A Boo-tiful Graveyard!

We had a 'Creepy Treats and Sides' contest at work as part of our Halloween party. It was sooo much fun! My entry won 2nd place in the 'Tasty' category. I put together a graveyard using cupcakes. It was a lot of fun to decorate. Here's what I did:

1. Bake cupcakes. I used a small can of pumpkin (about 15 oz.), 2/3 of that can of water and a spice cake mix for the first batch. Just mix them up, use some fancy Halloween cupcake wrappers, and bake them according to package directions. Very good with chocolate icing. I also baked up a batch of Butter Pecan cake mix and paired it with caramel frosting. Just bake the cupcakes-- Don't frost them yet.

2. Buy a box/bag of oreos or equivalent. Twist apart the cookies and scrape off all the frosting. Put the chocolate wafers in a large ziploc bag. Squeeze out as much air as possible, then bash the bag with a rolling pin or the bottom of a small saucepan until they are completely crushed. This will be your dirt.

3. Buy a bag or two of Milano cookies. I used the kind with dark chocolate. Using a small piping tip, pipe the letters 'RIP' on each. They should look like this:



4. Frost the cupcakes. I used chocolate frosting for the pumpkin cupcakes and caramel frosting for the butter pecan cupcakes. Once the cupcakes are frosted, press the Milano cookie tombstone halfway in and sprinkle with dirt. Place a few bone sprinkles on each (I found those cute bloody bones and Target) and viola-- a Bootiful Graveyard. Here are a few pics of the finished product:

Pumpkin Chocolate

Butter Pecan Caramel

Hope everyone had a great Halloweekend! Now we can look forward to Thanksgiving in a few short weeks. What will you be cooking?