How to Make a Halloween Graveyard Cake

How to Make a Halloween Graveyard Cake This cake or cupcakes are perfect for kids halloween parties and make a great presentation for classroom parties as well.

Graveyard Cake Ingredients 1 (18 1/4 oz.) package Devil's Food Cake Mix9 x 12 inch Baking Pan 10 ozs. Chocolate Filled Cookies (Oreos), crushed or Gingersnaps 6-10 Oval shaped Butter Cookies (Pepperidge Farm Milanos)1 can prepared Vanilla FrostingAssorted tubes of Cake Decorating Gel in Halloween colors (orange, yellow, brown, etc.) 1 cup Candy Corn or Pumpkin Shaped Candies 1/4 cup Colored Sprinkles or Colored Crystal Sugar in harvest colors (orange, yellow, brown, etc.) Ghost shaped marshmallows (Halloween version of Easter peeps) Click here to view a photo of the finished Graveyard Cake. Method: Bake cake according to package directions or recipe. Let cool completely.Spread frosting evenly over finished cake. Using gel frostings, write silly spooky sayings on the top half of the Milano cookies such as "RIP", "BOO", "B.A. Ghoul", "M.T. Tomb", "Justin Time", and "Yul B. Next". Press the cookies halfway down into the cake here and there to resemble standing tombstones. Arrange the ghost marshmallows and candies around the tombstones. Top with colored sprinkles or sugars. Serves 8-12. Options: You can use other cake flavors, if you pair them with a complementary cookie topping. For example, if you use a pumpkin flavored cake, you might want to use vanilla frosting and crushed gingersnaps. If you can't find marshmallow ghosts with the Halloween candy in your local store, you could use dollops of whipped cream instead. Remember they should be piped on just before serving, or keep the cake chilled to prevent the ghosts from sagging. Add a couple of mini chocolate chip eyes to each whipped cream ghost. Variation: Make individual ghost or tombstone cupcakes. How to Make a Halloween Graveyard Cake

Halloween Food Ideas - Scary Chocolate Fun Bites for Kids

You wanted something unique and scary Halloween surprises for your kids but you don't have time to make those treats, so even a little bit over the top would do. Why not break out into the simplest chocolate bites with the unusual food colors to infuse a Halloween feel into your treats? Little ones love chocolate and making something tasty that ties in with Halloween is sure enough to get your celebration unique. Try these simple chocolate bites.

Wormy Chocolate Cupcakes You'll need: ½ cup of water 1 cup granola oil 4 eggs 1 box ( 18 oz.) cake mix with pudding 1 cup of ready to spread chocolate frosting 24 gummy worms What to Do: Set the oven 350 degrees and preheat. Prepare muffin pan by placing paper cupcake liners into the muffin cups. Spray with a non-stick cooking spray evenly. In a mixing bowl, whisk together water and oil then add the eggs and continue whisking until blended. Gradually add the cake mix powder and stir to combine well. Fill the paper lines 2/3 full of the batter and bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the cupcake comes out clean. When done, take out cupcakes from muffin pan and transfer to a wire rack until slightly cool. Make a coin-size hole in the center of each cupcake. Place your prepared frosting inside a parchment paper or a baggie and squeeze into the cupcake holes. Press a gummy worm into the frosting of each cupcake. Creepy Chocolate Ice-Cream Cups You'll need: 10 graham cracker tart shells 10 scoops of vanilla ice cream 20 chocolate cream filled cookies, crumbled 20 red M&M candy pieces 20 pieces of black shoestring licorice, cut into fourths How to Make It: Arrange graham cracker shells on a baking pan. Fill each shell with 1 scoop of ice cream then top with the crumbled cookies coating heavily. Freeze for 30 minutes to one hour, or until the ice cream has hardened. Press 2 M&M's into the front to look like red eyes, and press 8 strips of licorice into each ice cream scoop to form the spider's legs. Return to the freezer until serving time. Chocolate Ghost Bites You'll need: 2 pkg. (12 squares) white Chocolate 1/4 cup whipping cream 1 tablespoon of butter, softened Decorating gel How to Make It: Melt the chocolate squares, cream and butter in the microwave for 2 minutes, stirring after 1 minute. When the chocolate is completely melted, cover. Freeze until firm, about 1 hour or more. When chocolate is cool enough to handle, scoop with a spoon and roll chocolate mixture into bite-size spooky balls. Place the balls into a waxed paper and freeze for 20 minutes. Use a decorating gel to draw eyes on the frozen spooky balls to resemble ghosts. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to 1 hour. This will make your chocolate spookies firm upon serving. You will be amused how kids will respond to the ideas. They will be thrilled at first to touch the scary chocolate bites yet at the end they will eat them all. You may wrap the squirmy chocolate cupcakes in decorative plastic wrap to give as giveaway. These ideas also go for adults!

