Halloween inspires creative costumes and crafty desserts, with Americans projected to spend more than $8 billion on this year's holiday, according to the National Retail Federation’s annual survey.

To get in on the fun without having to spend excessively ahead of the holiday season, Stacker scoured Allrecipes.com and other online recipe hubs to curate a gallery of Halloween-themed treats that will help bakers bleed the most out of every dollar this season.

Cooks of all skill levels will find something to concoct with these fun and ghoulish recipes, which can take as little as 10 minutes or several hours to create. Some recipes on this list don’t even require baking—just arts 'n' crafts to bring the dessert alive. Even experts will find a challenge along the way: A monkey brain cake combines cooking and crafting to create a dessert that guests may be too scared to eat.

Bakers of all skill levels will learn something along the way when making these desserts—like the fact that substituting tonic water into a recipe will make it glow under a blacklight. While all of the following treats are sweet, some are a little hot, including the ginger-wasabi chocolate skulls, which pack a punch of heat that’ll add a little trick onto the end of that treat.

LOOK: 34 spooky dessert recipes for this Halloween

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