If you're looking for easy, no-recipe-needed Halloween treats, these creeped out cupcakes are an eerily good choice. In one, a traditional frosted cupcake falls victim to a bat attack. In the other, they take a slimy, almost radioactive, turn.

Both ideas are from Matthew Mead's "Monster Book of Halloween," which is jammed with numerous ghastly treats and decorations.

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VAMPIRE CUPCAKES

Bake up a batch of your favourite cupcake recipe or prepare a boxed mix according to package directions. Alternatively, most bakeries (even those in grocers) will sell unfrosted cupcakes if asked in case you want to do only the fun part — the decorating.

Once the cupcakes have cooled, frost them with white cake frosting.

Use black gel icing (the sort sold in tubes in the baking aisle) to draw a bat on top of each cupcake. If you need help with this, a template can be downloaded from Mead's Web site at http://tinyurl.com/yeboobr. Cut out the template and use it as a stencil.

Use a toothpick to make two holes (bite marks) near each bat, then drizzle red gel icing into each.

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GET SLIMED CUPCAKES

Prepare two packages of Jell-O Gelatin (any variety, though green and yellow are good) according to the package's directions for Jigglers (two packages plus two cups boiling water). Divide the liquid between six flexible silicone baking cups.

Divide the remaining liquid between six round-bottomed teacups (this creates a domed top for each cupcake), filling each about ½ inch. Refrigerate everything for four hours, or until set.

To remove the gelatin from the cups, set the base of each in a bowl of warm water for about 10 seconds. Overturn the cups and gently pry out the cupcakes and dome tops. Invert a dome onto each cupcake, then decorate with gummy worms.

(Ideas adapted from Matthew Mead's "Monster Book of Halloween," Time Inc., 2009)