Yummy Oreo Dessert Graveyard

As much as I love a cute themed food, I have a REALLY hard time spending a bunch of time on something that looks great and tastes just ok only to have it demolished immediately! So, I just kinda took one of my favorite recipes that I knew would taste good and decorated accordingly!
The dessert is like a layered ice cream sundae for a group. One of my personal favorites that I have a REALLY hard time staying out of when it's in my freezer.

Dessert:
1 pkg oreos
1 jar hot fudge sauce
1 carton (1 1/2- 2 qt) ice cream, slightly softened {my fav is mint chip, but vanilla is what it originally calls for}
1 carton Cool Whip

Crush the Oreo's {I use my food processor} and cover the bottom of a 9x13" pan with half the Oreo's. Cut the ice cream into 1" slices and place on top of the cookie crumbs. Warm the fudge sauce according to package directions and spread on top of the ice cream. Spread the Cool Whip over that. Sprinkle with remaining Oreo crumbs. Freeze for 3-4 hours or until frozen through.

Graveyard decorations:
Tombstones: I just used graham crackers that I'd crumbled off the corners to round them out then used a toothpick to write RIP on some with frosting. I had cinnamon graham crackers so, I alternated the cinnamon side and plain sides for variety.

Ghosts: The two ghosts in the front are blobs of cool whip with chocolate chips for eyes. M&M's would work well, too. The ghost in the back is a Dum Dum sucker with 2 pieces of toilet paper (CLEAN!!) tied with a ribbon and a face drawn in.

Gummy worms at random always add an instant element of Halloween.

The Fence: Pull-a-part licorice held together with toothpicks.

Graveyard Shots

Simple, creepy, full of sugar- Everything Halloween should be! Shaunae Pomeroy sure knows how to get to the heart of things! I always bring home leftovers, and this was the first thing my 4 year old went after!

2 boxes instant chocolate pudding mix
1 box Oreo cookies
gummy worms


Crumble Oreo's by chopping with a knife, sticking in a food processor, or placing in a Ziploc bag and mashing with a rolling pin. Set aside. Prepare pudding mix according to pkg directions, pouring into small cups. Squish a worm half way into pudding and sprinkle Oreo around the worm. Let set 5 minutes. Keep refrigerated.

Texas Sheet Cake

The beauty of gummy worms is you can turn something tasty, but not creepy, into a great Halloween treat just by adding one or two of these bad boys. That's how this cake from Trina Bowers came to be at our Halloween night, anyway! I gotta say, I've had lots of sheet cake, but this was my favorite yet! It was thick and fudgy, somewhere between cake and brownies- just how I like it!


CAKE:
2 C sugar
2 C flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp soda
1 C margarine
4 heaping tbsp cocoa
1 C water
1/2 C buttermilk {you can use 1 tsp vinegar or lemon juice in a 1/2 C container and add whole milk until full. Let set a few minutes}
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla


Mix dry ingredients together; set aside. Bring margarine, cocoa and water to a boil and pour hot over dry ingredients. Mix together and add buttermilk, eggs and vanilla. Pour into greased and floured jelly roll pan. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.


FROSTING:
1/2 C margarine
4 heaping tbsp cocoa
5 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 lg box powdered sugar

While cake is baking, bring first 3 ingredients to a boil add vanilla and beat in powdered sugar. Pour and spread over cake while warm.

Red Velvet Cupcake Eyeballs

I'm sure I've seen this idea a hundred times, though no particular one prompted these cupcakes. It's not a new idea, by any means, but I've added an extra dose of macabre by making them on red velvet cupcakes. That way, if the eyeballs aren't scary enough, the way your kids look after eating them will be! Case in point:

The bath tub looked like a crime scene after this! As if that weren't enough, this is by far my favorite red velvet recipe with a yummy cream cheese icing and surprise filling. Also makes an excellent valentines day treat- minus the optical orb.

CUPCAKES:

1 pkg red velvet cake mix, plus ingredients as called for on box

1 (3.9 oz) pkg instant chocolate pudding mix

1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese, softened

1/2 C butter or margarine, softened

1 pkg (16 oz) powdered sugar (about 4 cups)

1 C thawed Cool Whip

Prepare cake batter and bake as directed on package for 24 cupcakes, blending dry pudding mix into batter before spooning into muffin cups lined with cupcake paper and sprayed with cooking spray. Cool. Use the handle of a wooden spoon to make a hole in the top of each cupcake.

