food that you serve can help bring the occasion to life in a unique, creative way. If you need a little help coming up with a menu, the Halloween birthday party food ideas below are sure to inspire you.
Main Dishes for a Halloween Birthday Party
If you're serving a full meal, choose the main course first. That way, you can build out the rest of the Halloween birthday party menu to complement whatever Halloween-themed main course masterpiece you decide to serve.
Birthday Boo Burgers
Hamburgers are a popular option for casual birthday parties, as they provide an easy way for guests to customize their main course to their liking. Set up a burger bar with a selection of burger patties, condiments, and creative toppings so guests can assemble their own birthday boo burgers. Find out what the guest of honor likes on their burger and assemble theirs to look spectacularly spooky ahead of time, then instruct guests to follow suit.
Ghosteroni Birthday Pizza
Pizza parties are also a great option for an informal birthday party. Adapt them to the Halloween theme by getting creative with how the toppings are arranged. For example, you can start with a standard pizza, but arrange white shredded cheese so that it will melt to form ghost shapes, then arrange sliced black olives to form spooky spiders.
Devilish Birthday Croissants
Croissants are a great option for a birthday brunch, and brunch is a great time for a Halloween birthday party. It's a great way to mark the occasion while keeping the evening free for trick-or-treating. It's easy to embellish croissants for Halloween with creatively cut slices of ham, sausage, cucumbers, jam, or other ingredients. Devilish croissants like these are perfect for a Halloween birthday brunch, though they'd be just as yummy for an afternoon or evening gathering.
Birthday Pasta and Eyeballs
If you're hosting a sit-down dinner party, pasta is a great selection. Bring Halloween to life at the dinner table by serving pasta slathered in blood-red meat sauce or marinara and topped with eyeballs fashioned from mozzarella or ricotta cheese and olives. Green pasta makes the dish look particularly ghoulish, but you could opt for any kind of pasta. If you want an even more gruesome-looking concoction, use squid ink pasta (which is black).
Poltergeist Pesto Pasta
Red sauce isn't the only option for Halloweeny pasta. Impress or horrify (but in a good way!) your guests by serving poltergeist pesto pasta instead of - or in addition to - birthday pasta and eyeballs. Simply make your favorite pesto recipe and toss it with any kind of pasta you wish to serve. Top it off with mozzarella and olive eyeballs, then use olives to form a nose, mouth, and hair. Finish it off with some sprigs of fresh basil.
Spooktacular Birthday Party Sides and Appetizers
Putting together a Halloween birthday party menu is an exercise in creepy creativity. No matter what else you serve, you'll want to include some Halloween-themed side dishes and/or snacky finger foods.
Sweet Potato Salad
It's impossible to incorporate too much orange food into a Halloween-themed birthday party. With that in mind, consider preparing a chilled sweet potato salad for the occasion. It'll pair just as well with burgers, pizza, or croissants as it will with an elegant (albeit creepy-looking) pasta entree.
Black Bean Dip
Just like orange food is perfect for a Halloween-themed birthday party, the same is true for black food. Make your favorite bean dip recipe, but use cooked black beans (canned or ones you cook yourself) instead of another type of bean. If you don't already have a favorite bean dip recipe, try substituting black beans in this white bean dip recipe or a hummus recipe. Serve with tortilla chips, crackers, or a veggie tray.
Creepy Eyeball Caprese
If you're looking for a super-Halloweeny side dish or salad, this creepy take on Caprese is a flavor-filled selection that's much more likely to delight than to inspire fright. Start with some large fresh basil leaves, then place a slice of tomato on top of each one. Add some fresh mozzarella on top of the tomato, then add the finishing touch to the top - a pupil in the form of a slice of black olive.
Halloween Party Mix
Make sure guests have plenty of nibbles on which to nosh by setting out several bowls of crunchy party mix for snacking. Whip up a few different, yet equally tasty, party mix recipes. Toss in some candy corn, candy pumpkins, or other Halloween candy to give them a seasonal flair as well as a unique savory and sweet flavor profile.
Creative Halloween-Themed Birthday Cake Ideas
No birthday party is complete without a themed birthday cake. There are a lot of really cool ways to decorate Halloween cakes, from really easy to more complex designs.
Bloody Red Velvet Birthday Cake
If you're looking for a creative Halloween cake idea that doesn't require cake decorating skills, make a red velvet cake and slather it with white cream cheese frosting or buttercream icing. Drizzle strawberry or cherry sauce over the top and stab it with a knife (that can serve double duty to cut the cake).
Ghost Meringue Birthday Cake
There's no need for candles on a Halloween birthday cake. Instead, mark the passing of the years with a ghost meringue for each year. You can use this technique with any kind of cake, from the minimally frosted chocolate layer cake pictured to a large sheet cake. Choose the cake type and size based on the number of guests as well as the amount of space you need to include a ghost meringue to mark the number of trips around the sun the guest of honor is celebrating.
Halloween Graveyard Dirt Cake
You can make a fairly simple Halloween graveyard cake by preparing a basic dirt cake and topping it with cookies decorated to look like tombstones and a few strategically placed gummy worms or similarly ghoulish-looking candies. Of course, there are plenty of other ways to outfit dirt cakes for Halloween; you don't have to stick with a graveyard cake design.
Giant Skull Cookie
It's shocking, but not everyone loves cake. Giant decorated cookies are a popular substitute. For a Halloween birthday cookie, prepare a sugar cookie dough and fashion the dough into the shape of a skull rather than individual cookies or a large circle. Bake on a cookie sheet or pizza stone as you would for ordinary cookies, adding about five minutes to allow for the larger size. When the cooked cookie cools a bit, brush sugary glaze over the top and add Halloween candy and/or fresh berries to the top.
Have a Howling Halloween Birthday
A Halloween birthday party is sure to be fun, especially when the menu includes tasty selections in line with the theme. Don't forget to feature a selection or spooky Halloween cocktails for adult attendees who like to imbibe, as well as nonalcoholic punch options for those who are under 21 or prefer not to drink.
