11 Halloween Tricks You Can Play With Food

In the right hands, "trick-or-treat" can be transformed into trick and treat. Scary doesn't have to be difficult or stressful; it can be fun and entertaining. With just a few ingredients from the kitchen, you can have your guests sipping homemade drinkable blood from a plastic baroque goblet or squirming while slurping down Jell-O worms.

Slime feels gross, damp, and slippery. The texture alone is cringe-inducing. But being able to slurp edible slime at your Halloween party can make for a great time. A little powdered mix or food coloring can turn your slime green or blue for monster blood, red for human innards, or pink for melted brains. Eat at your own risk.

Frothy smoking beverages will definitely take your celebration to the next level. With a little dry ice, you can make any drink terrifying, morphing that juice, soda, or cocktail into a mysterious mad scientist potion. All that's missing is the maniacal laughter of the mad potion maker who is ready to dissect your brains; just make sure you follow proper safety guidelines for handling dry ice, as direct contact can burn exposed skin.

Tiptoeing through the laboratory of a deranged scientist, you would see his gruesome collection of jars holding ghastly items: a severed finger suspended in green goo, jellied orbs shockingly similar to eyeballs, and the most terrifying of all, a large brain in a jar. Recreate the lab with pickled brains for your next gathering. Trick-or-treaters will never guess that it's actually a pickled cauliflower until they are served these "brains" on a plate.

Your cheese plate can look like an experiment gone wrong with the horrifying flayed skin cheeseball at its center. All it takes is a face-shaped mold, a yummy cheese ball recipe like appetizer cheese ball or smoked salmon cheese ball, and prosciutto. Different molds can also be used: put a human heart on the plate or make a menacing hand missing its skin. Ripping into flesh never tasted so good. 

A brain would make an eerie centerpiece for your Halloween table. For the spine-chilling melon brain, remove the skin of a watermelon until you reach the rind. With a sharp knife, carve squiggly lines and designs, allowing the red of the fruit to show. For an even easier option, cut a cantaloupe in half, as its skin already resembles brains. Guests will love pretending to be zombies and devour these brains.

What can be spookier than a dish with moldy green and bloodshot eyes starring up at you? Guacamol-dy eyeballs are made from hard-boiled eggs filled with guacamole and topped with half a pimento-stuffed olive. Complete the scary look with hot sauce squiggles to suggest blood. What was the last thing these creepy peepers saw?

Imagine the surprise when your guests discover a severed hand floating in the punch bowl. It might give them second thoughts about what they are getting ready to drink. A little severed hand sangria will definitely be that trick that is actually a treat. Using Thorny Rose Red Wine Blend Punch or a big batch of Scorpion Punch can be bloody good replacements. For a non-alcoholic substitute, try any red punch or juice.  

Serving part of rotten corpse that has been exhumed, bloody with decaying flesh, would be stomach turning. Though it sounds more terrifying than appetizing, a meat hand can be a ghoulishly edible Halloween prop. This meatloaf in the shape of a hand with onion fingernails and details will make your guests gasp with both horror and delight. 

Slithering slimy worms can induce the heebie-jeebies, so a big old plate of them could be absolutely heart-stopping. Lifelike Jell-O blood worms can pop up in all sorts of places at a Halloween shindig: squirming atop cupcakes and cakes for a graveyard feel, resting at the bottom of drink glasses for a fright, or as edible decorative props on your other dishes. 

Some people are squeamish at the sight of blood. Halloween blood slide suckers inspired by everyone's favorite serial killer Dexter will give guests the chills. Homemade transparent candies and a little bit of red dye for blood make for a disturbing treat. Use other colors to create other specimens to intensify the scare factor, while different fillings can make invisible pops just as gruesome.

Vampires are not the only ones who can drink blood; Halloween guests can get a little taste too. Mix ⅓ cup of water into a container, combine with 1 teaspoon of chocolate syrup, 3 teaspoons of light corn syrup, and 5 to 8 drops of red food coloring to create drinkable blood. Chill and put into vials with guests' names as creepy placeholders on your holiday table.