30 Halloween Cakes for a Sweet and Spooky Treat

Double, double toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble… 

If you’re hoping to brew up some spooky, sweet, or scary Halloween cakes, you’ve come to the right place. 

These Halloween cakes run the gamut from gloriously gross to adorably awesome. 

So, whether you’re looking for something devilishly decadent or sinfully scrumptious, this list has you covered.

The hardest part will be choosing between all the fantastic options. 

And if you need help with that, don’t ask me; I usually make way too many Halloween desserts because I can never decide on just one.

30 Sweet and Spooky Halloween Cake Recipes

1. Easy Ghost Cake

Are you looking for easy-to-make Halloween cake ideas that don’t LOOK like they were easy to make? I’ve got you, Boo!

This gorgeous, multilayered black and orange ghost cake looks like it came straight from the bakery. In fact, you can easily make it at home.

It’s simply a matter of using food coloring in the batter and whipping up adorable meringue ghosts.

Trust me. Despite how it looks, this really is a perfect cake for beginners.

2. Graveyard Cake 

The graveyard cake is similar to a regular dirt cake, but it requires a few more ingredients.

As you can see, along with the usual gummy worms, there are little ghosts and graves too.

3. Halloween Bat Cake

It doesn’t matter if you’re planning a Halloween party or summoning Batman. This Halloween cake works for either!

Plus, it’s full of festive fall flavors for all your pumpkin spice-loving friends.

Pumpkin spice-flavored cake. Pumpkin spice-flavored buttercream. Eat your heart out, Starbucks. This cake has it all.

Just be sure to keep the kiddos out of the kitchen while you’re making the bats. They’ll want to turn them into Batarangs. (Yes, I speak from personal experience.)

4. Marshmallow Cobweb Cake

This eerie cobweb cake is rich, decadent, and so much fun!

You’ll make the spiderweb “icing” using stretchy, stringy melted marshmallows, and it looks almost like the real thing. 

Aside from that, everything else is pretty standard – everyday baking ingredients, buttercream frosting, etc.

Still, it’s a lot of fun and ideal for Halloween.

5. Bloody Halloween Cake

Throwing a Halloween party and want to give your guests the chills? This bloody Halloween cake will do the trick.

The bright red edible blood contrasts starkly against the white frosting. And the broken glass shards in the top?! Spooktacularly chilling!

Fortunately, there’s no need for your guests to sign a liability waiver before digging in. This cake is 100% edible — broken “glass” and all.

6. Candy Corn Poke Cake

It doesn’t get much easier or much more festive than this candy corn poke cake.

You’ll need candy corn, along with a box of white cake mix. Plus, food coloring, sweetened condensed milk, and whipped topping.

You’ll use the food coloring to make the cake look like candy corn.

Then, you’ll top it with whipped cream and actual candy corn. It’s sweet, light, and moist.

7. Mini-Pumpkin Cakes

If you’re looking for Halloween cake recipes, you can never go wrong with anything pumpkin-related.

I love these tiny cakes because they’re so realistic and look like actual pumpkins. They’re gorgeous and so authentic looking! Luckily, they taste fantastic, too. 

You’ll fill each one with cream cheese and all your favorite fall spices (cinnamon, ginger, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, etc.). So they smell as good as they look!

8. Earthquake Cake

There’s nothing more terrifying than a natural disaster, so this earthquake cake is theme-appropriate.

Plus, it’s insanely delicious and impossible to turn down. 

It’s got layer upon layer of deliciousness – coconut, pecans, rich, gooey chocolate, German chocolate cake, and cream cheese icing.

You’ll find ways to enjoy this cake year-round.

9. Chocolate Skull Cake

If you’re looking at this cake thinking, “I could never make that,” don’t worry; 99% of what you need for this cake comes from a skull-shaped baking pan. 

All you have to do is mix the ingredients, bake, and ice the cake. The pan does all the hard work.

Even the “blood” pouring out of the top is nothing more than a chocolate drizzle!

So, grab the pan and have fun!    

10. Leftover Candy Cookie Cake

Need a way to get rid of all that leftover Halloween candy? Then make this leftover cookie cake.

It’s similar to the giant cookie cakes at Great American Cookie but thicker and more cake-like. Then, you’ll decorate it with whatever candy you have. 

It’s 100% chocolate cookie yumminess. 

11. Frankenstein Cake

I don’t care who you are or what you think about Halloween. If this adorable Frankenstein cake doesn’t make you say ‘awwwww,’ you don’t have a heart!

Seriously! Just look at those eyes! Aren’t they just the cutest things you’ve ever seen?! He’s honestly too precious to eat. (But too delicious not to!)

He’s made of mouth-wateringly tasty green velvet cake and buttercream icing. So yeah… Sorry, Frankie. You’re going to be eaten.

12. Pumpkin Roll

Pumpkin rolls aren’t spooky or scary, but they are the quintessential fall dessert.

With their rich cream cheese swirls and their pumpkin pie spice, it’s tough not to love them. 

13. Pumpkin Cheesecake 

Speaking of quintessential – Halloween isn’t complete without a pumpkin cheesecake either!

And this double-layer cheesecake is the best of the best.

The bottom layer is plain, tangy cheesecake. And the top is cheesecake with the pumpkin puree and all the aromatic and flavorful fall spices. 

It’s a double dose of deliciousness.

14. Halloween Monster Cake

The thing I love most about Halloween cakes is that they don’t have to be perfect. Take this Halloween monster cake, for example.

At first, I thought this guy would be too difficult for my limited decorating skills. Then, I remembered, HE’S A MONSTER! He doesn’t have to look perfect!

So yeah, don’t let his detailed appearance scare you off. If he looks bad, you can insist it was intentional to make him seem spookier.

After all, he’s going to taste incredible either way.

