Spooky snacks for Halloween: Chocolate bats and monster cakes

Pastry shops in the UAE are getting increasingly creative with their creepy confectionery

Halloween-themed cakes and cupcakes at Mister Baker. Photo: Mister Baker

Halloween is around the corner, with plenty of parties and events planned for the weekend before October 31. If you're hosting your friends – or your children's friends – at home this year, or looking for something to spice up the office party, here are some spooky snacks to seek out.

Chocolate bats and macabre macarons at Laduree

Spider's web-printed macarons at Laduree. Photo: Laduree

The French patisserie has two Halloween-themed snacks this season, available from now until Tuesday, and promises these are terrifying yet tasty.

First up is a new recipe: Popcorn tart (from Dh52) has a crusty dough base with corn almond cream, macadamia nuts, roasted corn praline and caramel popcorn. It is garnished with corn-whipped ganache and a chocolate belt studded with edible bats.

Laduree is also retailing its limited-time Halloween macaron box (Dh155), with eight pieces of the confectionery, each printed with an eerie spider's web for you to sink your fangs into.

Zombie eyeballs and pumpkin shortbread at M&S

Clockwise from top left, Colin the Caterpillar super sours; HallowScream munch mix; Zombie Eyeballs and sour spiders; and shortbread light-up pumpkin tin. Photo: M&S

Marks & Spencer has a collection of spooky candy, ideal for house or office parties and trick-or-treat distribution, available from now until Tuesday.

Menacing Menagerie (Dh13) is on the menu, wherein chocolate shells are packed with caramel slime, as are milk chocolate balls repackaged as the Ghoulish Gang (Dh13). You can also pick up packets of Zombie Eyeballs (Dh19), sour spiders (Dh9) or Halloween-themed Colin the Caterpillar super sours (Dh15).

If you're looking for something savoury, consider the HallowScream munch mix (Dh23), while the light-up pumpkin tin (Dh49) is a suitably spooky gift filled with all-butter shortbread bats, ghosts, and pumpkins

Monster cake and RIP cupcakes at Mister Baker

Monster's eye cake at Mister Baker. Photo: Mister Baker

If you're celebrating a birthday this Halloween, or just fancy some freaky-looking cake, Mister Baker has you covered.

Available in 3kg and 4kg sizes, choose from an eye monster cake (from Dh357) and multi-tiered Halloween castle cake (Dh1,197), complete with a creaky gate, tombstones, flying apparitions and pumpkins.

Pumpkins and RIP gravestones also adorn chocolate cupcakes (Dh35 per piece).

Artisanal bonbons and candy at Sugargram

Boo cupcake and candy collection. Photo: Sugargram

Best known for its bite-sized cupcakes, Sugargram has released its Boo collection for Halloween, with themed packaging that says as much.

Within you can find mini cupcakes (Dh140 for 25), or choose between artisanal bonbons (Dh40 for five) and limited-time candy (Dh66), each individually wrapped as pumpkins, ghouls, spiders et al. The latter is available until Tuesday.

Each confection is also named based on its flavour – think Blueberry Bat, Cherry Skull and Choc-O-Lantern.