Halloween treats for lazy college students

OK, maybe you’re not lazy – you just have enough to do already and the last thing you need is a three-hour recipe to finish before the potluck you’re going to this Halloweekend. Here are four Halloween-themed desserts, all with different intentions, so be sure to check out the ratings when deciding which one works best for you. They can all be made gluten-free, too!

1. Pumpkin Cupcakes

EASINESS: 1/4

HEALTHINESS: 2/4

TASTINESS: 3/4

CUTENESS: 4/4

Ingredients:

• Cupcake box mix (plus the ingredients on the back)
• Orange icing, or white icing with food dye
• If you use food dye, I suggest 1 drop of red with 3 drops of yellow. Make it a darker orange by doubling the amount of drops.
• Mini pretzel sticks

Directions:

• Use your favorite cupcake box mix (or your own recipe) to make cupcakes
• After the cupcakes cool, apply a generous amount of your orange icing
• There are a few ways you can make them look more like pumpkins, I suggest trying all three and deciding which works best for you!
  • Add extra icing along the edge of your knife and dab it in lines from the middle of the cupcake down to the sides, creating elevated lines (this is the technique used on the front pumpkin cupcake in the photo)
  • Clean off your knife and use it to draw lines on the cupcake, actually removing icing from where you’re drawing the lines rather than adding it (this is the technique used on the cupcake to the right of the center cupcake in the photo)
  • Use your knife to spread the icing unevenly, creating a bumpy, authentic look (this is the technique used on the cupcake to the left of the center cupcake in the photo)
• Break your mini pretzel stick in half and stick it in the center of the top of the cupcake, broken side down, until just a little bit of the pretzel is poking out the top, as the stem of the pumpkin

Witch’s Brooms

EASINESS: 4/4

HEALTHINESS: 3/4

TASTINESS: 1/4

CUTENESS: 3/4

Ingredients:

• Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
• Mini Pretzel Sticks (the thinner, the better!)

Directions: (this one’s pretty self-explanatory…)

• Unwrap the peanut butter cups and put them on the plate with the larger side faced down
• Push 1 pretzel stick into the center of the top of each peanut butter cup

Candy Corn Fruit Cup

EASINESS: 3/4

HEALTHINESS: 4/4

TASTINESS: 2/4

CUTENESS: 1/4

Ingredients:

• Clementines
  • I used canned mandarin oranges in the photo, but it’ll be tastier if you use clementines!
• Pineapple (fresh, not canned – fresh is more yellow, canned isn’t colorful and kind of defeats the purpose)
  • You can also use any other yellow fruit instead of pineapple
• Whipped cream
• Candy corn (optional, for decoration)
• Cups/glasses (must be clear)

Directions: (this one’s also pretty self-explanatory…)

• Fill the bottom third of the glass with pineapple
• Fill the middle third of the glass with peeled clementine slices
• Fill the top of the glass with a generous amount of whipped cream
• Add a piece of candy corn on top

Candy Corn Milkshake

EASINESS: 2/4

HEALTHINESS: 1/4

TASTINESS: 4/4

CUTENESS: 2/4

Ingredients:

• Vanilla ice cream
• Whipped cream
• Orange food dye OR orange sherbet
• Yellow food dye OR a yellow sorbet
• Candy corn (optional, for decoration)
• If you use orange sherbet and a yellow sorbet, you will not need vanilla ice cream*
• Cups/glasses (must be clear)

Directions:

• Mix the yellow food dye into vanilla ice cream with a spoonIf using yellow sorbet instead, still mix it up a bit to soften the sorbet into a more liquid texture
• Do not use a blender. This will make the ice cream too thin and will ruin the color separation in the glass
• Fill 1/3 of the glass with the yellow ice cream you made (or yellow sorbet)
• Mix yellow and red food dye into vanilla ice cream with a spoonIf using orange sherbet instead, still mix it up a bit to soften the sherbet into a more liquid texture
• Do not use a blender. This will make the ice cream too thin and will ruin the color separation in the glass
• Fill the middle of the glass with the orange ice cream you made (or orange sherbet)
• Fill the top of the glass with a generous amount of whipped cream
• Add a piece of candy corn on top