Halloween is coming, and with it comes the candy and the sweets we all love to eat! This year, for your child's (or your) Halloween party, why not bake yourself and your guests some delicious Graveyard cupcakes!

Craving something spooky and delicious? Raise the dead for dessert! Here’s a recipe for your Halloween party that will be easy to make using everyday ingredients, all you need to add are the graves, worms, and the bones of the undead!! You’ll be needing some dirt to cover the graves, and some custom headstones too, so grab your ingredients, and let’s get started.

Step 1: Ingredients and Getting Started

Ingredients:

1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
5 ounces semisweet chocolate chips, melted and cooled
1 cup AP flour
3 tbsp cocoa powder (unsweetened)
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk (preferably whole milk)

Frosting:

1/2 cup heavy cream
5 Oz chocolate chips

Decorations:

1 bag gummy worms
1 bag Milano cookies
Grey candy melts (or 1 cup of white candy melts plus 2 discs of black candy melts)
Oreos
White fondant

Step 2: Baking the Cupcakes

Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a standard 12-cup cupcake tin with paper liners.

Melt the semisweet chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave (30-45 second bursts, you don’t want it to burn!). Let the chocolate cool.

Mix together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda and set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Once the eggs and vanilla are well incorporated, add in the chocolate and mix to combine.

Add in one third of the flour mixture and mix to incorporate. Add the half the milk and mix until combined. Keep adding the flour and milk until everything is incorporated.

Fill the liners until they’re about two-thirds full and gently tap the pan to settle the batter.

Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out with a few crumbs attached. Let the cupcakes cool for 10 minutes in the pan and then remove and cool on a wire rack until completely cool.

Step 3: Making the Gravestones and the "dirt"

While the cupcakes cool, heat candy melts until melted and cut 6 milano cookies in half. Dip the cut Milano cookies in the candy melts and set them on wax paper to set. Once the candy melts are partially set, use a thin object (like a chopstick or the back of a food safe paint brush) to carve out cracks in the headstones. Once the candy melts are totally set, 30 minutes to an hour, use a food coloring pen to write out headings like RIP.

Remove the center of a sleeve of oreo cookies and discard. Crumble the oreo cookies into small pieces resembling dirt.

Heat the heavy cream and mix with the chocolate until smooth. Dip the cooled cupcakes in the chocolate ganache and then dip in the oreo dirt. Add the head stones and the gummy worms.

Shape white fondant into bones or skulls and add on top.