This Halloween Graveyard cake will thrill and delight ghouls and goblins alike! It’s simple enough to make no matter your baking skill level and you can make it your own by adding whatever Halloween-themed candy you like. The perfect cake for a spooky Halloween party!
Here’s a super fun and easy Halloween cake idea for you – a spooky Halloween Graveyard cake! A simple chocolate cake topped with chocolate fudge frosting, chocolate biscuits gravestones, a chocolate Matchmaker fence and gummy worms!
The chocolate cake recipe is quite dense (in a good way!) and fudgy – it’s so delicious. It actually tastes even better the day after baking and providing you wrap it properly, it will stay moist for a few days. You’ll love how easy it is to make too!
If you really want to get your bake on, my Halloween meringue ghosts would look super cute on top of this Halloween themed cake!
why you’ll love this recipe
- The cake itself is straightforward to make with mainly store cupboard ingredients.
- It’s customisable – decorate your “graveyard” with whatever Halloween sweets/candy you like
- In a hurry? Don’t bother making the chocolate frosting recipe – save time by grabbing a tub of ready-made frosting instead. No-one will know!
- Kids will love to help decorate this chocolate cemetery cake – why not give it a go this Halloween?
ingredients
Please keep scrolling to the recipe card at the bottom of this post to find ingredient amounts and detailed instructions on how to make this recipe!
for the chocolate sponge
- Plain (all purpose) flour
- baking powder
- bicarbonate of soda
- fine salt
- granulated or caster sugar
- lukewarm coffee or water
- eggs – two large
- cocoa powder
- whole or semi skimmed milk
- vanilla extract
for the decoration
- a packet or Oreo cookies, crushed to make the “dirt”.
- Jelly (gummy) worms or snakes. I could only find snakes, so I just had to pretend they were worms!
- chocolate covered biscuits, such as Penguins or Cadbury snack shortcake bars. The chocolate snack bars are the perfect size for the “gravestones”. If you use Penguin biscuits, you’ll need to cut them in half.
- white writing icing pen
- chocolate Matchmakers for the “fence” or chocolate fingers
HOW TO MAKE Halloween graveyard cake
Preheat the oven to 180C/160Fan/350F. Grease and line a 13×9 baking tin with baking parchment.
Make the chocolate cake batter by combining the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, sugar and salt) in a large mixing bowl.
Melt the butter, coffee or water and cocoa powder in a medium saucepan, stirring to prevent lumps from forming. Set aside to cool down a little.
Pour the cooled cocoa powder mixture into the bowl of flour. Whisk until smooth, then whisk in the eggs, milk and vanilla extract. Using a plastic cake scraper, scrape down the sides of the bowl and lightly turn the mixture to make sure there are no flour pockets.
Pour the batter into the lined tin. The batter should be shiny and smooth. Don’t worry about beating out the odd lump or two, or you might end up overbeating the mixture which will affect the texture of the cake.
Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the cake has risen and a skewer inserted in the middle emerges with no wet batter. When the cake is ready, leave it in the tin for 10-15 minutes before turning out onto a wire cooling rack. Let the cake cool completely before decorating.
decorating the cake
Using a palette knife, ice the top and sides of the cold cake with the chocolate frosting. You find the ingredients and instructions on how to make it in the recipe card.
If you don’t feel like making frosting from scratch, use a tub of ready made – it’s totally fine to “cheat” sometimes!
Stick the chocolate matchmakers or fingers around the side of the cake. The frosting will help them to stay on.
Now it’s time to bash your packet or Oreos to smithereens. You can blitz them in a food processor or simply use a bowl and a rolling pin. I must warm you thought, the latter method can get quite messy!
Using the white writing icing pen, write “RIP” and/or “BOO!” on the chocolate covered biscuits. Let the icing dry before placing on the cake.
Scatter the crushed oreos all over the top of the cake for the “dirt”. Stick the “gravestones” in the cake and decorate with the “worms” or whatever Halloween sweets you like. I added some plastic spiders just for the photos. The only limit is your imagination!
