Halloween is probably one of our favourite times of year and a great opportunity to get creative. You really can go to the extreme when planning a Halloween themed party. One of my favourite spooky recipes is Blood Soup! It’s actually just Beetroot Soup and has quite an impact on guests as well as being really healthy!

Here’s a rough recipe:

• 4-6 medium beetroots

• 1 tin (500g) ripe tomatoes, diced

• 2 cloves garlic, chopped roughly

• 1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped

• 2 tbsp olive or sunflower oil

• 500ml good strong stock (beef, vegetable or chicken)

• Salt + Pepper to taste

Tip: You could also add grated Parmesan for extra flavour (pretend it’s worms)

This is just one of many gruesome recipes but here’s a few more examples to suit children:

Creepy cuisine for Hallowe’en.
Thrill your children’s taste buds with these haunting recipes to make your flesh creep. Enough for six hungry ghouls.

 Witches’ brew
Mix two large cartons of red grape juice and a large bottle of sparkling water in a jug. Then add some jelly beans and worm gums. Pour into tumblers. For a fizzy, scummy effect, add a small dollop of ice-cream to each tumbler, then watch the bugs and worms wriggling around!

Bug juice
Serve a jug of lemonade or blackcurrant juice with currants and raisons added. Prize for however finds the most bugs. Include a small plastic frog, just to make them jump.

Vampire teeth chocolate cake
Use a cake mix to bake a medium-sized cake. When cool, decorate with thick chocolate icing. While the icing is still slightly soft, cut into slices and decorate each slice with a set of vampire teeth. Now, sink your teeth in slowly.

Worm burgers
Serve small cooked meat or veggie burgers on a bed of hot tinned spaghetti, garnished with lettuce so the worms feel at home.

Dead men’s fingers ice lollies
Pour fruit juice into several large rubber kitchen gloves (the unlined variety). Place in freezer overnight. When hard, remove glove from freezer and cut off the glove fingers. Serve dismembered fingers and hand on a large plate with a sprinkling of red food colouring. To eat, slowly squeeze out the frozen juice like a lolly.

Blood and guts sandwiches
Make up a mixed platter of jam, and sliced cooked cocktail sausage, or liver pate, sandwiches. Mix the fillings together if you dare!

Frogspawn
Make up a packet of tapioca according to the packet. Add a little green food colouring and a few decorative leaves for greater effect. Plastic frog optional except for witches. Don’t expect everyone to eat it though.

Eyeball soup
Serve hot tomato soup with some ready-cooked black-eye beans added. Nice with garlic bread for non-vampires.

Ghost buster
It’s easy to make up small meringues in the shape of little ghosts. Follow a meringue recipe, then pipe onto a rice-paper lined baking tray. Use currants for eyes. Guaranteed to stop your little ghouls from disappearing.

Maggots in green slime
Make up lime-flavoured jelly according to the packet. Pour into small paper cases. Add a few grains of cooked pudding rice to each paper cup.