Creepy Bats & Haunted Tree Halloween Skillet Cookie Recipe

This Halloween Skillet Cookie Recipe is nowhere near as complicated as it looks but will look amazing as the centerpiece at your Halloween dessert table!

This Halloween Skillet Cookie Recipe is nowhere near as complicated as it looks but will look amazing as the centerpiece at your Halloween dessert table!

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For more Halloween treats, I’ve got 50+ freakishly good Halloween Recipes for you to try out – right-click and open these other recipes in a new tab so that you can read them after this one!

Halloween Skillet Cookie Recipe

The full ingredients list and instructions are found in the printable recipe card at the end of this post. I highly recommend reading the blog post all the way through so that you don’t miss any tips or substitution suggestions, to ensure that you have all the ingredients and equipment required and understand the steps and timings involved.

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays! I love all the scary decorations, the costumes, and of course, the yummy treats.

Today, I’m sharing this giant Halloween skillet cookie that is sure to please everyone’s sweet tooth!

The easy-to-make dessert is decorated with creepy bats and a haunted tree piped on with frosting, and is perfect for giving your party a spooky vibe!

The post is part of the Crafty October series on The Purple Pumpkin Blog and is filled with free printables, crafts, recipes, and more for Halloween! You can check out Crafty October from 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, and 2012 for tons of awesome Halloween ideas and inspiration!

Ingredients & Equipment Used In This Recipe

While most ingredients can be bought in grocery stores, for your convenience, any specialized or notable ingredients and equipment needed for this recipe have been linked to Amazon or other stores if available online. Staple ingredients such as oil, salt, sugar, etc., aren’t always included here as you’re likely to have those in your kitchen. The complete list of ALL ingredients with measurements is found on the recipe card.

• Dairy – Unsalted Butter, Heavy Whipping Cream (Double Cream)
• Other – Eggs
• All-Purpose Flour – also known as Plain Flour.
• Baking Soda – also known as Bicarbonate of Soda.
• White Sugar
• Light Brown Sugar
• Pure Vanilla Extract – always buy good vanilla as it really does make a flavor difference.
• Halloween Sprinkles – orange and yellow jimmies sprinkles are used in this recipe, but you can use any Halloween sprinkles that you like! Make a mix of your own with different single sprinkle types, or buy a ready-made mix. Whatever you use, you will want about 2 cups (16oz/450g).
• Powdered Sugar – also known as Icing Sugar or Confectioners Sugar.
• Food Coloring Gel – you will need orange and black
• Special Equipment:
  • 9-inch Cast-Iron Skillet
  • 1 Piping Bag with Large Star Tip – such as a Wilton #1M
  • 1 Piping Bag with a Round Number 4 Tip
  • 1 Piping Bag with a Round Number 2 Tip

Recipes on The Purple Pumpkin Blog use both cup measurements and/or weighted measurements. American cups and kitchen food scales are handy pieces of equipment to have in your kitchen as it means you’ll be able to make all of the different recipes on my blog. I try to give American, imperial, and metric measurements in my recipes. Please note, that you can mix cup measurements with weighted measurements, but never mix imperial (pounds, ounces, pints, etc.,) with metric (kilograms, grams, liters, etc.,).

More Cookie Recipes

Want to make more cookies? Try these recipes:

• Halloween Spider Web Cookies
• Caramel Apple Cookies with Chocolate Chips Recipe
• Delicious Pumpkin Spice Sandwich Cookies

More Halloween Recipes

Looking for more Halloween treats to make? Check these recipes out next:

• Jack Skellington Mickey Mouse Rice Krispies Treats for Halloween
• Meringue Ghosts
• Caramel Candy Apples

Cupcake Frosting Tips

• When making the frosting you want the end result to be creamy, smooth, and hold a stiff peak. You may have to adjust the amount of powdered sugar and cream slightly to achieve the consistency you need.
• The frosting is then divided and colored using food coloring. Remember that you can always add more color, but not take it away. Add a little to start with and add more to get the shade required.
• FOOD COLORING! Food coloring is available in various forms. You’re most likely to find liquid coloring in your grocery store, and other types of coloring like gels, pastes, and powders in more specialised cake decorating shops. The cheapest option is liquids, but they can alter the consistency of your frosting and cake batter, so I prefer to use pastes or gels which don’t. A little goes a long way with food coloring gels and you can usually get a much deeper shade than you would with liquids.
• Turning white or cream frosting black can be tricky and can take a LOT of food coloring. A tip to counter that is to make a dark frosting by adding a tablespoon or two of cocoa powder. It will give you a slightly chocolate frosting, but on these vanilla cupcakes, that’s fine! Then adding black food coloring to the dark frosting shouldn’t take as much hard work to get a good deep black, rather than gray.
• Use a piping bag fitted with round tips #2 and #4 to pipe the haunted tree and bats.
• Use a piping bag fitted with a star tip to pipe the orange and black swirls around the giant Halloween cookie.
• There are two ways you can do multi-color frosting:
  • Scoop half the side of the piping bag with black frosting and the other half with orange, then squeeze some frosting out until the two colors combine.
  • Or, use the double piping bag by putting a piping bag of each color into another piping bag fitted with the tip and frosting as usual. Wilton has a great demonstration video on YouTube that I highly recommend.
• If you feel like you are going to be making a lot of cookies, cakes, and cupcakes in the future, I think it is worth investing in a set of piping tips so that you know you always have the right ones on hand for a recipe.
• Do not overfill the piping bag with frosting, and make sure you squeeze the frosting down the bag to expel any air bubbles.

How Do I Make A Halloween Skillet Cookie?

