This spooky graveyard Halloween poke cake is colorful, easy to make and fun! Also known as “Ghosts In The Graveyard” cake, this easy dessert is perfect for Halloween parties, potlucks. Your family will love this creepy and fun cake!

A chocolate Halloween poke cake slice on a plate topped with a a cookie headstone that says RIP, a ghost marshmallow, gummy worms and candy pumpkins with the full pan of cake and more candy in the background.

Table of Contents

Why We Love Graveyard Halloween Poke Cake

Great For First Time Bakers – This type of cake is great for beginner bakers as the decorations are simple and don’t have to be perfect to still be fun. This is a great cake to make with the kids.
Cake Mix To Make Things Faster – Cake mix makes this cake quick and easy, so you can focus on the fun Halloween decorations.
Fun For A Party – This colorful cake looks so fun on any party table or at any potluck. Friends and family will all want a piece!

Make a mini version of this dessert with just pudding with these graveyard Halloween dirt cups! Or try the mummy nutter butter cookies and the Halloween candy overload brownies! Wash it all down with a spooky Halloween punch that’s fun for kids.

Ingredients For Graveyard Halloween Poke Cake

Ingredients for a Halloween decorated chocolate poke cake in bowls on a counter with title text labels.

Find the full printable recipe with specific measurements and directions below in the recipe card.

For The Cake

devil’s food cake mix – You can use any chocolate cake mix. A white cake mix can also be used, but the colors don’t show up as well in a yellow cake mix.
water
oil vegetable, olive or any cooking oil
eggs
instant white chocolate pudding mix can use vanilla or cheesecake also, or any white colored pudding. Could also use a spooky color like orange or green pudding if they have a speciality flavor that works.
milk
food coloring green and orange, regular or gel food coloring
whipped topping like Cool Whip
chocolate sandwich cookies like Oreos
semisweet chocolate chips – can swap milk chocolate chips or dark chocolate chips

For The Decorations

Use as much or as little decorations as you like!

Milano cookies for headstones, or vanilla wafers
Halloween marshmallows pumpkin, ghoust and black cat, Peeps candy
candy pumpkins
Halloween sprinkles
gummy worms

Cake Mix Note

This recipe was developed with a 15.25 ounce cake mix. Some of the cake mix brands have been decreasing the size to 13.25 ounces. You can use a 13.25 ounces box of cake mix with this recipe but make sure to add the ingredients to the mix if different, and use the bake time on the packaging.

How To Make A Graveyard Halloween Poke Cake

Making The Cake

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9×13 baking dish.
In a large mixing bowl add the cake mix, water, oil and eggs. Mix well until combined and a smooth batter forms.

A glass bowl filled with chocolate cake mix with eggs, water and oil in bowls nearby for the Halloween poke cake.

Pour the cake batter into the prepared baking dish. Bake the cake in the oven for 30-35 minutes. A toothpick should come out clean with no batter when inserted into the center.

A white baking dish filled with chocolate cake batter before baking for the Halloween poke cake.

Bake the cake for 30-35 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool in the pan completely.
Once cool, poke holes in rows into the cake with the handle of a wooden spoon or a chopstick.

A hand poking holes in a chocolate cake in rows in a rectangular pan for the Halloween poke cake.

Add the instant pudding and milk to a medium sized bowl. Whisk the mixture until fully combined and smooth, then add food coloring until the pudding is your desired color. Add the pudding onto the cake using a spatula or a butter knife to spread the pudding and push it into the holes.

A bowl of pudding being mixed and dyed orange for the Halloween poke cake in a pan nearby.

A rectangular pan filled with chocolate cake and orange colored pudding bein spread into the holes poked in the cake.

Top the entire cake with the whipped topping, using a knife to smooth it across the top.

A rectangular baking dish filled with a Halloween poke cake covered in an orange pudding layer with a cool whip frosting layer being added.

Crush the chocolate sandwich cookies into crumbs, including the cream centers. Spread the cookie crumbs evenly over the top of the poke cake.

The chocolate sandwich cookies (Oreos) can be crumbled into crumbs in the food processor. You can also place the cookies in a zip-top bag and crush them gently with a rolling pin or using a heavy canned food item like soup or tomatoes.

A Halloween poke cake with chocolate Oreo crumbs being layered over cool whip, Orange colored pudding and chocolate cake for a Halloween poke cake.

Adding The Decorations

Place the chocolate chips in a small microwave safe bowl. Melt the chocolate chips in 30 second intervals at half power until smooth, about 2-3 minutes. Place the melted chocolate into a ziploc bag and snip off a tiny corner.
Break the bottom off of each Milano cookie. Use the melted chocolate to write R.I.P., boo or even a date onto the Milano cookies to resemble tombstones.

Oval shaped cookies being decorated with chocolate to look like tombstones that read RIP and Boo for Halloween.

Decorate the top of the cake with the sprinkles, candy pumpkins, marshmallows and the tombstone cookies. Set the cake in the fridge to chill for at least two hours. Enjoy!

A Halloween poke cake decorated to look lik a graveyard with cookie headstones and marshmallow ghosts and pumpkins from the edge.

Variation Ideas

Swap The Pudding Flavor Or Color– Any white instant pudding can work in this recipe. You can also use pre-made pudding, like pudding cups. You will need about 4 1/2 cups of pudding total. You can also use any Halloween colors for the pudding. Green, purple, orange, red and white all work well for Halloween.

Use Other Cookies For The Headstones- Milano cookies work really well in this recipe because of their shape, but other cookies can be used. Lorna Dune cookies, Chessman cookies turned backwards, vanilla wafers, vanilla sugar wafers, or Golden Oreos can all be used as headstones easily.

Swap In Other Halloween Candies – Any Halloween candies can be used to decorate the top of this graveyard. Gummy bugs, candy corn, candy eyeballs, candy zombie hands. Get creative with your decorations!

Poke cakes can be a lot of fun to make, and a great project to make with kids. Try the strawberry poke cake (with strawberry sauce!) or the banana pudding poke cake.

How Long Will This Halloween Poke Cake Last?

Expect this Halloween poke cake will last for about 4-5 days if stored in the refrigerator, though it will taste best if eaten within three days. I recommend covering it with plastic wrap.

This cake can be made up to a day ahead of time for a party and will still taste fresh. I recommend adding the marshmallows and gummy candies to the top right before serving so they taste freshest.

I don’t recommend freezing this cake. The pudding doesn’t defrost easily, and the decorations tend to get messed up really fast if you try to freeze it. This cake is best if eaten fresh.