How to Make A Ghosts in the Graveyard Cake

Making your own Ghosts in the Graveyard Cake for Halloween is fun and easy. All you need is a basic chocolate cake mix, a few spooky ingredients from your pantry or local grocery store, and your imagination.

Ingredients:

chocolate cake mix (the extra ingredients for it included 3 eggs, 1 1/4 cup water, 1/2 cup oil)
Oreo “Boo” cookies
chocolate chip cookies
cookies that look like tombstones- I used Pepperidge Farm Milano
Pillsbury Funfetti orange icing
fudge icing
mini marshmallows
toothpicks
Halloween sprinkles that include eyes
graham crackers
icing decorating bag and small tip for writing

If you look at the picture above, you can see that I had more ingredients than what I actually used. The scary Welch’s and Haribo gummies were small and indistinct, so my 11 year-old made ghosts with a toothpick, 3 marshmallows (those 2 ingredients are not pictured), some icing, and 2 sprinkle eyes.

Directions For Ghosts in the Graveyard Cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Follow the directions on the cake box for a 9 x 13 pan. Mix in the eggs, water, and oil, then pour into the greased 9 x 13 pan. Bake for 30 minutes. When the cake is done a wooden toothpick (stuck in the middle) should come out clean.

While the cake is baking, break up the chocolate chip cookies and Oreos with a wooden spoon. I made chocolate chip cookie brittle, then broke it up. Any type of chocolate chip cookies would work.

Once the cake is cooled, cut it in half, then stack the halves on top of each other. Make sure everything is level, if not, you may need to trim the top of the first layer a little bit. My cake did not need any alterations. Elevate your cake on a cake stand, to make decorating easier.

Remove the top layer of the graveyard cake, and frost the first layer with the chocolate icing. Place the second layer on top and frost it. Last of all, frost the sides. I used a simple butter knife.

Place some orange icing in an icing bag with a small decorating tip. Write “RIP” on the Milano cookies, and place them in your graveyard. I placed freshly dug dirt (chocolate chip cookies) directly in front of the tombstones, then put darker dirt (Oreos) around them.

I bought a bag of Reese’s ghosts several days ago, only to find they had mysteriously disappeared when it was time to make the cake. The gummies were too small and undefined, so we improvised with marshmallow-toothpick ghosts. My daughter “glued” the sprinkle eyes on with orange icing. I loved them, thank goodness!

Use upright graham crackers to make a fence around the graveyard. I “back-buttered” each cracker with chocolate icing, then stuck it on the upper side of the cake. Write “Boo” and “EEK” on two of the crackers with the same decorating bag filled with orange icing. If you want a graveyard path, remove two of the crackers; one on each side of the path.

Add sprinkles to the bottom of the cake, and on the graveyard path. I really like the eyeball sprinkles. You could use other Halloween candies to make a path, and decorate the bottom of your cake. I’ve seen candy corn, candy pumpkins, ghoul M&Ms, icing pumpkins, and candy bones on graveyard cakes. Target has a great selection of Reese’s ghosts, Twix ghosts, candy bones, and etc. Remember, this type of cake is super-fun to make, and there are no rules!