Halloween is the perfect time to unearth that hardly-used Tiara Cake pan! (For those of you who never got one, a pie plate inverted in a spring-form pan works the same way, though it's not as pretty.) