Halloween is almost here. The costumes are coming together, the ghosts are swooping in, the kiddies are getting restless and there is simply no time to make fancy graveyard cupcakes or malted eyeballs. But Halloween-themed brownies and blondies are still a snap! When time is of the essence, witch fingers are a great treat to whip up, and they will certainly elicit kudos from the crowd.

These crunchy Halloween cookies have run their way back and forth across the Web, but we've come up with twists and style updates that are sure to please. Hit the jump and visit the gallery for inspiration.

Rice Creepies Photo: Holidash

Our sister blog Holidash found these spooky Rice Creepies treats based on Rice Krispies treats. Check out Kendra Smoot's tasty Halloween sweets and submit your own before Oct. 31!

[Via Holidash]

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I used to love those plastic vampire teeth when I was a kid. Of course, this was before we had the technology to make them glow in the dark. They were just white. I think if I had glow in the dark ones I would have warn them all year round and not just around Halloween.

This recipe comes from CupcakeRecipe.net, and it's for Punk Glow in the Dark Halloween Cupcakes. She takes two flat-topped cupcakes, lots of icing, a jelly bean, and those white fangs to create a rather wild looking punk rock vampire cupcake. And Punk Rock Vampire Cupcake would make for an awesome band name.

And we're talking literally - painted fingernails and everything.

Gael over at Pop Culture Junk Mail made these ladyfingers for her book club. Pretty easy instructions. You just shape dough into finger shapes (see pic), poach it in simmering water with baking soda. Drain them and sprinkle with rosemary (I love rosemary), use almonds for the fingernails, and bake them. She doesn't say what to bake them at or for how long, but you can probably figure it out and keep an eye on them. Or leave a comment for her and see what she did.

Anyone else making Halloween treats shaped like body parts? Maybe eyeballs or ears?

Actually, the whole name of this dessert from HGTV is Pumpkin-Ginger Cake with Cinnamon-Bourbon Caramel Glaze. While you might want to leave out the Bourbon part (1/4 cup) for little Jimmy and little Kathy, the cake itself sounds great.

Cake:

1 box spice cake mix
1 box devil's food cake mix
two 16 oz. pumpkin
2 tbs. cloves
2 tbs. cinnamon
2 tbs nutmeg
whipped topping

Glaze:

1 1/4 sticks of butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/8 cup corn syrup
allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg
2/3 cup heavy cream

What are the best and worst fillings that you'll find in your Halloween candy this year? Cracked.com investigates.

Naturally, they pick "caramel" for the best category, and they're OK with nougut too. But don't even mention the words "peanuts" or "coconut." Not only do they believe the peanuts don't belong in candy bars, they wonder "why would anyone voluntarily eat coconut?"

Hey, I kinda like coconut in my candy, within reason. In an Almond Joy or Mounds or in a Whitman's sampler? Thumbs up! But when they start adding it to candy bars that have peanut butter in them...ugh.

But I think we can all agree on razor blades.

Who can resist a dark, hairy spider that you can eat?

The pic on the right is a Tarantula Cookie. It's part of Gourmet.com's Halloween recipes.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp baking soda
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 gran. sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 bag of short, thin pretzel sticks
1 large bag of milk chocolate chips
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Chocolate sprinkles
Small red candies

Click the link above to check out how to make them. There are some other candy and cookie recipes at the site too, including Old-Fashioned Peanut Brittle, Chocolate-Covered Raspberry Truffles, and Caramel Lollipops!