Milk Chocolate Graveyard Cake Recipes

GRAVEYARD CAKE

Steps:

• In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda and salt; set aside. In a saucepan, combine butter, water and cocoa; bring to a boil over medium heat. Add to flour mixture; beat well. Beat in sour cream and eggs. , Pour into a greased 13x9-in. baking pan. Bake at 350° for 35-38 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes., Meanwhile, in a saucepan, combine butter, milk and cocoa; bring to a boil. Remove from the heat; stir in sugar and vanilla. Pour over warm cake. Crumble chocolate cookies; sprinkle over frosting while still warm. Cool completely. , For tombstone, use icing to decorate vanilla cookies with words or faces; place on cake. For ghosts, make mounds of whipped topping; use icing to add eyes and mouths as desired. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Just before serving, add pumpkins and gummy worms if desired.

PUMPKIN CAKE GRAVEYARD

Steps:

• For the pumpkin cake: Spray a 12-cup Bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• In a large bowl, combine 2 boxes of the pound cake mix, 1 stick of the butter, 4 of the eggs, 1 can of the pumpkin puree and 2 teaspoons of the pumpkin pie spice. Mix with a handheld electric mixer on high speed until blended, about 1 minute. Pour into the prepared Bundt pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 50 to 60 minutes.
• Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then unmold onto a wire cooling rack. Repeat the process to make a second Bundt cake.
• Once the cakes are cooled, level off the bottoms with a serrated knife so the cakes will sit flat. Place one of the cakes cut-side up and spread the vanilla frosting over it. Place the second cake, cut-side down, on top to form a pumpkin.
• For the glaze: In a medium bowl whisk together the confectioners' sugar, cream cheese, milk and food coloring. (The glaze should be a bright orange color; add a few more drops of food coloring if needed.) The mixture will be very thick but still pourable. Place the pumpkin cake on a baking sheet fitted with a wire rack. Slowly pour the glaze over the top, moving in a circular motion around the top of the cake and letting the glaze drip down the sides. Set aside until set, about 1 hour.
• Wrap some fruit leather around the green ice cream cone and press it into place upside down on the cake to form a stem. Dust a work surface with confectioners' sugar, place some fruit leather on top, and cut out a leaf with a leaf-shaped cookie cutter. Press the leaf into place on the cake near the stem.
• For the graveyard: Spray an 18-by-13-inch baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray and line with parchment; spray the parchment.
• Prepare both boxes of brownie mix according to the package instructions and pour into the prepared baking sheet. Bake according to the package instructions. Let cool completely, then remove from the pan and place on a large cutting board.
• Frost the top of the brownie sheet with the chocolate frosting. Slice about 60 of the chocolate ladyfingers in half crosswise. Press the halved cookies, cut-side down, side-by-side around the top edge of the frosted brownie sheet to form a fence. On one of the long sides of the brownie sheet, leave a 3-inch opening in the fence to create an entrance. Place 2 whole ladyfingers on either side of the opening to form the gate entrance. Place another whole ladyfinger on top of the two ladyfingers to make the top of the gate, using a little bit of frosting to adhere it.
• Cover the top of the frosted brownie with the crumbled chocolate cream-filled cookies to make dirt. Place the pumpkin cake in the center of the graveyard.
• To make the gravestones, place the rectangular cookies and vanilla wafer sandwich cookies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Spray both sides of the cookies with the silver spray food coloring.
• Use a knife to cut slits into the brownie to hold the gravestones. Carefully place the gravestones into the slits.
• Place the small candy pumpkins and marshmallow ghosts in the graveyard around the pumpkin. Serve immediately.

MILK CHOCOLATE GRAVEYARD CAKE

Steps:

• Put a rack in the middle of the oven, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter 2 (9 by 2-inch) tephlon round cake pans. Line the bottom of each with a round of parchment or waxed paper, and then butter the paper. Sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt together onto waxed paper. Cream the butter, and sugars in a large bowl using an electric mixer at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes in a standing mixer or 5 minutes with a handheld mixer. Add the room temperature eggs, 1 at a time, mixing until completely incorporated before adding additional eggs. Add the chocolate and vanilla and mix until combined. Turn the mixer to low and slowly add the dry ingredients and the buttermilk alternately in 3 batches, starting and ending with dry ingredients and mixing until combined. Divide the batter between the cake pans, spreading evenly, and bake until a wooden skewer inserted in the center of each cake layer comes out clean, 25 to 35 minutes. Allow the cake layers to cool in the pans on racks for 10 minutes. Run a thin knife around edge of each layer, then invert them onto racks. Peel off paper and cool layers completely. Frosting: In a standing mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, combine the butter, salt, and 2 cups of the confectioners' sugar until light and fluffy. Add the melted chocolate, vanilla, and remaining sugar. Whisk on medium-high until smooth and fluffy. Assemble the cake by using 1 cup frosting to frost between the layers, and then frost the top and sides with the remaining frosting. To decorate the graveyard cake: Finely crush the chocolate wafer cookies in a plastic bag with a rolling pin or use a food processor. Sprinkle the top of the cake generously with cookie crumbs. Write "RIP" and other scary words on the chocolate sandwich cookies with black icing. Cut slits in the cake to insert cookies for gravestones, and add candy rocks, pumpkins, Candy Bones, Chocolate Trees and cotton candy. Arrange Candy Bones around the base of the cake.;
• Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Stick marshmallows onto both ends of the pretzels, with the marshmallows' flat sides parallel to the pretzel. Put the chips in a heat proof bowl over barely simmering water and let melt, stirring frequently. As soon as the chips are just melted, stir in the melted butter. Take the pan off the heat, remove the bowl from the pot, and allow it to cool slightly. Dip each pretzel bone in the chocolate and lift them out with a fork, letting the excess drip back into the bowl. Lay the bones on the baking sheet and refrigerate for 30 minutes to harden the chocolate.;
• Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Spoon the melted chocolate into a small resealable food storage plastic bag and seal the bag. Cut a small hole in the bottom corner of the bag. Squeeze melted chocolate in the shape of trees onto the foil. Refrigerate the trees. Remove the trees and insert them into the cake, decorating with cotton candy as cob webs.;