Halloween Fruit Platter Recipe

This Halloween fruit platter turns peeled mandarins into little pumpkins with celery stems, bananas into ghosts with chocolate chip faces, and fills the gaps with seedless black grapes. It takes about 15 minutes, serves 6 to 8, and needs nothing more than a small knife and a flat tray.

One rule makes it work: the banana ghosts go on last, right before people eat. Everything else can be ready hours earlier.

What Goes on the Tray

• Serves: 6 to 8, about one pumpkin and one ghost per guest
• Time: 15 minutes, no cooking
• Pumpkins: 8 to 10 mandarins or clementines, peeled whole, plus 1 to 2 celery stalks cut into small sticks
• Ghosts: 3 to 4 bananas cut in half crosswise (6 to 8 ghosts), mini chocolate chips for eyes, regular chocolate chips for mouths
• Filler: a handful of seedless black grapes
• Best tray: wide and flat with a low rim; a black tray makes the orange and white stand out most

Picking Mandarins, Bananas, and Grapes

Choose mandarins or clementines that feel heavy for their size and have a slightly loose peel. They come out of the skin whole without tearing. Leave some of the white pith on. Those pale lines down the sides are what make a peeled mandarin read as a pumpkin.

For the ghosts, buy bananas that are fully yellow with no brown spots, or still a touch green at the tip. Firm bananas stand up straight, hold the chocolate chips where you put them, and stay white longer. Soft, spotted ones slump, the chips sink in, and they darken within minutes.

Celery is only there for the stems, so one or two inner stalks are plenty. The pale green inner ribs are thinner and look more like a real pumpkin stem than the thick outer ones.

For the grapes, the darker the better. Black seedless grapes give the tray its spooky contrast, and red grapes work if that is what the store has. Wash them, then dry them well on a towel. Wet grapes leave little puddles on the tray, and the bananas sitting next to them get slippery.

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How to Make Mandarin Pumpkins and Banana Ghosts

Peel each mandarin carefully, keeping it whole. At the top you will find a small hole where the stem was. Cut the celery into thin sticks about 1 inch long and push one straight down into that hole. If it feels tight, open the hole first with a chopstick or skewer so the fruit does not split.

Peel the bananas and cut each one in half crosswise. Stand the halves on the flat cut end, or lay them on their sides if they wobble. Press two mini chocolate chips into the upper part of each one for eyes, then one regular chocolate chip below for the mouth, point side in so the flat bottom faces out. Press gently. If a chip will not stay, pat that spot dry and try again.

Some of the ghosts in these photos have eyes only, and they look just as good. If small hands are helping, give them the chips and let them make the faces.

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Setting Up the Pumpkin Patch

Group the mandarin pumpkins together on one side of the tray so they look like a little pumpkin patch. Add the banana ghosts next to them, some standing and some lying down, all facing out. Then tuck clusters of grapes into every open space. A few loose grapes rolling toward the edge make the tray look relaxed rather than staged.

Next to a skeleton Halloween charcuterie board, this tray gives people something fresh between the cheese and the sweets.

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Lemon Juice or Last-Minute Bananas?

Bananas brown fast once they are peeled, even in a cool kitchen. I have made this tray both ways: once with the ghosts plated an hour ahead, once with them added right before guests arrived. The difference was easy to see.

• Bananas added last: the ghosts stay white and taste like plain banana. Best if you are serving within about 30 minutes.
• Bananas brushed with lemon juice: a thin coat slows browning for an hour or so, but the ghosts taste a little tangy. Orange or pineapple juice works the same way with a milder flavor. Let the juice sit for a minute before adding the chips, or they slide off.

I choose freshness. Peel and cut the bananas last, and keep the rest of the tray covered until then.

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How Far Ahead Can You Make a Halloween Fruit Platter?

You can make the mandarin pumpkins and wash the grapes several hours ahead, then keep them on the tray, loosely covered with plastic wrap, in the fridge. Add the banana ghosts within 30 minutes of serving. The whole tray is best eaten the same day.

Cut fruit should not sit at room temperature for more than 2 hours. For a long party, set out half the fruit and refill from the fridge.

To carry the tray to a party, use a flat box with a loose sheet of plastic wrap over the top. Skip airtight lids, which trap moisture and make the peeled mandarins soft and wet. Leftover mandarins and grapes keep in a covered container in the fridge for a day or two. The bananas do not keep, so eat them up.

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Sizing It for a Class Party or a Small Family

For a class of 20 to 24 children, triple the tray: about 24 to 30 mandarins, 9 to 12 bananas, and two big bunches of grapes. Split it over two or three trays so kids can reach. For a family of three or four, two bananas, four mandarins, and a handful of grapes still look full on a small plate.

For children under 5, cut the grapes into quarters lengthwise, since whole grapes are a choking risk. If chocolate is a problem for allergies, use raisins or allergy-friendly chips for the ghost faces. The banana ghosts also fit in a lunchbox if they are packed snugly so they do not roll.

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More Halloween Fruit Platter Ideas

Once the pumpkins and ghosts are on, the tray is easy to grow. A few additions that keep the same orange, white, and black look:

• Jack-o-lantern clementines: leave a few clementines unpeeled and draw faces on the skin with a black food-safe marker.
• Blackberries and blueberries: pile them in a small bowl as a bubbling cauldron in the corner.
• Apple slices: toss them in a little lemon juice or orange juice first so they stay pale.
• Mummy strawberries: Halloween strawberries dipped in white chocolate with candy eyes sit well at the edge of a fruit tray.
• Pretzel sticks: a salty crunch between the fruit, and they make good broom handles.
• A dip: set a bowl of spiderweb Halloween dip in the middle of a bigger spread.

For a full Halloween table, add apple monsters and pretzel wands from my party snacks tray, witch finger cookies, Halloween cake pops, and a pan of Halloween brownies. When December comes around, the same idea becomes a Christmas fruit platter shaped like a wreath.

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Halloween Fruit Tray Questions

What fruit is good for Halloween?

Orange, white, and dark fruit look the most Halloween: mandarins or clementines, bananas, black grapes, blackberries, and blueberries. Apples and strawberries work too once they are dressed up.

How do you keep banana ghosts from turning brown?

Cut and place them last, within 30 minutes of serving. If you need longer, brush them thinly with lemon, orange, or pineapple juice.

What do you use for the ghost eyes?

Two mini chocolate chips for the eyes and one regular chocolate chip, point side in, for the mouth. Raisins work if you want to skip the chocolate.