Check out the printable recipe card below with full ingredients and instructions. Any demonstration photos do not print out to save your ink.

Haunted Tree Halloween Skillet Cookie Recipe

Michelle Ordever

This Halloween Skillet Cookie Recipe is nowhere near as complicated as it looks but will look amazing as the centerpiece at your Halloween dessert table!

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Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 45 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 15 minutes mins

Course Desserts

Cuisine Halloween

Servings 6 -8

Calories 1352 kcal

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x4x

For the Cookie

• ¾ cup unsalted butter
• ¾ cup white sugar
• ¾ cup light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour plain flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp kosher salt
• 2 cups Halloween sprinkles reserve ½ cup for topping

For the Frosting

• 1 cup unsalted butter softened
• 2½ cups powdered sugar icing sugar
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 3 Tbsp heavy whipping cream double cream
• Orange food coloring gel
• Black food coloring gel

SUGGESTED PRODUCTS

• Halloween Sprinkles
• No. 2 Round Piping Tip (Wilton)
• No.4 Round Piping Tip (Wilton)
• Wilton 1M Open Star Piping Tip (2pk)
• 42 Pieces Piping Bags and Tips Set
• Icing Piping Bag & Tip Set
• Wilton Icing Colors 12-Piece Gel Food Coloring Set
• Disposable Piping Bags -100 Pack
• 9″ Pre-Seasoned Skillet

Instructions

 

• Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C/Gas 4. Spray a 9-inch cast-iron skillet with nonstick baking spray.
• Use an electric handheld or standing mixer to cream butter, white sugar, and brown sugar together in a bowl. Continue to beat with the electric mixer while adding the egg and pure vanilla extract.
• In another bowl sift or whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together.
• Slowly add ⅓ of the flour mixture at a time to the wet ingredients. Beat to combine between each addition. You will form a soft dough.
  
  
  
  
• Add 1 ½ cups of Halloween sprinkles to the cookie dough and fold to combine.
  
  
  
  
• Transfer the cookie dough to the prepared skillet and press to evenly cover the whole pan.
• Spread the remaining ½ cup of the sprinkles over the top of the unbaked cookie.
• Place skillet into the preheated oven and bake for 35-45 minutes until golden.
• Set aside to cool completely before decorating.
• To make the frosting, use an electric handheld or standing mixer, and beat the butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and heavy whipping cream together, until combined, smooth, and can hold stiff peaks.
• Scoop 1 cup of frosting into a small bowl and mix in a little orange food coloring gel and mix to reach the desired shade. Remember you can always add more coloring but not take it away!
• To the remaining frosting, add black food coloring gel, and mix to reach the desired shade. Making black can be tricky, to overcome this, if suitable I add a spoonful of dark cocoa powder to the frosting mix to help darken it.
• Place ½ cup of black frosting into a piping bag fitted with a round no. 2 tip. Set it aside.
• Place ½ cup of black frosting into a piping bag fitted with a round no. 4 tip. Set it aside.
• Place the orange frosting into 1 one-half side of a piping bag fitted with a star tip. Place the rest of the black frosting into the other half side of the piping bag. Squeeze out a little frosting onto a plate to make sure the colors combine. Set piping bag aside.
• Using the black frosting in the piping bag and tip no. 4, pipe a crooked hill for the tree to sit on, then pipe the crooked truck of a tree, and pipe out branches of varying thickness and curl to give them a creepy look. Fill in the shape of the tree and use a small angled spatula to smooth the frosting. Use the image below as a guide to pipe the haunted tree onto the top of the cooked and cooled cookie.
  
  
  
  
• Using the black frosting in the piping bag and tip no. 2, pipe the outline of some bats and fill in with frosting. Smooth with a small angled spatula as before.
  
  
  
  
• Use the orange and black frosting piping bag to pipe stars around the edge of the cookie.
• Allow the frosting to harden slightly before serving. Enjoy and Happy Haunting!
  
  
  

Notes

Special Equipment Needed

• 9-inch cast-iron skillet
• 1 Piping Bag with Large Star Tip – such as a Wilton #1M
• 1 Piping Bag with a Round Number 4 Tip
• 1 Piping Bag with a Round Number 2 Tip

Nutrition

Serving: 1 | Calories: 1352kcal | Carbohydrates: 169g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 74g | Saturated Fat: 37g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 34g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 182mg | Sodium: 346mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 125g

Nutritional information is always approximate and will depend on the quality of ingredients used and serving sizes. If you need exact calories and macros, please do your own calculations.

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Make It A Special Dinner!

You’ve made the dessert, but what about the rest of the courses?

Here are additional recipes to create a menu for a dinner party or special meal:

• Appetizer: Instant Pot Asian-Style Sticky Ribs Recipe
• Soup: Fragrant Thai Coconut Shrimp Soup with Garlic and Ginger
• Salad: Asian Cabbage Salad with Warm Spicy Peanut Dressing
• Main Dish: Slow Cooker Spicy Pineapple Pork
• Side Dish: Instant Pot Cilantro Lime Rice
• Beverage: Sanderson Sisters Cocktail – Amok Amok Amok! With Rum & Apple Brandy

There are 500+ Recipes on The Purple Pumpkin Blog for you to enjoy – please feel free to check them out too.

This post is part of my long-running Crafty October series on The Purple Pumpkin Blog. Since 2012, I’ve shared Halloween recipes, printables, and crafts every October. While I don’t officially run the series anymore, all my new Halloween posts are still part of this decades-long celebration of spooky fun! Browse past Crafty October years for even more inspiration: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, and 2012.

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