I love nothing more than using a holiday as an excuse to feast on an endless amount of snacks. It has also given me an excuse to put together some fun, creative, tasty and best of all, vegan treats. WOOO! The best thing about these recipes is that they are quick and practically make themselves. They can all be done in an afternoon, and while one is cooking, the other can be cooling, and another popping!

I absolutely love the idea of using mini pumpkins as a jelly mould! Ok, it's probably definitely not the most unique idea out there but, it's Halloween and I had to use a pumpkin in someway. It's like Halloween rules or something... seriously.

I feel like I don't need to explain how to make jelly, but just in case, add the crystals and the amount of hot water labelled on the packet and mix until all the crystals have dissolved. Easy right? The jelly I've used is 'Hartley's Strawberry Glitter Jelly'. Double check the ingredients to make sure they don't contain gelatine or other ingredients derived from animals. I was actually surprised by the amount of vegan jellies available in supermarkets. Finding jellied worms without gelatine was a little harder, but the two options I found were 'Biona Organic Sour Snakes' or 'Marks & Spencer Colin the Caterpillar'. The worms* don't need to be added but it adds to the theme of spooookkkkyyyyy!

As these treats are 'quick and easy', I have chosen to use a boxed cake mix, but if you have a favourite homemade mix you like, use that instead. Most of the boxed mixes will ask for eggs, and for my egg substitute, I made a flaxseed egg (1 tbsp ground flax seeds to 2.5 tbsp water). There are plenty of options so check online to find your favourite. I added a little red food dye to the mixture because what is Halloween without constant blood references? Make sure you fully leave the cake to cool before you start to crumble it. I love using coconut in cake making, so using coconut milk to bind the mixture was a dream! Make sure it's full-fat and that it has been chilled in the fridge for at least 24hours beforehand. Turn the can upside down, so the cream sits at the top and scoop. Please please don't shake the can before you open it. Disaster!

Your cake pops should ideally be 1" and no bigger than 1.5", as I don't think your tiny sticks can handle much more weight. Make sure they're all smooth in texture and uniform in size. Place these into the fridge for 1-2 hours. You can even make them the night before. To help prepare your pop sticks, dip them a little into the melted chocolate before slowly placing them into your cake pop. Place them into the freezer for around 30 minutes; making sure they're cold is a very important stage. I didn't do this the first time and my cake pops kept falling off, so don't make the same mistake. Dip your pop into the chocolate and tap away any excess. There should be enough chocolate to submerge your cake pop, if not use a spoon to pour it over, don't swirl them around in the chocolate as again, they will fall off. I used a spatula to create a distressed texture on the chocolate. If you want to sprinkle any decorations on do that before the chocolate starts to harden, if not, leave the chocolate to cool. You can decorate your cake pops however you like. I used dedicated coconut (which I added food dye to), and drizzled with leftover chocolate. YUM!

What is Halloween without a movie night, and what is a movie night without popcorn? I shall answer that question for you... a very bad one. My popcorn preference has always been salted over sweet, but when you add a load of melted chocolate, marshmallows and biscuits, it soon overrides all my love for salted. Adding the orange caramel gives the popcorn a little tang, very unexpected with popcorn, but it really works.

I hope these have inspired you to get creative! Let me know in the comments below what your favourite Halloween treat is. If you make any of these recipes, make sure you tag me in your photos, I'd love to see.