Halloween, with its excess of all things ‘spooky,’ characterized by ghosts, spiders, costumes and candy, lays the perfect groundwork for having fun with food. During a night where people dress up, applying the same treatment to your food is fitting.

One browse through Pinterest will reveal the extent to which people get creative with their food on Halloween prior to the evening’s festivities. Going by the statement that people “eat with their eyes,” spending a few extra minutes adding Halloween flair to ordinary food items can be a great way to impress friends and guests.

Ideas for Halloween-themed foods are extensive, ranging from cute candy corn cupcakes to gross looking red Jell-O worms. Most people prefer the cuter side of the Halloween-themed food spectrum, as eating something that resembles a dismembered limb or eyeball can be less than appetizing.

As with most dips, Spider Web Seven Layer Dip is a definite crowd pleaser and can go a long way when acting as an accompaniment to the rest of a Halloween spread. This dip also has other appealing features, namely that it is cheap and easy to make. Most of the ingredients can be bought pre-made or prepackaged from the store, making the actual assembly as easy as opening a few cans and spreading on the layers.

This recipe may not win any awards for healthfulness, but considering the amount of candy likely to be consumed on Halloween, it is hardly a splurge in comparison. The best part about this recipe is the thing that gives the dip its Halloween look, the sour cream spider web, is relatively easy to create with a plastic bag with a corner cut off. No matter how you spin it, this dish is fun, delicious and highly addictive. It’s sure to catch the attention of all who try it.

Spider Web Seven Layer Dip Ingredients:

1 16-ounce can refried beans

1 1 1/4-ounce pack taco seasoning mix

1 cup sour cream, plus 1/4 cup more for the topping

1 cup salsa

1 cup shredded cheese

1 large tomato, diced

1 cup guacamole

1 small can sliced black olives (optional)

1 bag of tortilla chips

Directions:

In a small bowl, mix together the refried beans and taco seasoning.

On an 11-inch diameter plate, or other similar-sized dish, spread the bean mixture so that it is almost to the edges.

Carefully spread the sour cream in an even layer over the top of the refried beans and do the same type of layer with the salsa.

After the evenly spread layers, dollop the guacamole in various places along the top of the salsa. Spread the guacamole over the top of the salsa. Do this slowly and carefully, so that the layers do not mix.

Sprinkle the cheese along the outer edges of the layers, so that it is approximately two inches thick.

On the top of the cheese, add the tomato and olives.

Add the additional 1/4 cup of sour cream to a plastic bag, and cut a small corner off the side.

Pipe a spider web pattern over the top of the guacamole layer of the dip. From the center of the guacamole, pipe the sour cream in lines extending outward from the center. Add loops between the lines of sour cream to resemble a web pattern. Serve the dip with tortilla chips.