Beat cream cheese and butter in a large bowl with a mixer until well blended. Gradually beat in sugar. Whisk in cool whip. Spoon 1 1/2 C into sandwich or qt sized Ziploc bag; seal bag. Cut small corner off bottom of bag. Insert tip of bag into the holes on the cupcakes and pipe about 1 tbsp frosting into center of cupcake. Frost cupcakes with remaining frosting.

EYEBALLS:
I used LifeSaver gummies for the irises and upside down chocolate chips for the pupils. I used decorating frosting to pipe the veins.

Valentines day:

Top with shaved white chocolate curls or sprinkle red decorating sugar over a stencil to make a heart.

Jack Skellington Cupcakes

When Jennifer Fulton walked in with these we immediately recognized the iconic Halloween face of Jack Skellington of "The Nightmare before Christmas". And the little guys who may be a tad young for the movie will still recognize a fun, slightly creepy face- this was emphatically requested by her 3 year-old son. Added bonus: If you needed to make a bunch of cupcakes or just wanted to mix it up a bit, you could have a pile decorated half with these guys and half with the eyeballs found here.

1 batch chocolate cupcakes
White buttercream frosting
2 toothpicks
1 tube black decorator's icing


Frost the cupcakes with the buttercream frosting. For each cupcake, use the tip of a toothpick to lightly etch the outline of two large Jack Skellington eyes in the frosting . Slowly pipe black decorator's icing onto the etched lines and then fill in the inner circles. Use another toothpick to spread and smooth the icing. {Jenn used a baby spoon and said it worked great} Pipe on two short lines for a nose. Next, pipe a long line across the bottom of the cupcake for the mouth. Randomly top the mouth with a bunch of short icing barbs.

Peppermint Poke Cake

Chocolate is a miracle drug. Seriously, is there a better band-aid in all the world? Sure, it may not fix any problems, but it sure does help you feel better faster! This cake is like one giant, gooey york peppermint patty first-aid kit that will have you eating right out of the pan and back on cloud nine. Not that I've been there... this afternoon... The white you see in the cake is a minty white chocolate pudding that seeps all throughout the cake making it super ooey-gooey-lick-the-plate-clean good! Plus, yet again, easy peasy! From the back of a cake mix box years ago:

1 box double fudge or Devil's food cake
2 C milk
1 (6 oz) box instant white chocolate pudding ***
1 can (12-16 oz) whipped milk chocolate frosting
1 1/2 tsp peppermint flavoring, divided
Chocolate covered mint candies, chopped

Make cake in 9x13" pan as directed on box. Let cool 15 minutes. Poke holes every 1/4- 1/2" with the handle of a wooden spoon. Mix milk, pudding and 1 tsp peppermint and slowly pour over top of cake. Refrigerate 2 hours. Mix 1/2 tsp peppermint into frosting and carefully spread over cold cake. Sprinkle with chopped candy pieces. Serve with a shovel. Keep refrigerated.

*** I had a hard time finding a 6 oz box of white chocolate pudding, so I used two 3.8{ish} oz boxes. IF you do this, be sure to up the milk to 2 1/2 C milk or the pudding mixture will be too thick to pour into the holes and instead you'll end up with a layer on top of the cake. Again, allow my experience to be your lesson!

Samoa Brownies

These brownies were featured on my cousins' blog Sixsistersstuff and I'd been dying to try it. Ya know those tasty Samoa Girl Scout cookies? They are Hubbs favorite, so I was excited to try it for him. It was a super simple recipe and should have been cake to make, but that's not my style! It was a disaster from the beginning! I thought I had everything I needed and I was so wrong. I didn't have brownie mix, like it called for, so I just made some from scratch- about 3 times more effort! Then I realized that I needed 2 bags of caramel and I only had one! Blah. But by now, I was committed, so I pulled out my recipe for homemade caramel. Except that called for Karo syrup. Which I also did not have. Two seconds from giving up, I found another caramel recipe that says you can substitute honey for the Karo. Like I said. Disaster. Finally, we made everything that didn't need to be home made and put it all together with the substitute ingredients... Blah. Anyway, I was so frustrated I'm not even going to repost the recipe. I'm just going to give you the link here. It was rich and chewy and oh, so good, but I'm betting it would be even better had it been done right! I'm not giving up on you, Samoa's!!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars

Joni Joiner is admittedly addicted to Pinterest. If you haven't checked it out, you should so you can follow her and share her addiction! She came across this while feeding the addiction, I mean, browsing. bakeat350.blogspot.com was kind enough to bring us these amazing fall treats!

2 C all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp cloves
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp coarse salt
1 C unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 C sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla
1 C pumpkin puree
12 oz chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line bottom and side of 9x13" pan with foil, leaving an overhang on all sides.