Creepy and Cute Halloween Cake Design Ideas

To help you get started scheming and designing your ghoulish confections, here are a few Halloween Cake Design Ideas. Try these or create your own spin-off's!

Haunted House - Sheet, Novelty Pan or Sculpted Castle This Halloween cake can be made in many ways. 1. Trim a sheet cake into the shape of an old Victorian house with gables. Then pipe icing windows, doors, and other details, including cobwebs. Ghostly shapes are easy to pipe and fill in with snow-white buttercream icing. Add bats and other easy to pipe Halloween creatures. 2. Or you can use a novelty cake pan with the haunted house theme. Many of these come with decorations and instructions. 3. For a really exciting Halloween cake, try a haunted castle cake! Butter cakes works well. Stack two or more cakes, being sure to place supportive plates in between the layers. If the cake is large like a wedding cake, add cake dowels. Towers can be created with upside down ice-cream cones or paper towel rolls, shortened to fit proportionally to your cake. For edible towers, bake a pound cake in a jelly roll pan, and then using a cookie-cutter or glass, cut our circular pieces of uniform size. Skewer these, and then stick the skewered towers into the cake. Then ice them and pipe designs and windows. For an amazing haunted house castle - think detail. For example, you could cut out windows and place inside kooky ghosts or other ghoulish figures (modeled with rolled buttercream, created with gum paste molds, or store-bought). You might even want to add a moat and drawbridge! Tuck green miniature lights behind the turrets and under the drawbridge for an eerie glow. A basic set of confectionary tools will help you model your Halloween cake creatures. You can find these and all sorts of decorating supplies at www.CandylandCrafts.com If you model your Halloween cake figures with gum paste, creations will dry hard and last for years, but the children won't enjoy the taste much. Marzipan's expensive, and this almond paste isn't as much of a hit with kids as grown-ups. Your best bet for your Halloween cakes is Rolled Buttercream. It's a great tasting icing dough that can be easily modeled or molded. Frankenstein's Bride - Vintage Halloween Cake Here's a spin off from our charming doll cake that is made with a Barbie type doll and a cake dress. Use a doll with black hair. Tease the hair so it's all puffed up and then paint the lightening stripes up each side of her hair do. (For a humorous version, you could make her hair stand straight up). Paint her face a pasty white, add make-up (search online for "Bride of Frankenstein doll" and "Bride of Frankenstein costumes" for ideas. Cover the negligee dress with smooth, white buttercream and maybe add some black spiders and lacy impressions. Another idea: A vintage 60's Halloween doll cake could be fashioned after the Adam's Family's Mortisha. Jack o' Lantern Bundt Halloween Cake This is an easy Halloween cake for cake decorators new to cake sculpting. Young children will adore a Jack o' Lantern cake with a cute or goofy expression, while most older kids will get a kick out of an outlandish or spooky face. Start with 2 bundt cakes (butter, pumpkin and pound cakes work well). Then after leveling and icing the bottom of the cakes, fit them together to form the pumpkin. Cover the pumpkin with smooth, orange buttercream. Then pipe and/or use rolled buttercream to model the facial features. Pipe green leaves on top and add a stem made of rolled buttercream or an upside-down ice cream cone, iced with green. Last, but not least, here's an important Halloween Cake tip. The amount of liquid food coloring needed to create black or dark brown icing will probably give your icing a bitter taste. To avoid making a Halloween cake that tastes creepier than it looks, try one of these ghoulishly clever tips: · Use gel, paste or powder coloring. They're concentrated, so you won't need as much. · Begin with dark chocolate buttercream, and you'll need even less. · Instead of black icing, cover plain buttercream with crushed, dark chocolate cookies, and use licorice and such for spiders and bats.

