Ingredients

• Part One: DEVIL'S FOOD CAKE
• 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
• 3 cups sugar
• 6 eggs
• 6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups milk
• 5 1/4 cups allpurpose flour
• 4 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Directions

• Part Two: CHOCOLATE MUD FROSTING
• 2 cups unsalted butter,softened
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted
• 6 cups confectioners' sugar
• 2/3 cup cocoa powder
• 4 to 6 tablespoons milk
• In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter, vanilla extract and melted chocolate. In a separate bowl, sift the confectioners' sugar and cocoa powder. Gradually add it to the butter mixture, blending well after each addition. Mix in enough milk to make the frosting "muddy."
• Tip: The frosting may be made a few days in advance and stored in the refrigerator. Before frosting, bring it to room temperature, then re-whip.

• SPOOKY WALKWAY
• Next, add the spooky walkway leading up to the house. Draw a crooked path from the base of the cake up to the witch's door with a toothpick (use this as your guideline). Outline the path with chocolatecovered raisins, then sprinkle with broken green hard candies. At the entrance to the pathway, add a chocolate graham cracker drawbridge.
• Tip: Lay all the decorations out before you start. Show the kids our photoand allow room for their own creative additions.
• For a frightful finishing touch, outline the graveyard with broken chocolatecone fencing. Set the Witch's House in a place for all to seeand scream at.

CREAKY ROOF

To create the roof on the Witch's House, cut the corners off one end of the small loaf cake (a job for older kids). Place the house in the 2 by 3-inch slot, securing it with toothpicks or a bamboo skewer. Then "paint" the house with orange frosting.

Tip: To make the orange frosting, tint 1 cup of storebought or homemade white frosting with orange food coloring. For a vibrant color, use food coloring paste, which is available at kitchen and party supply stores.

Tile the roof of the house with chocolate graham crackers and frosting. Add a few scary details: windows made of broken chocolate cones with orange icing grids and a peanut cookie door with a candy doorknob. Surround the house with shoestring licorice barbed wire. Then add a flying witch. Use a toothpick to attach the witch's face (a gumdrop cut in half, lengthwise) to her hat (a chocolate cone) and to her broomstick (licorice with three slits cut in the end).

CANDY GRAVEYARD

To create the gravestones, break peanut cookies in half and pipe on spooky sayings with orange frosting (R.I.P., Boo and so on). Secure in the muddy frosting. Next, make ghosts in the trees. Use scissors to cut three crooked branches in a piece of licorice. Tuck two mini marshmallows between the branches and place tree on a piece of waxed paper. Microwave for 10 seconds to slightly melt the ghost. Give the ghost two mini chocolate chip eyes, then plant the trees in the mud.