Spooktacular Halloween Graveyard Cake

Sue Lau's Note:

This is a great cake, perfect for Halloween parties, that is a take-off of the stand-by graveyard pudding. I noticed pudding is less popular than cake, and of course, cake is more suited for parties, especially those with kids. You can use your choice of cake flavor, but pay attention to the cookie crumbs you use in that case so they are compatible flavors. You also probably wouldn't want to use chocolate icing with a pumpkin cake, but if you wanted a pumpkin frosting, that would be good, or else use vanilla.You can use whipped cream to make the ghosties, but be aware that if you do this, the cake needs to remain chilled, and the whipped cream does try to sag and run after awhile (so don't do that too far in advance). The marshmallow ghosties are more durable at room temp. Those are often sold near displays of halloween candy, not necessarily by the bags of marshmallows.

• Total Time: 50 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 35 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 8-12

Yield: 1.0 decorat ...

For the Cake

• 1 (18 ¼ ounce) package cake mix (I used Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Devil's Food)
• 1 1⁄3; cups water
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 3 large eggs

To Decorate

• 10 ounces nabisco Oreo cookies , crushed (may use gingersnap crumbs if it goes with your cake)
• 6 -10 pepperidge farm milano cookies (or suitable oval shaped butter cookies)
• 1 ½-2 cups prepared vanilla frosting (or other suitable flavor)
• 1 -4 package cake decorating gel (green, black, orange or brown, etc, as needed)
• 1 cup candy corn (or pumpkin-shaped candy)
• ¼ cup harvestcolored sprinkles or ¼ cup colored crystal sugar (orange, green, yellow, etc)
• 6 -12 laboratory decorative candies (chocolate candy foil-wrapped like eyeballs, ears, lips, body parts, etc) (optional)
• 4 -6 ghost-shaped peeps marshmallows (may also use cats or pumpkins)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Mix together cake mix, water, oil, and eggs according to package directions.
3. If your package requires different ingredients to make cake, follow those instructions instead.
4. Grease and flour a glass 13x9-inch cake pan.
5. If you use a dark or coated pan, do your baking at 325°F.
6. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake in a preheated oven for approx 35 minutes (38-40 minutes for dark or coated pans) or until cake is done.
7. Allow cake to cool in the pan.
8. Spread frosting evenly on cooled cake.
9. Sprinkle frosting with crumbled cookies (oreos or whatever you are using).
10. Using gel frostings, write sayings on 1/2 of the milano cookies (some sayings might be"Justin Tyme","Yul B Next","RIP","M T Tomb","Will B Back","Barry M Deep", etc).
11. Press 1/2 of cookie down into cake and icing to resemble a standing tombstone.
12. Arrange ghost marshmallows in a standing position on top of cake.
13. Scatter candies and/or sprinkles or sugars on cake to garnish.

Reviews

[Jess4Freedom]

This was a great fun cake to make with the kids. They made their own decorations for the most part and got creative with it. We had a few pumpkinhead ghosts and lots of sour worms. I added some mini chocolate chips to the cake itself, so when they cut it, the cake looked gooey. Very cool idea. Made and reviewed for PRMR Tag. Thanks :)

[loriangel]

This was a fun cake for my 13 year old to make. I think she did a great job. Thanks for sharing.