A Halloween party should be fun and without stress, so keep it simple. Kids will be fine if they can dress in their Halloween garb, play a few games and have some sweet treats. These easy to make sweet treats start with a box of vanilla cake mix.

HALLOWEEN CUP CAKES

One box of cake mix should make about 12 cup cakes. Decorate baked cup cakes with orange tinted frosting. You can buy or make your own tinting frosting by adding one drop of red food coloring and one drop of yellow coloring to store bought white cake frosting. Mix well. Add more coloring to make frosting a deep orange. Use small jelly beans for the eyes, nose and mouth. Use a dab of frosting to keep jelly beans fixed in place.

HALLOWEEN SHEET CAKE

Bake cake in a large 9" by 12" pan. Cover with chocolate frosting. You will be able to get 24 child sized portions from this cake if you first make four even lines on the 12" length of the cake, then six lines on the 9" length. You should have marked 24 small cakes approximately 2 1/4" in size. Press a large marshmallow in the center of each portion and slice.

STRAWBERRY SYRUP AND SHEET CAKE WITH ICE CREAM

Prepare sheet cake as shown above, no icing needed. Buy a gallon of vanilla ice cream and a squeeze bottle of strawberry syrup. Cut the cake as above or make larger slices. Serve each child one slice of plain cake with a scoop of ice cream. Drizzle strawberry syrup on top. Place a Halloween favor near the serving. The child can take this with him when he goes home.

WHAT GAMES TO PLAY

Pin The Tail On The Donkey is the perfect game for a Halloween party. It lends itself to the fun, it is a challenging game, all children can play and it does not take any special skills. When it is a child's turn, he puts a blindfold over his eyes, is given a turn so he can't memorize exactly where the donkey tail should be. He only hears the clues that are shouted to him by the other children. You can often find this fun game at dollar stores, while there be sure to buy a scarf you can use for the blindfold. The donkey is on a large sheet of paper that can be stuck to a wall with scotch tape. The tale is included in the package with directions.