Keep an eye on these as they cook. Joni had a hard time getting these to set, but I kinda like my baked goods on the doughy side so there were no complaints from me!!

Pumpkin Bundt Cake

Jamie Massie says that this cake is what she brings to every holiday gathering as soon as fall starts! Very simple to make and it was really good topped with whipped cream. I bet it would be just amazing served warm with vanilla ice cream...


1 box yellow cake mix
1 box butterscotch pudding
4 eggs
1/4 C water
1/4 C vegetable oil
1 (15 oz) can pumpkin
2 tsp pumpkin spice


Combine all ingredients and pour into a greased and floured bundt pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 50-55 minutes.

Caramel Apple (Nachos)

We LOVE caramel apples around here. LOVE. So when I saw a few different ideas for them, I combined them to this amazing new tradition! The thought behind doing it like nachos was that it would be less messy for kids. I think it just moves the mess from your face to your fingers! But it sure is easier to serve up!

Caramel:

1 bag Kraft caramels

1 tbsp milk

Unwrap caramels and place in a microwave safe bowl with milk. Microwave on high for 1 minute then stir. Microwave an additional minute or until caramel is smooth.

White Chocolate :

6 oz white chocolate or white candy coating

Microwave on high 30 seconds, stir, microwave an additional 30 seconds or until smooth.

Chocolate:

1 C semi-sweet chocolate chips (6 oz)

1 tbsp shortening

Place chocolate chips and shortening in a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 30 seconds; stir. Microwave an additional 30 seconds or until smooth.

For Nachos:

Wash and dry 4-6 Granny Smith apples. Core, slice, then arrange them on a platter. Drizzle toppings over apples slices making sure to get each slice. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar{ I usually do about two to three parts sugar, one part cinnamon}.

For Dipped apples:
Wash and dry{or the toppings won't stick} 4-6 Granny Smith apples. Dip in melted caramel then spin slowly over the bowl allowing the caramel to cool on the apple a bit. Place on a piece of waxed paper and allow to set in the fridge while you prepare the white chocolate layer. Carefully remove from the waxed paper by twisting. Dip in the white chocolate, again twisting over the bowl until it stops dripping. Place on clean waxed paper. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Allow to cool and set while preparing chocolate. Drizzle chocolate over the white chocolate and cool.

Easy Oreo Fudge Ice Cream Cake

My son just turned 4 {yikes!} and we had a pirate party for him. I had been eyeing this recipe forever and this presented a perfect opportunity!

Ta-da! Ok, so it may not have been perfect, but you can't really take your time to decorate an ICE CREAM cake! I'm really more about the taste of a dessert then how perfectly it is presented. The good news for you is that the recipe should be a little easier to put together and be all white instead of the brown and white I needed. PLUS it was really, really, really, really good. Really. In fact, the leftovers went home for the dad's! Thanks, again, Kraft!

1/2 C hot fudge sauce, slightly warmed

1 (8 oz) tub whipped topping, thawed and divided

1 (3.9 oz) pkg instant chocolate pudding

8 oreo cookies, chopped

12 vanilla ice cream sandwiches

Pour fudge topping into medium bowl. Whisk in 1 cup cool whip. Add dry pudding mix; stir 2 minutes. Stir in chopped cookies. Arrange 4 ice cream sandwiches long ends side to side on a 24" long piece of foil; top with half the whipped topping mixture. Repeat layers. Top with remaining sandwiches. Frost top and sides with remaining whipped topping. Bring up foil on both sides; double fold top and ends to loosely seal packet. Freeze 4 hours.

Molten Chocolate Cakes

We used to live pretty close to a Chili's{and no other restaurant}, so occasionally we'd get dinner there. I don't know if we ever went there without picking up their Molten Chocolate Cake for dessert. We sometimes went there JUST for that dessert! I don't remember where I found this recipe, but I was over joyed that I could stay in the comfort of my own home and have this fudgy, gooey, thigh-enlarging treat at any time! Just saved myself a $6.29 habit! This comes together quick and with the convenient individual sizes, it's a favorite for FHE...

6 oz bittersweet chocolate{This is 1 C of chocolate chips. I don't usually have this on hand, so I usually use semi-sweet. It works fine, but go with bittersweet if you have the choice}
1/2 C butter
3 eggs
3 egg yolks
1 1/2 C powdered sugar
3/4 C flour

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Generously spray the wells of a floral cupcake pan with Pam. Set pan aside. Coarsely chop chocolate and combine with butter in a medium bowl. Microwave on high 1-2 minutes or until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth, stirring after each 30 second interval. Remove chocolate mix from microwave; cool 5 minutes. Whisk eggs and egg yolks into chocolate mixture. Add sugar and flour; mix just until moist.