15. Halloween Bundt Cake

Light, moist chocolate Bundt cake covered in rich, super sweet green icing.

Can’t you just imagine how phenomenal this cake would be?

With this recipe, you don’t have to imagine. You can make it just for yourself tonight. Or share it at your Halloween party if you’re feeling generous. 

16. Black Cat Cake

The black cat cake is probably my favorite of all the Halloween cakes on this list. First of all, I adore black cats.

Secondly, this particular black cat has a nice surprise inside.

Once you cut into it, the cake layers are rainbow-colored! Well, it’s a Halloween rainbow anyway – orange, purple, and green.

Plus, it’s a homemade vanilla cake with black buttercream icing. What’s not to love?

17. Twix Cake

For a lot of people, Halloween is all about the candy, and so is this cake! Well, it’s all about Twix, anyway. 

It’s a chocolate cake covered in homemade caramel icing and decorated with caramel and chocolate sauces and broken Twix bars.

It’s simple, elegant, and 100% chocoholic-approved.

18. Nightmare Before Christmas Cake

This is Halloween. This is Halloween. Halloween. Halloween.

I am NOT Jack, the Pumpkin King, but I do grow tired of the same old things. And this Jack Skellington cake is definitely something new.

You can make it with a boxed cake mix or a homemade recipe. The real fun is in the decorating. (Which isn’t as tough as it looks.)

And you don’t have to stick to making it only for Halloween parties, either. It makes a great addition to your Christmas dessert table, as well.

19. Pumpkin Halloween Cake Pops

Cake pops may not be as popular as they were a few years ago, but they’re still tasty and fun. Especially when each one looks like a tiny Jack-o-Lantern!

Best of all, you can make 20 Halloween cake pops in a little over an hour, and they’ll be a massive hit with the kids. 

20. Halloween Black Velvet Cake

This Halloween cake is precisely what it sounds like it would be. It’s silky, soft, and as black as night.

You’ll love its moist, velvety texture and deep, rich color. As far as Halloween cake recipes go, this one is hard to beat.

It’s not as elaborately decorated as some others on the list. But it’s still sure to turn heads at any Halloween party.

Pro Tip: It also makes an excellent birthday cake for an ‘Over the Hill’ party.

21. Vegan Dirt and Worms Cake

Want a vegan cake that lacks absolutely nothing in terms of flavor? The vegan dirt and worms cake definitely fits the bill.

It’s not the prettiest cake on the list, but then, it isn’t supposed to be! A big mound of dirt with worms crawling out of it isn’t usually a picture-worthy sight.

Remember eating dirt pudding as a kid? This is like that, only on a larger and more vegan-friendly scale.

22. Bloody Brain Cake

Despite its unappetizing name and totally gnarly appearance, this cake is actually really tasty.

It’s a delicious red velvet cake smothered in cherry jam. It’s light, moist, and full of flavor. Plus, it’s just a lot of fun to look at!

23. Pumpkin Patch Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

Without the pumpkins on top, this cake would just be a chocolate peanut butter cake.

An insanely rich, insanely sweet, and insanely delicious chocolate peanut butter cake, that is. 

However, you’ll make it festive by adding peanut butter balls decorated with chocolate to look like tiny pumpkins to the top. 

Just make sure you add enough peanut butter pumpkins because everyone will want to try one.

24. Wicked Witch Cupcakes

Turn any cupcake into wicked witch cupcakes with Halloween-colored straws and some boot cut-outs. Easy, huh?

It helps if the cupcakes are chocolate with green or purple frosting, as those are traditional “wicked witch” colors.

25. Bloody Candle Cakes

Have you seen those cool candles that look like they’re bleeding when the wax melts? That’s what these cakes are — only they’re completely edible!

Without the “blood” and the “wick,” these would just look like variously sized cakes with white icing.

However, you can completely transform them simply by drizzling them in a little edible blood and sticking a real candle in their centers.

Though not my favorites, these are definitely some of the coolest cakes on the list.

26. Halloween Icebox Cake

This cake looks like it takes a lot of work and skill, but it doesn’t. It’s actually a no-bake cake that takes less than 30 minutes to make. 

Just assemble your ingredients per the recipe and then decorate the cake however you like.

Those adorable bat sprinkles are a winner, though, so I’d definitely get some of them.

27. Halloween Monster Mash Cake

At its core, this green and purple cake is simply a rich, phenomenal homemade cake with buttercream frosting.

To make it more Halloween-like, you’ll simply need the right food coloring.

People will ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ at the layers of purple and green and the deep black frosting and decorations.

But this cake shouldn’t take you much longer than an hour to make. 

28. Gummy Eyeball Cake

I’m not going to lie. This cake legitimately amazed me the first time I saw it. I loved it, but I knew I’d never be able to make it.

Then, I started reading through the directions, and it seemed surprisingly simple. It’s mostly a matter of having the right equipment.

I purchased one of these Glacio Round Ice Cube Molds from Amazon for the eyeball, and the rest was pretty simple.

Give it a try. You’ll be shocked at how quickly it comes together. And your friends and family will adore the delicious pumpkin spice cake.

29. Devil’s Food Cake

Some people call Halloween “the devil’s holiday,” so why not serve devil’s food cake?

It’s fluffy and fudgy, and the double-decker chocolate is a chocolate lover’s dream.

And the good news is that it takes less than an hour to make.

30. Jack- O’-Lantern Cake

You’ll need two boxes of spice cake mix for this. Plus, vanilla frosting, red and yellow food coloring, a green ice cream cone, Oreo cookies, and black fondant. 

It sounds like a lot, but it comes together in a flash.

The cake itself is spicy, moist, and super tasty.

But I think we can all agree that the real excitement in this one comes from the fact that it looks like a Jack-o-Lantern.