Halloween Ghost Scones - Cute & Easy

These Halloween Ghost Scones are a fun, easy Halloween treat made with fluffy buttermilk scones, a simple icing sugar glaze and cute spooky faces. The dough takes around 5 minutes to prepare. These sweet treats are perfect for Halloween parties, kids' treats or a last-minute spooky baking project.

About These Halloween Ghost Scones

Looking for last minute, easy Halloween inspiration? This is a super easy scone recipe for light, buttermilk fluffy scones. The scone dough can be made in a food processor or Thermomix or by hand while ghost cookie cutters shape them into ghosts. Then we dip them into a simple powdered sugar frosting and draw faces on them.

Video How To Make Halloween Ghost Scones

Video: Halloween Ghost Scones recipe

Ingredients For Halloween Ghost Scones

Flour - Plain all purpose flour or cake flour works well. Cake flour produces a tender crumb as it has a lower amount of protein. Cake flour is available at the supermarket, but you can also make your own. To make 1 cup of cake flour, remove 2 tablespoons of plain flour and replace them with 2 tablespoons of cornflour (cornstarch). Whisk well to combine. I like to make a big batch and store it in an airtight container, ready for baking. Cake flour helps produce a softer, more tender cake crumb.

Buttermilk - I make my own buttermilk by placing 1 tablespoon lemon juice in a measuring jug and adding enough milk to reach 160ml/5.6oz in total. Stir and leave for 5 minutes before using. The acids in buttermilk help to break down the proteins in the flour to produce softer textured scones.

Baking powder - To help the scones rise. Different from bicarb. Make sure that the baking powder is still in date.

Salt - Just to add a bit of flavour to the scones!

Cream of tartar - To give the scones additional rise.

Icing sugar - Use pure icing sugar for this rather than icing sugar mixture as we want it to set firm so that we can draw faces on the ghosts.

White white colouring - This is a liquid colouring that makes food look whiter by the Wilton brand.

Tips For Making Halloween Ghost Scones

1 - When adding buttermilk, I always hold back on the last 2 teaspoons and add them only if the dough really needs it. Flour really varies from batch to batch and sometimes it's more absorbant. If your scone dough is too sticky (ie too much milk), it can be hard to cut the ghosts out.

2 - Gently pat the scone dough into shape and gently roll with a rolling pin til it is 1cm/0.4 inch thick (thinner than normal scones). You should get 12 ghost scones out of this recipe.

3 - Make sure to dip your cutter in flour between each cut.

4 - When cutting scones, don't twist the cutter. Press down firmly and then lift up the scone using a spatula and remove the dough from the cutter. Twisting the cutter prevents the scone from rising evenly.

5 - When making shaped scones like these, where you will end up with scraps of dough from around where you've cut. You can re-roll the dough but scone dough has to be carefully re-rolled. Gather the scraps and gently push them together and pat them down. Don't ball up or roll with a rolling pin.

6 - Only re-roll dough scraps up once. More than that and the scone will crack and not rise properly.

7 - To make a solid white or opaque frosting, use milk or cream and white white colouring. You will need more cream than milk to reach a cream like consistency. Add the liquid in 1 tablespoon at a time.

8 - Scones last for 1-2 days in an airtight container. Any more time and they can get tough and dry. They can be reheated in the microwave for 20 seconds on 50% power or at 150C/300F for 10 minutes.

9 - I have a set of brushes that I only use for food. These range from thick or very fine brushes.

10 - These ghosts are also great with strawberry jam and clotted or whipped cream on the side.

Halloween Ghost Scones Recipe

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Recipe Overview

Preparation time: 8 minutes for the scones, plus time to make homemade buttermilk if using, cool, decorate and let the icing set

Cooking time: 13 minutes

Serves: 12

Ingredients Needed

300g/10.6oz flour (plain all purpose or cake flour)
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
Pinch salt
120g/4oz salted butter, cold & cubed
160ml/5.4oz buttermilk (or 1 tablespoon lemon juice topped up with milk to make 160ml/5.4oz, see above)

To decorate

200g/7oz pure icing sugar
4-8 tablespoons milk or cream
White white food colouring
Black food colouring

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1 PREPARE - Line 2 baking trays with parchment and preheat oven to 200C/400F fan forced or 220C/440F conventional.

Step 2 MIX - Place the flour (300g/10.6oz), baking powder (4 teaspoons), cream of tartar (1/2 teaspoon) and salt in a food processor and pulse to combine. Thermomix: 2 second turbo, twice. Add the butter (120g/4oz) and pulse until fine. Thermomix: 2 second turbo, twice.

By hand: Whisk the flour (300g/10.6oz), baking powder (4 teaspoons), cream of tartar (1/2 teaspoon) and salt in a bowl. Add the cold cubed butter (120g/4oz) and rub it into the flour mixture with your fingertips until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Step 3 SHAPE - Empty this out onto a lightly floured surface and gently mix in the buttermilk (160ml) by hand until the dough just comes together (hold back 2 tablespoons of buttermilk and only add gradually if it is dry and crumbly).

Step 4 ROLL - Roll out until 1cm/0.4inch thick and dip a ghost cookie cutter in flour and cut out and place on the tray (6 per tray). Repeat with remaining dough. To re-roll scraps, gather and then gently press them together until there are no cracks and pat them down to 1cm/0.4inch thick. Bake for 13 minutes. Cool on the tray.

Step 5 DECORATE - Sift the icing sugar (200g/7oz) in a bowl and gradually add milk or cream (4-8 tablespoons) 1 tablespoon at a time (you'll need more cream than milk). Add some white white food colouring and mix in well. You want the texture of cream. Dip a scone in face down and smooth over with an angled spatula. Place back on tray and allow to set. When completely set draw a face with the black food colouring and a fine brush.

Personal Note

I'm excited because this year Halloween is on a Saturday night and there are lots of things to do. I love Halloween because it is fun and I think that we need more fun especially nowadays! Because I think that life is just getting more stressful with time and that we are in a heightened state of fear. In one day I warned Mr NQN about four things.

1 Don't leave with your hair wet. It was a very cold spring day and he had just had a shower and was headed out the door to a meeting. "Your hair is wet!" I said, encouraging him to come back to dry it (he didn't).

2 Beware the bats. Apparently there are a lot of people that are getting bitten by bats and they carry a deadly virus.

3 Don't kill the Bogong moths! They're just doing their annual migration.

4 Watch out for the fire ants. There was a new type of fire ants found in the inner west of Sydney that came in an overseas shipping container!

Then he told me another thing: according to a Stockholm University study, it's not safe to drink rainwater anymore because rainwater contains PFAS (forever plastics), even in Antarctica!

So tell me Dear Reader, do you ever think that it's getting very stressful with so many things to worry about? And how do you feel about Halloween?

Halloween Ghost Scones - Cute & Easy was written by Lorraine Elliott and published on Saturday, October 31, 2026 in Easy Recipes, Halloween, Scones, Easy Snacks, Thermomix and Delicious Recipes.