Halloween is creeping up, so Good Food Magazine have come up with a few suggestions to make it a tasty celebration.

EYEBALL PASTA

(Serves 4-6).

Ingredients: 100g cherry tomatoes; 150g pack mini mozzarella balls, drained; handful basil; 400g green tagliatelle; 350g jar tomato sauce; 4tbsp fresh pesto.

Method: Halve the cherry tomatoes and use a small, sharp knife or a teaspoon to remove the seeds. Cut the mozzarella balls in half. Place one half inside each tomato. Either cut the smallest circles you can from a basil and place one at the centre of each ball.

Boil the pasta and heat through the tomato sauce. When the tagliatelle is cooked, drain and stir through the pesto and any remaining basil, chopped finely.

Divide into serving bowls, spoon over some tomato sauce. Arrange the stuffed tomato ‘eyeballs’ on top.

GRAVEYARD CAKE TOPPING

(To decorate a large chocolate cake).

Ingredients: 1 egg white; 50g icing sugar; 200ml single cream; 200g dark chocolate, finely chopped; ½ a 250g pack rich tea finger biscuits; 100g double chocolate cookies; 25g white chocolate.

Method: To make the ghosts, heat oven to 110C/90C fan/gas ¼. Whip the egg white in a clean bowl until stiff peaks form. Whisk in the sugar a tablespoon at a time and keep whisking for a couple of mins until the mixture is thick and resembles shaving foam.

Gently spoon the mixture into a large freezer bag, then cut a 1.5cm hole in one of the corners.

Cover a baking sheet with some baking parchment. Carefully squeeze a small circle of whipped egg white out of the bag, pulling upwards as you do to make a ghost shape. Repeat until the mixture is used up – you should get about 15 ghosts. Bake for 1½ hrs until crisp. Can be stored in an airtight container for up to two days.

Heat cream in a saucepan until just boiling. Place the dark chocolate in a large bowl and pour over the hot cream. Stir until the chocolate melts.

Use a clean brush to paint a layer of chocolate over seven rich tea fingers, then set aside to cool.

Pour the rest of the chocolate mixture over the cake and smooth over with a knife. Break the chocolate cookies into crumbs and sprinkle over the cake.

Melt the white chocolate in a small bowl, set over a pan of simmering water, then spoon into a small freezer bag. Wait for ten mins so the mixture is not too runny, then cut a tiny hole in one corner of the bag.

Pipe out two small blobs on to each ghost, place a silver ball on each to make eyes, then pipe out suitable words and shapes on the gravestones. Leave for 30 mins to set, then push the biscuit gravestones into the cake and arrange the ghosts around.

To get the ghosts to 'fly', push a thin floristry wire (remember to remove before eating) into the bottom of each ghost, then place in the cake, hiding the wire behind a gravestone.