Make a Fast, Easy Halloween Graveyard Cake
This graveyard cake is similar to this Halloween cake, but is much faster and easier to assemble, and is significantly less expensive. It has all of the main spooky elements, but they are made in a faster and simpler way.
In the original Halloween Graveyard Cake, the cookies and pretzels are dipped in almond bark, which seals out the cake moisture and keeps them crunchy. In this cake, the cookies and pretzels are not dipped in a coating at all, so they become soft within a few hours. These pieces must be put on the cake within a few hours of serving.
Other time-savers include skipping the green frosting grass and skipping the York Peppermint Pattie® dipped in melted white almond bark. Other quick embellishments may be added to compensate, such as gummy worms and gummy eyeballs, or even a small rubber snake.
Makes one 9” X 13” cake.
Chocolate Halloween Cake and Chocolate Frosting
- 1 chocolate cake mix (may be any other flavor that can look like dirt)
- eggs, oil, and water as specified on cake mix box
- 1 tub of chocolate frosting, reserving 3 T for writing on gravestones
Prepare cake:
- Bake cake according to directions for 9” x 13” cake. Cool 10 minutes in pan, then turn out onto the surface where the cake will be decorated and displayed. Let cool completely.
- Cut a small rectangle out of the cake for the grave. Do not cut all the way through to the bottom. Reserve the portion of cake that you removed; this will be the dirt from the fresh-dug grave.
- Frost cake with chocolate frosting, reserving a small amount of frosting to use later to write on the gravestones. Pile the frosting a little higher where the other graves will be. Do not frost inside the open grave.
Supplies for Decorating
- 2 Keebler® Vienna Fingers®
- 1 frosting decorating bag
- 1 frosting decorating tip #2 (writing tip)
- candy pumpkins (about 10)
- plastic spiders
- rubber mice, rats, etc
- gummy worms, gummy eyeballs, etc if desired
- plastic skeleton to fit in grave
Prepare the decorations:
- Open two Keebler® Vienna Fingers® and scrape out the filling. This makes 4 gravestones – use as many or as few as you like.
- Put the reserved chocolate frosting in the decorating bag, with tip #2, and write on the Vienna Finger® gravestones.
- Make a simple fence around the cake with the pretzel sticks by using two pretzels crossing in an “X” for each fencepost, forming a cradle for the crosspiece pretzels to rest in.
- Place gravestones onto the cake, pressing them down enough to hold them in place securely.
Finishing Touches:
- Crumble the reserved cake, saved from cutting the grave, onto the “ground” next to the open grave.
- Place the skeleton into the grave.
- Place the spiders, mice, and any other decorations around the cake.
- Place candy pumpkins around the cake.
- Add any gummy worms, gummy eyeballs, etc, that you may be using. Worms can be made to appear to be crawling out of the graves.
Important Note:
The cookie gravestones and pretzel fence will not stay crisp for many hours on this cake. Assemble the gravestones and fences within a few hours of cutting the cake, never the day before.
This beautiful and creative cake will add a fun touch to your Halloween party.
Julie Walin - A graduate of Sangamon State University, Julie is a wife, a mother of three, a homeschool teacher, and a homemaker.