Spooky Treats and Ghoulish Eats - Kids Halloween Recipes

These Halloween recipes for kids are a great addition to your holiday fare. This time of year is all about ghosts and goblins, witches and wizards, bats and vampires and even monsters and more. Making fun treats to eat at your party will set the tone for a spooky and scary good time. These ideas will need some adult supervision as there is some heating and cooking involved with these recipes. Don't forget some food coloring to make these ideas even extra special for the upcoming day. You can make creepy ice cream spiders, witches brew punch or even scrumptious munchable scarecrows.

Kids Halloween Recipe #1 - Ice Cream Spider Cups Everyone loves ice cream and for your festive party they will love the looks of these spiders made from ice cream and other tasty ingredients. Ingredients 8 individual graham cracker tart shells 1/2 gallon vanilla ice cream 16 Oreo Cookies (crumbled) 16 red M&M candy pieces 16 pieces of black shoestring licorice Directions Lay out the shells on a baking sheet. Add 1 scoop of vanilla ice cream to each shell. In a bowl, crumble the Oreo cookies. Sprinkle the crumbles on each scoop of ice cream to create a black furry looking spider body. Put the filled shells in the freezer for 30 minutes or until ice cream is hardened. Remove from the freezer and press 2 red M&M's into the front of each scoop for the spider's eyes. Cut the licorice strips into fourths. Press 8 strips of licorice into each ice cream scoop to form the spider's legs. Return to the freezer until ready to serve. Makes 8 servings These simple little spiders are so easy make and the kids will love them. You can use any flavor of ice cream you want and different colors of M&M's for the eyes. Mix it up and give each guest a slightly different looking spider or flavor. Kids Halloween Recipe #2 - Red Witches Brew Fruit Punch This blood red punch will sure to quench the thirst of all the vampires attending your party. Ingredients 3 (48 ounce) cans pineapple juice 1 (2 liter) lemon lime soda 1 large package strawberry or cherry flavored drink mix 1 can frozen strawberries 12 - 24 gummy worms Directions Place a gummy worm in an ice cube tray (1 in each tray). Fill with water and freeze. Mix all other ingredients together and chill. Once the ice cubes (with the gummy worms) are frozen, place in the punch and serve. Makes about 1 to 1 1/2 gallons You can make your witches brew even scarier looking by adding raisins and/or other frozen fruits. Kids Halloween Recipe #3 - Coconut Munchable Scarecrows These yummy scarecrows will brighten up your party with their bright clothes and tasty hat. Kids will have a blast frosting these little guys. Ingredients 1 (18 ounce) package refrigerated sugar cookie dough 1 cup flaked coconut Yellow, orange, red and blue food coloring 18 gum drop fruit slices 1 can vanilla frosting 1 package mini chocolate chips Directions Roll out the cookie dough on a flat surface. You can flour the surface to prevent sticking. Use gingerbread men cutters and cut out 18 shapes. Place the cutouts onto a baking sheet and bake according the directions on the package. Remove the cookies and cool to room temperature on a wire rack. Using a small bowl, mix the coconut and yellow food coloring to achieve a straw like color. To make the scarecrow hats place the gum drops on a lightly sugared surface and press and roll them flat. Using a butter knife, cut hat shapes for each flattened gum drop. Place the vanilla frosting evenly into 3 separate bowls. Add drops of orange, red and blue food coloring into each of the bowls (one color per bowl). After the cookies have cooled, frost each cookie with the blue and red frosting making the shirts and pants. Make some shirts blue and pants red and with some shirts red and pants blue. Next frost the head, feet and hands with the orange frosting. Press your colored coconut into the hands and feet to form the straw. Place the hat onto the scarecrows head by placing a little orange frosting on the back of the hat and pressing it onto the scarecrow. Place 2 to 3 of mini chocolate chips down the front of the scarecrows shirt for buttons. Place chips on the head for the eyes, nose and mouth. Makes 18 cookies. These scarecrows will look so yummy that your guests will eat them quickly.

