Impress Your Halloween Party Guests With Jack-O'-Lantern Quesadillas

There are few decorations as iconic to Halloween celebrations as the jack-o'-lantern. While jack-o'-lanterns are traditionally made by carving fun faces into pumpkins, you can also indulge your desire to play with your food and make jack-o'-lantern-inspired snacks!

One such Halloween treat is a jack-o'-lantern quesadilla. These quesadillas are classic, quick quesadillas stuffed with cheese and any other fillings you feel like adding. However, carving a jack-o'-lantern face into the top tortilla gives them a spooky twist. You can get creative and make your faces as spooky or sweet as you like. Then, serve them whole or cut them into bite-sized snacks to feed your guests at this year's Halloween party.

If this treat sounds like something you'd like to try making, here's a quick rundown on how to go about it. Plus, we've got some other jack-'o-lantern-inspired Halloween party food you can make for your seasonal events that are bound to be crowd-pleasers.

Even though they have a fancy-sounding name, jack-o'-lantern quesadillas are easy to make. You need two flour tortillas for each jack-o'-lantern you plan to make and some cheese. If you want party-sized quesadillas, use small flour tortillas instead of large tortillas. To go beyond plain cheese, consider using rotisserie chicken, cooked ground beef, or other meats and veggies you like.

Regardless of the fillings you decide to add, once they're prepped and ready, spread them out onto the base tortilla or divide them amongst several base tortillas if you're making more than one. Next, get the top tortilla and cut a jack-o'-lantern face pattern into it with a knife. Creative folks can cut both tortillas into a pumpkin shape or use a pumpkin-shaped cookie cutter — but make sure you only carve a face into the top tortilla. Otherwise, you'll get gooey cheese and filling all over the place.

With your faces carved out of the top tortillas, layer it over the filled base tortillas and place the jack-o'-lantern quesadillas onto a baking tray. Finish by brushing butter or oil on the top tortillas and baking them in the oven until the cheese is melted and the tortillas are golden brown. Then, remove the tortillas from the oven and enjoy!

Jack-o'-lantern tortillas aren't the only spooky-faced foods you can make for your next Halloween party. One option is a twist on smiley face fries — jack-o'-lantern sweet potato fries. To make these treats, cut a sweet potato into slices rather than fingers as you typically would for fries. Then, cut small faces into each potato slice, sprinkle them with salt and oil, and bake them until they're crispy. If you don't like sweet potatoes, you can use regular potatoes even though they don't have a festive orange color.

For those who want a sweet treat, try creating jack-o'-lantern cake pops. To make these desserts, follow a classic cake pop recipe, but dip your confections in orange candy melts so they take on a bright, pumpkin-orange color. Then, use an edible marker to draw spooky faces onto each tiny pumpkin.

Perhaps the perfect option for those who aren't great at carving shapes into their food is making a Halloween pumpkin snack board. Arrange black and orange snacks on a board so they take on the quintessential jack-o'-lantern shape. Whether you make quesadillas, sweet potato fries, or cake pops, we encourage you to get creative this Halloween with jack-o'-lantern snacks!