Made with a doctored cake mix this Halloween Dirt Cake is poked and filled with pudding and topped with whipped cream frosting and crushed Oreos and decorated to Halloween perfection!
I love Halloween! I don’t know why I don’t share more Halloween themed recipes on my site because we love doing fun themed desserts and main dishes every year.
Kids really love to get involved when it comes to this Dirt Cake! It is super fun and you can decorate it however you would like. This has been one of our go-to cakes for years.
Desserts are one of our favorite themed things to make for holidays and this Halloween Cake is perfect for that. Chocolate cake, pudding, frosting, Oreos and decorations, how could you go wrong?
You really can’t and this cake is really easy to put together. I love doctoring up cake mixes to make them taste better, not saying that a normal cake mix doesn’t but adding to them is fun.
The addition of Oreos really puts this cake recipe over the top, it blends well with the creamy whipped frosting giving it nice crunch with each and every single bite
This will quickly become your go-to Halloween recipe every year! I know it is ours, super easy, fun and totally tasty! You can’t resist this one.
Some of our other favorite chocolate desserts include: Chocolate Sopapilla Cheesecake Bars, Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies and Homemade Chocolate Pudding.
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
- With a doctored up cake mix it is super easy to throw together.
- You can decorate it anyway that you’d like.
- This is great for parties or just to have around for your family.
INGREDIENTS NEEDED (FULL RECIPE AT BOTTOM):
Chocolate cake mix
Chocolate fudge instant pudding
Sour cream
Vegetable oil
Milk
Eggs
Vanilla
Salt
Instant chocolate pudding mix
Powdered sugar
Oreos
Milano cookies
Ghost Peeps
Candy pumpkins
Sprinkles, optional
Black gel icing
HOW TO MAKE A HALLOWEEN DIRT CAKE, STEP BY STEP:
Cake:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease a 9×13-inch cake pan, set aside.
- Mix together all the cake ingredients until fully combined.
- Transfer cake mix to the prepared pan. The batter will be thick and you will need to use a rubber spatula to spread it out.
- Bake for 28-32 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Let cool for 30 minutes and poke holes all over to top with the handle of a wooden spoon.
Filling:
- Whisk together the pudding mix and milk for 2 minutes, then allow to thicken slightly.
- Spread the pudding over the top of the cake and into the holes, set aside.
Frosting:
- In a large bowl or stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whisk together the frosting ingredients until thick and fluffy.
- Spread the frosting over the top of the cake, set aside.
Topping:
- Add the Oreos to a food processor and pulse until you get fine crumbs. Sprinkle the Oreo crumbs over the top of the cake.
- Write R.I.P. on the Milano cookies to make tombstones and then press them into the frosting so they stand up.
- Press the ghost Peeps into the frosting so they stand up. If they have a hard time doing so, you can use toothpicks to help secure them.
- Add the candy pumpkins near the ghosts and tombstones.
- Add sprinkles, if desired.
WHAT KIND OF CAKE MIX SHOULD I USE?
You can use any of your favorite chocolate cake mixes! Milk Chocolate, Chocolate Fudge, Triple Chocolate, Dark Chocolate, Dark Fudge, etc.
The doctoring up the cake mix will work for any cake mix that you choose, so you can use any of your favorite so you can have it flavored the way you like.
WHAT ELSE CAN I DECORATE THIS WITH?
So obviously we went with the Halloween Dirt Cake theme, and chose a graveyard for this specific cake. But you can decorate it with other things, some other ideas include:
- Gummy worms
- Candy corn
- Candy eyeballs
- Halloween M&M’s
- Reese’s cups
This can really be made to be decorated any way that you like, we really like the graveyard theme for this Dirt Cake so we went with that, but I say just have some fun!
HOW LONG DOES THIS NEED TO CHILL?
You will want to let this cake chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. This will give the frosting time to set up properly and let your pudding really soak in your cake.
