Halloween Graveyard Cake

This delicious and spooky Halloween devil's food cake is complete with a fence, gravestones, a dead tree, pumpkin patch, and a scary ghost!

• Preparation Time: 60 mins
• Cooking Time: 32 mins
• Total Time: 1 hr 32 mins
• Calories: 647 Calories

Ingredients

• ⅓ cup vegetable oil
• 4 drops green food coloring
• 1 cup water
• 3 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons shredded coconut
• ¼ cup chocolate cookie crumbs
• 1 (.68 oz. tube) black decorating gel
• 1 (18.25 ounce) package devil's food cake mix (such as Duncan Hines®)
• 24 fudge stick cookies
• 4 black licorice whips, or as needed
• 1 (16 ounce) container dark fudge frosting (such as Pillsbury®)
• ¼ cup chocolate-covered raisins
• 2 tablespoons toffee chips
• 12 candy pumpkins
• 1 marshmallow ghost (such as Peeps®)

Recipe Instructions

Step 1

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a disposable foil pan with a domed plastic lid.

Step 2

Beat cake mix with water, eggs, and oil in a large bowl using an electric mixer until no dry spots remain. Increase speed to medium; blend well. Pour batter into the prepared pan.

Step 3

Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 32 to 36 minutes. Let cool completely, at least 30 minutes.

Step 4

Frost the cooled cake with frosting.

Step 5

Push fudge sticks upright about 1/2-inch apart into 3 outer edges of the cake to represent fence posts. Place additional fudge sticks about 1/2-inch apart in a diagonal line across the cake starting at the fourth corner to create a small area outside the graveyard. Weave licorice whips through the fence posts for crosspieces. Connect 2 parallel sticks with a third diagonal one and attach with frosting to make a gate.

Step 6

Make a winding path from the gate to the far edge of the cake with 2 parallel lines of chocolate covered raisins as boulders. Fill the path with toffee chip for rocks. Assemble a licorice whip tree; insert in the middle of the path in the far corner of the graveyard.

Step 7

Mix coconut with green food coloring in a small bowl until thoroughly dyed. Arrange outside the gate into a lawn. Pile a mound of candy pumpkins in 1 corner of the graveyard and a few on the grass.

Step 8

Write spooky phrases on the upper thirds of the oval cookies with black decorator gel icing such as 'RIP" with a skull and crossbones, "Yul B. Next," or "Here Lies ---." Stick cookie gravestones carefully into the cake. Scatter cookie crumbs all over the graveyard to represent dirt; stack any extra crumbs into a dirt pile in front of a gravestone. Place a marshmallow ghost at the fence, peeking out from between two posts.