Divide batter equally among wells. Bake 13-14 minutes or until outside edges are just set and center is still liquid. Do NOT over bake{or you'll just have cupcakes!}. When done, immediately, carefully invert pan. Gently press on tops and sides of wells to loosen cakes. Slowly lift pan, checking to see that all cakes have released before lifting pan completely. Serve with ice cream.

Better-than-Sex/Anything cake

Call it what you will, it's probably better than that, too! I've heard several name for this particular dessert, and had several variations of it, but this has been my favorite so far! Way to go, Jayme Welly!

1 pkg devils food cake mix

1/2 (14 oz can) sweetened condensed milk

6 oz caramel ice cream topping

3 Heath or Skor Chocolate bars, chopped

1 (8 oz) container frozen whipped topping, thawed

Bake according to the directions on the box. Once it's cooled down, poke holes ALL over the cake. Drizzle your condensed milk over the cake. Sprinkle 1/2 of the chocolate bars over the cake and drizzle with 1/2 the caramel topping. Cover with whipped cream. Sprinkle/drizzle with the remaining caramel and chocolate bars. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Applesauce Beignets

I have been craving a good beignet recipe ever since I watched The Princess and the Frog where Tiana has them as her specialty dish. I had this recipe which I'd made before but wasn't as impressed as I'd hoped to be. It had been ages since I'd tried it, so I thought I'd give it another go. I made one important addition to it (sour cream) and they went from ok to fantastic! I used my mom's homemade applesauce which I'd picked up while we were back home for vacation last month (THANK YOU, Mom!). My mom's applesauce is chunky, so there were tasty bits of apples waiting to surprise you. But, if you aren't lucky enough to have my mom within applesauce-stealing distance or don't wanna make your own, you could just use store bought applesauce and if your really determined dice some apples to add... Anyway, here it is!

2 1/2 C flour
2 tbsp sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp cinnamon
3 eggs
1 C applesauce
1/2 C milk
1/2 C sour cream

In a bowl, combine all dry ingredients. Blend well. In another bowl, mix eggs, applesauce, milk and sour cream. Add to dry ingredients and mix well. Heat oil on medium heat and drop batter by tablespoonful into oil. Fry desired brown-ness- about 3-5 minutes each side. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Eat immediately.

*** Tip! To check if your oil is hot, dip the handle end of a wooden spoon into it. If it bubbles around the wood, it's hot! Thanks to my hubby for that tidbit!
I bet these would be good topped with syrup, honey, more applesauce, etc. Or just as is.

Snicker's Salad

Molly Heaton brought this to her first Exchange. It is reminiscent of the Malad Salad that Brooke Haskett brought before, but the small changes make a big difference! Have you ever had one of those massive caramel apples that are rolled in peanuts and drizzled with chocolate? This is that, as a salad! Salty and sweet snickers with tart green apples all covered in a creamy pudding and Cool Whip goo.... Thumbs up!

1 pkg mini snickers, chopped
3-4 granny smith apples, chopped
1 sm pkg vanilla pudding
1 C milk
1 tub cool whip

Mix milk and pudding mix. Set in the fridge while chopping snickers and apples. Mix pudding with Cool whip; add apples and snickers. Refrigerate leftovers. If there are any.

Cherry O'lets

This recipe is very dear to us. Well, to Matt. This was one of those treats his grandma would make for him. I'd heard him talk about it once or twice before. It wasn't until she recently passed that I heard him talking about it in a way that attached so much fondness and memories of her. That's when I decided to hunt down the recipe from his cousin. Got it just in time to surprise him with it for his birthday! So this was his 'birthday cake' this year. I'm not typically a fan of cherries, but I actually really like this! Cherries aren't for everyone, but if you like anything cherry, you'd probably really enjoy this. Tastes very much like a 9x13" pan of The Big Cherry candy. The recipe was missing a step or two, so this is the recipe with what I did to fill in the difference.

