Halloweening your food

I have broken free from the shackles of my usual post format to bringing you some foodspiration for your Halloween party.

For those with children who dread the onslaught of sugar, here’s how to get them excited about vegetables and fruit with a little Halloween presentation. And for those who just want a rocking Halloween buffet or a themed dinner without spending a fortune or serving something unsophisticated, I hope this sparks your imagination.

Picture your Halloween table, a glorious spread of festive delights centred round a huge hollowed out pumpkin, filled with hot steaming pumpkin soup.

And what a spread! Pumpkin and walnut bread for soupy dipping. MINI PUMPKINS (must be squealed with must excitement in order to express the cuteness) acting as recepticles for ghoulish coloured dips or stuffed with something warm and filling like brioche, leek and cheese or beef and chorizo mole.

A bowl of blood red punch topped with eery floating carved apples for bobbing. (Cranberry juice for kids, sangria for grown ups!)

A chocolate mousse with banana ghosts and biscuit toombstones rising from a layer of “grave dirt” made from crumbled chocolate biscuits.

Tomatoes and mini peppers carved like Jack O’Lanterns and stuffed with cream cheese for contrast. Rocky Horror style apple mouths filled with marshmallow teeth, cemented in place with peanut butter.

Mini hassleback potatoes customised with peppercorn eyes to make flobby worms, alien hands or spiders formed from fine beans smothered in pesto.

The orange, green and black colour theme of Halloween needn’t involve food colouring – try cous-cous salads with roasted butternut squash, or saffron and orange, feature black olives, green vegetables and be creative about how you arrange things.

And with your leftover pumpkin… might I recommend pumpkin cannelloni as one of the yummiest and most comforting foods you will ever eat!