Halloween Ghost Brownie Recipe

It's Halloween time, and we're all just trying to soak up all this fall goodness while it lasts. Fully embrace your Halloween spirit by creating something fun and spooky for your next party or family dinner. 

These spooky ghost brownies are the perfect addition to your next Halloween party or casual get-together. They're insanely easy to create, but look impressive. They're also much more appetizing than eyeball grapes or any other gruesome Halloween treat you could come up with. You can also get the kids involved with assembling them, but in my experience, you're going to be short a few marshmallows if you do that. 

Start by gathering your ingredients. We'll be preparing basic brownies — with a twist. To spookify them, we'll add some ghostly white chocolate chips, jumbo marshmallows, and buttercream frosting. We apologize ahead of time for your kid's sugar high. 

We're making our brownies from scratch, but if you want to take the easy way out (and who doesn't!?), you can just use a boxed brownie mix and add the ghosts on top — we won't tell!

A full list of ingredients and step-by-step instructions can be found at the end of this article.

Start by melting one-half cup (or one stick) of butter. Place the stick in a microwave-safe dish and microwave for 30 seconds. Stir and set aside. If the butter is not fully melted, microwave in additional ten-second intervals until melted. Make sure to avoid burning it — you'll definitely taste it if it does. 

Once the butter is melted, allow it to cool completely while you mix your brownie batter. 

Grab a large mixing bowl and begin to assemble all of the dry ingredients. Pour in one cup of white sugar, one-half cup of all-purpose flour, one-third cup of unsweetened cocoa powder, one-fourth teaspoon of baking powder, and one-fourth teaspoon of kosher salt.

Whisk the dry ingredients together with a whisk or fork. Make sure to whisk gently to avoid any of the powder being splashed out of the bowl — you need all of it! Once the dry ingredients have been combined, set aside and move on to the wet ingredients. 

Crack both eggs into a large mixing bowl and place in a stand mixer. Add the teaspoon of vanilla and beat together using the stand mixer's paddle attachment. Once the eggs have been beaten, stop the mixer and grab the dry ingredients. 

Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients into the egg mixture. Set the stand mixer to medium speed and gently pour in about one-half cup of dry ingredients at a time, making sure the batter is fully mixed before adding more.

Once all of the dry ingredients have been mixed into the batter, slow the stand mixer speed down to low. The batter will feel rather thick, but that's okay.

With the stand mixer running, carefully pour the cooled butter into the bowl. Mix until the butter is just mixed in and stop the mixer. We don't want to over-mix the batter. 

Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and pour in the half-cup of white chocolate chips. Using a large spoon, gently fold the chocolate chips into the batter, making sure they're well distributed.

Pour the batter into a glass eight-by-eight inch baking dish that has been sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. The batter will be thick, so feel free to use a rubber scraper to scoop all of it into the dish and spread it out. Bake the brownies for about 22 minutes. When they appear to be done, stick a toothpick or fork into the center of the pan. If it comes out clean, they're ready to cool. If there is still batter on the toothpick, allow them to bake for two to three additional minutes and check again.

Once the brownies are baked, remove them from the oven and allow them to cool. They should be completely cooled before decorating them. If they're still too warm, they'll most likely fall apart when transferring them to the serving dish. Hot brownies will also cause the frosting and marshmallows to melt. We want our ghosts to look spooky, not deflated.

While the brownies are cooling, we'll prepare our spooky frosting. Place a medium saucepan over low heat and add one-half cup or one stick of butter. Pour in one teaspoon pure vanilla extract and melt the butter. As soon as the butter is melted, start incorporating the powdered sugar. 

Pour about one-half cup powdered sugar into the saucepan and beat with a hand mixer until combined. Repeat this step with all two cups of powdered sugar. Once the powdered sugar has been mixed in, the frosting will be very thick. 

Add one tablespoon warm water to thin out the frosting and continue adding tablespoons of warm water until you've reached your desired frosting consistency. Usually two to four tablespoons of warm water is plenty. We want the frosting to be thin enough to easily spread over the brownie without running off.

Once the brownies have cooled, cut them into 12 squares and place them on individual serving dishes. Top each brownie with a jumbo marshmallow and pour about two tablespoons of frosting over each one. If the marshmallow falls off, place a little frosting directly on the brownie, then stick the marshmallow to it. Don't worry about the frosting looking uneven. We want it to look like a ghost flying.

Allow the frosting to dry slightly, then pain a spooky ghost face onto each marshmallow. Use black gel frosting to paint on two small eyes and one large circle for the mouth. Then top with a little more frosting and enjoy!