Googly Eye Halloween Dessert Table

A few years back, I realized I was not a “decorate the whole house for the holidays” girl — especially during the Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s marathon. Putting it all up just to quickly take it all down? Give my tired hips a break. The perfect compromise seems to be making our entryway the center of the Halloween season. It’s a small area, so I don’t go overboard. It’s really just the right spot for some DIY decor and this year, a googly eye Halloween dessert table.

Googly Eyes Halloween Party Supplies 

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• Arch backdrop (set of 3 white foam boards)
• Googly eyes: 6-inch (set of 2)
• Googly eyes: 4-inch (set of 4)
• Googly eyes: 3-inch (set of 4)
• Googly eyes: 20mm (set of 200)
• White ball pit balls: 2.75-inch (set of 50)
• Black double-faced satin ribbon: 1.5-inch (50 yards)
• Wood forks (set of 50)
• Black melamine dessert plates (set of 8)
• Black paper napkins (set of 50)
• Black white stripe paper runner: 50-inch x 16-inch
• Black cake stands (set of 3)
• Pre-tied black bows: 5-inch (set of 36)

Crafting and dessert supplies

• Aleene’s Tacky Glue (holds better than Elmer’s Glue, doesn’t burn like hot glue)
• Paper trimmer (the only way I can cut straight lines)
• Black & white baker’s twine (the best quality twine I’ve found)
• Wilton candy melting pot (much easier than melting in the microwave)
• Oreo silicone mold (set of 2)
• Candy eyes

Googly eye HAlloween party backdrop 

Googly eyes seem like just the right level of spooky for young kids. They are more silly than scary. So I started with that inspiration and decided to create a black and white Halloween dessert table. I think this googly eye backdrop would also be terrific for a little monsters birthday party.

For a simple backdrop, it doesn’t get any easier than resting two foam arches on my dessert table and leaning them against the wall. Much simpler than trying to slide a tall backdrop behind my table. (These arches also come in black.) All I had to do was use pop-up glue dots for the larger eyes and Aleene’s Tacky Glue for the smaller eyes.

Setting the foundation of the dessert table

I knew my desserts would be white so the googly eye pupils would pop. That meant using  black cakes stands, plates and napkins for contrast. To set off the black, I choose a black and white striped paper table runner. At 16 inches wide, the runner really has presence. I also like that the back of the paper is coated for durability.

Just for fun, I painted the handles of wood forks with black acrylic paint, then glued on googly eyes. Each fork is a little different. 

Melamine dessert plates and black paper napkins kept the rest simple. I love that I can reuse the plates and toss the napkins at the end of the night!

Googly eye Halloween desserts 

My mission was to keep it simple. That meant a semi-DIY approach with a store-bought cake and cupcakes. I made the googly eye chocolate covered Oreos and walk you through that step-by-step in this post.

The cake was a true “monster mash” situation. Our Publix grocery store has a cute Halloween selection of cake designs, and I asked them to use their mummy cake as a base, but replace the mummy’s face with 3-D eyes from their Frankenstein cake, and scatter the eyes all over the cake. They totally nailed it! I was so happy when I was checking out with the cake and the bag boy asked if it was a googly eye cake and the cashier asked to come to the party!!

I show you two easy ways to cut and serve a round cake in this post.

The cake was chocolate, so I had the cupcakes made with vanilla and white frosting. It took just a few minutes to add five or so candy eyes to each cupcake.

The last “dessert” did double-duty as a sort-of flower arrangement. I glued googly eyes to the wrapper on vanilla lollipops, then glued a black bow to each lollipop stick. I popped them in a clear glass vase and guests could grab a lollipop from the vase. 

Parties are usually the time I let my kids splurge on soda, and I like choosing Jones or Izze or Boylan sodas because they come in colors that match my party color palette. This time I went with Jones vanilla cream soda for the black and white look. Check out a post coming soon to see how quickly you can decorate your soda bottles.

Two DIY Googly Eye Decorations 

I add ribbon buntings from my shop to most of my parties. For this dessert table, I thought it would be fun to create an all-black ribbon bunting, then add googly eye about every four ribbons or so. That black bunting became the backdrop from my favorite decor item from this dessert table.

I made a 3-D googly eye garland by stringing together white ball pit balls, then adding black vinyl pupils. Get the full tutorial here. I draped the 3-D garland over the black ribbon bunting, then twisted each “eye” so the pupils were showing.

Want more inspiration? Check out these Halloween parties:

• Pink Halloween party
• Skeleton & gravestone candy table
• Skeleton Halloween dining table
• Haunted Halloween candy table
• Sweet not spooky Halloween party (one of my first parties!)
• Pumpkin decorating party
• Trick or treat Halloween party

If you need more help for a Halloween party or October birthday, my Halloween Party Plan and Halloween Printables may help. They make planning and decorating your party easy and fast!