2 C sugar
2/3 C evaporated milk
12 large marshmallows
1/2 C margarine
3/4-1 tsp salt
10 oz vanilla chips
2 tbsp cherry flavoring
Small bottle Maraschino cherries, chopped
1 tsp vanilla
12 oz milk chocolate chips
3/4 C peanut butter

1 lb salted peanuts (no skins) grated or chopped

Combine sugar, milk, marshmallows, margarine and salt. Heat on medium until it comes to a full boil. Boil 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla chips, cherry flavoring, chopped cherries and vanilla {actually, the vanilla is listed in the ingredient list, but not which layer it should be in. This is Matt's best guess...}. Spread in 9x13" pan lined with waxed paper. Chill for about an hour{this was vague, but the more it's chilled the easier it is to transport}.

Melt chocolate chips, peanut butter and peanuts. Spread 1/2 of mixture in the bottom of a greased 9x13" pan. Flip chilled cherry mixture onto top of chocolate layer, spread other half of chocolate mixture over top. Chill for at least 2 hours.

Popcorn Cake

My husband loves popcorn so I can't wait to give this a try for him! This 'cake' makes me want to go to a baseball game... Thanks, Cami Robson!

2 bags popped popcorn
1 stick melted butter
1 bag melted marshmallows
Stir contents together and add M&M's of your choice. Put in a bundt or cake pan and let chill in fridge for 30 minutes to an hour before serving.

Peanut Butter Truffle Brownies

Janece Perkins brought this yummy dessert recipe that she found on RealMomKitchen. You have to be careful with peanut butter & chocolate recipes because they can very easily become too rich. This had all the right balance so there was plenty of the moist chocolate and rich peanut butter, yet didn't stick to the roof of your mouth!


1 box Betty Crocker Original Supreme brownie mix
ingredients called for on box


Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom only of 9x13" pan with cooking spray or shortening.(For easier cutting, line pan with foil, then grease foil on bottom only of pan.)
In medium bowl, stir brownie mix, pouch of chocolate syrup, water, oil and eggs until well blended. Spread in pan. bake 28-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted 2 inches from side of pan comes out almost clean. Cool completely, about 1 hour.

Filling:
1/2 C butter, softened
1/2-3/4 C creamy peanut butter
2 C powdered sugar
2 tsp milk

In medium bowl, beat filling ingredients with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Spread mixture evenly over brownie base.

Topping:
1 C semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 C butter
In small, microwavable bowl, microwave topping ingredients uncovered on high 30-60 seconds; stir until smooth. Cool 10 minutes; spread over filling. Refrigerate about 30 minutes or until set. Store covered in refrigerator. (Best if taken out of the fridge about 15 minutes before serving so the chocolate topping has time to soften for cutting.)

Strawberry Cream Dessert

I apologize for how ordinary these pictures are. I would have loved to have the time to stage these all to look their very best- at least as good as they tasted! Alas, the night didn't play out quite like I hoped and I ended up getting most of these shots as I dashed in and out of line while women were serving up... Sorry to all those I cut in front of! I hope you are able to tell from the title and recipe just how good these all were, if the pictures aren't appealing enough. This dessert tasted just like it's called- strawberry cream! From Rachel Schaub.

2 1/4 C graham cracker crumbs (about 36 squares)

6 tbsp sugar

10 tbsp butter, melted

1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

1 C confectioners sugar

24 oz whipped topping, thawed and divided

1 pkg (3 oz) strawberry gelatin

1/2 C boiling water

1 C (8oz) strawberry yogurt

2 tbsp graham cracker crumbs

1 1/2 tsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp butter, melted

In a large bowl, combine 2 1/4 C graham cracker crumbs, sugar and butter. Press into an ungreased 9x13" pan. Refrigerate for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small bowl beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Stir in 1 C whipped topping. Spread over the crust.

In a large bowl, dissolve gelatin into boiling water. Stir in yogurt and 6 C of the whipped topping until blended. Pour over the cream cheese layer. Refrigerate for 1 hour. Spread remaining whipped topping over strawberry layer. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Just before serving, combine 2 tbsp graham cracker crumbs, 1 1/2 tsp sugar and 1 1/2 tsp butter; sprinkle over whipped topping.

3 Layer Brownies

These were a tasty surprise. A layer of marshmallow creme and a layer of peanut buttery chocolate with crispy rice all over a moist brownie. I love the assortment of textures in this- creamy, chewy, crispy, ooey gooey! This is from Janna Ellsworth.

1st & 2nd Layers:

1 box brownies

Ingredients as called for on box

10 oz mini marshmallows

Prepare and bake brownies according to directions on box. Remove from oven and cover with marshmallows. Return to oven for 2-3 minutes.

3rd layer:

1 1/2 C chocolate chips

1 C peanut butter

1 tbsp butter

2 C Rice Krispies

Melt chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter. Stir in Rice Krispies. Spread over brownies and cool completely.