Halloween Party Food Ideas For Kids

Halloween is a great time to host a kid's party. After all, what child doesn't like Halloween? One of the most enjoyable aspects of Halloween is the food. There are hundreds of recipes that have been specifically created for this spooky holiday. The following ideas will help you plan the yummiest menu possible.

Serve a minimum of sweet treats. You don't want your guests suffering from 'sugar overload' during the party. To celebrate the occasion, serve chicken fingers with a blood (any red dipping sauce.) If you prepare them from scratch, it's not hard to make them resembling the more human variety. Add a sliced almond for the finger nail for a realistic approach.

Cookie For Kids

Another dish to try is to add equal parts red, blue, and yellow food color to spaghetti after it's been cooked so it turns an ugly brownish color. Serve with a green pesto sauce and call it snakes in the swamp.

Make goofy eyeball meatballs. Shape seasoned ground meat into an oval with a flat top and bottom, bake until done. Cut a round circle out of mozzarella cheese about the size of a half dollar or one inch in diameter. Cut grape tomatoes or cherry tomatoes into three slices. Cut black olives in half. Assemble the goofy eyeballs by placing a slice of cheese on the meatball, then a slice of tomato on the cheese and top with a black olive half. Vary the placement of the toppings so the eyeballs are looking in different directions.

If you will be serving punch, why not serve the ghoulish variety? Simply make your favorite punch and add a few ghoul hands. To make these hands, fill non-powdered rubber gloves with cranberry or other red juice. (Don't overfill, the fingers of the glove should still move easily.)
Close gloves tightly with rubber bands and freeze flat on cookie sheets, which have been lined with paper towels. When ready to serve, open gloves with scissors and add to punch. You may want to break off one or two fingers and add them separately.

A fun punch can be with one quart of lime drink, one quart of lemon lime soda and one cup of lime sherbet. The sherbet should be added right before serving. Stir so the sherbet foams up a bit with the soda. Dust the foam lightly with cocoa powder to resemble dirt.

It's not a good idea to use dry ice in your punch to make it smoke. Curious hands may try to touch the dry ice resulting in freezer burn. Instead place the dry ice in containers out of reach, such as the back of a table and you'll still have the atmosphere of the smoky fog without the worry of accidents.

Keep the food simple and familiar but with a twist. Rename favorites in the Halloween theme. Use food coloring in blues, greens, and browns to alter the way a dish looks. Or use familiar food in unfamiliar ways. For example blanch a cauliflower head, break apart and then reassemble (this makes the cauliflower easier to serve) cover the cauliflower with ranch dressing then using ketchup in a squeeze bottle outline each floret with the ketchup so it looks like a brain.

Have fun with your food at Halloween.

Halloween Party Food Ideas For Kids

Get your free booklet Party Ideas for Kids Dee Power is the author of several nonfiction books and the novel, Over Time Dee's hobbies include gardening, and jewelry. She is the proud companion to Rose, the Irish Setter and Kate, the English Springer Spaniel.