Spooky Graveyard Halloween Poke Cake

Amethyst · October 20, 2025, 11:00pm

Spooky Graveyard Halloween Poke Cake

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Chill Time: 2 hours
Total Time: 2 hours 50 minutes

Ingredients:

For The Cake:

15.25 ounce devil’s food cake mix
1 ¼ cups water
½ cup oil vegetable, olive or any cooking oil
3 large eggs
3.3 ounces instant white chocolate pudding mix can use vanilla or cheesecake also
2 cups milk
food coloring green and orange
8 ounces whipped topping like Cool Whip
25 cookies chocolate sandwich cookies like Oreos
½ cup semisweet chocolate chips

Adding The Decorations – Use As Much Or As Little As You Like!

Milano cookies for headstones
Halloween marshmallows pumpkin, ghost and black cat – Peeps candy
candy pumpkins
Halloween sprinkles
gummy worms

Directions:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

For 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 a date onto the Milano cookies to resemble tombstones.

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

Notes:

We’ve used orange food coloring, but purple, lime green or red can all look like fun Halloween colors inside this cake. You want a color that will look bright and Halloween like when you slice into the cake.

You can pipe a different color into each hole. Try splitting the pudding into two bowls and coloring them lime green, orange or purple. Then use two strong zip-top bags and spoon the pudding each into a bag. Close the bag, then snip the corner off the bag with scissors. Use the bag to squeeze the pudding into the holes.

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.

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!

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.

Nutritonal Facts:

Recipe courtesy of On My Kid’s Plate.com