If you want to let it chill longer you can also do that! The longer it sits the more potent the pudding will be within the cake itself! You will want to wait to add your topping.
If you add your topping before it is chilled you run the risk of letting the Oreo crumbs get soggy and we like the crunchy aspect of them!
HOW TO STORE:
This Halloween Dirt Cake can be made up to 1 day in advance with the pudding (undecorated) before frosting and decorating.
This will last covered in the pan with foil, plastic wrap or a lid for up to 4 days.
TIPS AND TRICKS:
- Use any of your favorite chocolate cake mix for this.
- We use two different puddings chocolate fudge and regular chocolate, but you can use just one if you’d like.
- Make sure you get INSTANT pudding and not cook and serve.
- This can be decorated any way that you like, see some of my tips above.
- You can make this a day in advance with the pudding before decorating if you’d like to get a jump start.
- Make sure you let your cake chill at least 2 hours after spreading on the frosting.
If you want a super fun, super easy recipe that will wow kids and adults then you have to make my Halloween Dirt Cake! You will not regret it.
If you like this recipe you might also like:
If you’ve tried this HALLOWEEN DIRT CAKE or any other recipe on my site, let me know in the comment section how it turned out, we love hearing from our readers! You can also follow along with me on PINTEREST, FACEBOOK and INSTAGRAM to see more amazing recipes and what shenanigans I’m getting into!
Halloween Dirt Cake
Ingredients
Cake:
- 16 ounce box chocolate cake mix
- 3 ounce package of chocolate fudge instant pudding dry
- ½ cup sour cream
- ¾ cup vegetable oil
- ½ cup milk
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ teaspoon salt
Filling:
- 3 ounce box instant chocolate pudding mix
- 2 cups whole milk
Frosting:
- 2 cups heavy cream
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- ⅓ cup instant chocolate pudding mix
Topping:
- 16 Oreos crushed
- 9 Milano cookies
- 3 Ghost Peeps
- 12 candy pumpkins
- Sprinkles optional
- Black gel icing for writing
Instructions
Cake:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease a 9x13-inch cake pan, set aside.
- Mix together all the cake ingredients until fully combined.
- Transfer cake mix to the prepared pan. The batter will be thick and you will need to use a rubber spatula to spread it out.
- Bake for 28-32 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Let cool for 30 minutes and poke holes all over to top with the handle of a wooden spoon.
Filling:
- Whisk together the pudding mix and milk for 2 minutes, then allow to thicken slightly.
- Spread the pudding over the top of the cake and into the holes, set aside.
Frosting:
- In a large bowl or stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whisk together the frosting ingredients until thick and fluffy.
- Spread the frosting over the top of the cake, set aside.
Topping:
- Add the Oreos to a food processor and pulse until you get fine crumbs. Sprinkle the Oreo crumbs over the top of the cake.
- Write R.I.P. on the Milano cookies to make tombstones and then press them into the frosting so they stand up.
- Press the ghost Peeps into the frosting so they stand up. If they have a hard time doing so, you can use toothpicks to help secure them.
- Add the candy pumpkins near the ghosts and tombstones.
- Add sprinkles, if desired.
Notes
- Use any of your favorite chocolate cake mix for this.
- We use two different puddings chocolate fudge and regular chocolate, but you can use just one if you'd like.
- Make sure you get INSTANT pudding and not cook and serve.
- This can be decorated any way that you like, see some of my tips above.
- You can make this a day in advance with the pudding before decorating if you'd like to get a jump start.
- Make sure you let your cake chill at least 2 hours after spreading on the frosting.
Nutrition
Tornadough Alli is not a nutritionist or dietitian, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and nutritional value is important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories and values can vary depending on which brands were used.
Audrey Wiysel
What is the sour cream for is that just a typo in the ingredients?
Tornadough Alli
No, this is in the cake itself it helps keep the cake moist as this is a doctored up cake mix. So when it says mix all cake ingredients together what is listed under cake is what you mix together.