Stand back and marvel at your spooky creation!
how many people does this cake serve?
It of course depends on how generous your cake slices are, but it could probably stretch to about 14-15 people.
storage
Wrap any leftover cake in tin foil to prevent it from drying out. It will keep for up to three or four days.
more Halloween bakes to try
- Halloween chocolate drip cake
- Halloween rocky road
- Black velvet eyeball cupcakes
- Gingerbread mummies
- puff pastry sausage mummies
Halloween Graveyard Cake
This Halloween Graveyard cake is so much fun to make and will delight your little trick or treaters! Kids will love to help decorate this chocolate sheet cake with chocolate fudge frosting, chocolate cookie gravestones, and gummy worms. Use whatever Halloween candy you like for different effects!
Ingredients
- 300g (1 cup + 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp) Plain (all purpose) flour
- 380g (1 cup + 3/4 cup) granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
- 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
- 300ml (1 1/3 cups) lukewarm coffee or water
- 225g (1 cup) soft butter
- 50g (1/2 cup) cocoa powder
- 115ml (1/2 cup) whole or semi skimmed milk
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- FOR THE CHOCOLATE FUDGE FROSTING:
- 350g (2 cups + 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp) icing (powdered) sugar
- 150g (1/2 cup + 3 tbsp) soft unsalted butter
- 70g (1/2 cup + 2 tbsp) cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2-3 tablespoons whole milk
- FOR THE DECORATION:
- 120g packet of Oreos, crushed into small crumbs
- six chocolate covered biscuits/cookies such as Penguins (cut in half) or Cadbury snack bars, for the "gravestones"
- A tube of white writing icing
- two packets of mint or orange Matchmakers for the fence (or you could use chocolate fingers)
- Jelly worms or snakes, or any other Halloween sweets you like
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C/160Fan/350F. Grease and line a 9x13 inch metal baking tin with baking parchment.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt.
- In a medium saucepan, melt the butter with the lukewarm coffee or water and cocoa powder. Whisk the mixture well to avoid lumps from forming. When the mixture has melted, remove from the heat and allow to cool down a little.
- Pour the slightly cooled (if it's a little warm it's ok - as long as it isn't hot) cocoa powder mixture over the flour mixture, whisking to combine. Whisk in the milk, eggs one at a time and the vanilla extract. Swap your whisk for a plastic scraper and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Give the batter a quick and light fold to make sure there are no flour pockets.
- Scrape the batter into the prepared tin. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the cake has risen and a skewer inserted in the middle emerges clean.
- Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 15 minutes before carefully turning out onto a wire cooling rack. Leave to cool completely.
- To make the chocolate frosting, place the butter and icing sugar in a large bowl. Using an electric mixer, cream on high speed for at least 5 minutes or until the mixture is very light and fluffy. Beat in the sieved cocoa powder, vanilla extract and milk. You might not need the 3 tablespoons.
- When the cake is cold, place it on a serving plate and frost the top and the sides with the chocolate icing. Arrange the chocolate Matchmakers around the sides (the icing will help them stick) of the cake. Cover the top of the cake with the crushed Oreos.
- Use the writing icing pen to write "RIP" or "BOO" on the chocolate covered biscuits. Allow the icing to dry, then place them on the cake with gummy worms/snakes or any other Halloween sweets of your choosing.
Notes
To make this recipe even quicker, you could use a tub of ready made chocolate buttercream/frosting instead. You'll need a 400g tub.
If you don't have any chocolate covered biscuits for the gravestones, you could use rich tea fingers or Biscoff biscuits and cover them in melted chocolate. Allow the chocolate to set before decorating with the writing icing.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 14 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 157Total Fat: 7gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 34mgSodium: 274mgCarbohydrates: 20gFiber: 1gSugar: 13gProtein: 3g
Calories and nutritional information are provided by a third party application and should be viewed as indicative figures only.