Ingredients:

1 box chocolate cake mix

1 1/2 cups chocolate frosting (see recipe below)

1/4 cup shredded coconut

Green food coloring

5-6 Milano cookies

Assorted Halloween candies (candy skeletons, witches, mummies, pumpkins, etc…)*

Directions:

1. Prepare cake mix according to directions on box. Spoon 1/2 cup of cake batter into a small ramekin or a single cupcake tin. Pour the rest of the batter into a sheet cake pan. Bake according to box directions. (The small cake should take 5-10 minutes less than the big cake).

2. Cool cakes. Crumble the small cake up into small pieces and set aside.

3. Frost the big cake with the chocolate frosting, reserving about 1 tablespoon of frosting.

4. Mix 2-3 drops of green food coloring into the coconut and stir well.

5. Use the reserved frosting and a toothpick to write “epitaphs” on the Milano cookies, to make them look like gravestones. Set aside to let chocolate dry.

6. Sprinkle the green coconut on one section of the cake to make “grass.” Stand the gravestone cookies up in the grass. Sprinkle the crumbled small cake over the remaining part of the cake to make “dirt.”

7. Decorate the rest of the cake with the Halloween candies.

*National Azabu has a good selection of candy and this year, Starbuck’s is selling chocolate skulls.