Easy Spooky Graveyard Brownies for Halloween
Graveyard brownies are the perfect spooky treat to make with the kids for Halloween. Brownies get dressed up with cookie tombstones, scary bone sprinkles and mounds of dirt for a bone chilling treat.
This has been the year of Halloween baking and decorating with my daughter.
At 6, she’s a hoot to do projects like this with.
She follows directions *fairly* well and is old enough to offer lots of creative ideas that end up adding new things to our projects.
And, well, she gets pretty excited to eat the desserts too.
Who can blame her when the dessert is a brownie covered in cookie crumbs, sprinkles with extra cookies stuck in for good measure?
Ingredients
- Brownie mix and the ingredients on the box– Use your favorite boxed brownies. No need to make them from scratch when the point is decorating them, but feel free to use your favorite brownie recipe instead.
- Milano cookies– These cookies make the perfect tombstones.
- Food writer pen– To turn the cookies into graves.
- Cookie crumbs– We used a combo of crushed Oreos and graham cracker crumbs to make the dirt. You can buy precrushed crumbs or make them yourself by throwing the cookies or graham crackers into a food processor.
- Spooky sprinkles– Bone shaped sprinkles decorate the brownies. I also found some fun zombie hands to reach out of the dirt.
- Green icing– We used a package of premade green icing, but you can make your own if desired by mixing The Best Creamy Vanilla Buttercream Icing with green food coloring.
- Pumpkin candy corn– To decorate around the edges of the brownies
How to Make
- Bake the brownies and let them cool completely.
Bake the brownies according to package instructions. Let them cool completely prior to decorating. - Decorate the Milanos to look like tombstones.
When the brownies are cool, use the food pen to write “RIP” or other spooky phrases on the cookies to turn them into tombstones. Then push the cookies down into the brownies so they look like a grave. You can do this evenly or more randomly depending on the look you are going for.
- Finish the brownies by layering on the rest of the decorations.
Add mounds of dirt around the graves by piling cookie crumbs around the cookie headstones. Then piping the green icing to make pumpkin vines around the edges of the brownies.
Scatter the bone sprinkles throughout the graveyard and finish by adding some zombie hands. Finish by adding some pumpkin candies throughout.
Serving and storing
Serve the brownies by cutting them into squares and enjoying. Store any leftover brownies loosely covered with foil on your counter for up to 3 days.
Tips and Tricks
- These brownies don’t have to be perfect! Messy and chaotic totally works for this and adds to the creepy graveyard vibe.
- Feel free to put your own spin on things. We weren’t planning to add the pumpkins and greens but my daughter thought it was a fun idea so we rolled with it.
- There is not set amount for how much of any of the decorations you’ll need. You can vary it to your liking but around a half cup of cookie crumbs is a good place to start.
- This would also be a fun way to decorate a sheet cake like this boozy pumpkin sheet cake or other soft bar desserts.
Other Halloween Desserts You’ll Love Making with Your Kids
These spooky graveyard brownies are a really fun project to get the kids involved in this Halloween. If you’re looking for other, easy kid friendly Halloween baking and cooking projects try these:
- Easy Ghost Cupcakes– These ghost cupcakes are a bootiful project to make this spooky season.
- Spider Cupcakes– These creepy crawly cupcakes are so much fun to decorate with the kids. They love sticking legs into the cupcakes and adding silly faces.
- Easy Pumpkin Patch Brownies– Perfect for decorating with littles, kids love sprinkling “dirt” on these festive brownies.
- Halloween Monster Bark– No baking required and super fun to have the kids press eyeballs into the melted candy.
- Easy Mummy Mozzarella Sticks (in Crescent Dough) for Halloween– are a cheesy Halloween snack or appetizer kids and adults love
- Pumpkin Oreos– Another no bake goodie and fun treat for fall and Halloween
- 3 Ingredient Halloween S’mores– Easy, fun, no baking skills needed!
Ingredients
- Brownie mix and the ingredients on the box
- 3 * Milano cookies
- Food writer pen
- 1/2 cup cookie crumb
- Bone shaped sprinkles
- Edible zombie hand decorations
- Green icing
- Pumpkin candy corn
Instructions
- Bake the brownies and let them cool completely. Bake the brownies according to package instructions. Let them cool completely- at least 2 hours- prior to decorating.
- Decorate the Milanos to look like tombstones using the food writer. When the brownies are cool, use the food pen to write "RIP" or other spooky phrases on the cookies to turn them into tombstones. Then push the cookies down into the brownies so they look like a grave. You can do this evenly or more randomly depending on the look you are going for.
- Finish the brownies by layering on the rest of the decorations. Add mounds of dirt around the graves by piling cookie crumbs around the cookie headstones. Then scatter the bone sprinkles throughout the graveyard and finish by adding some zombie hands. Finish by piping the green icing to make pumpkin vines around the edges of the brownies and adding some pumpkin candies throughout.
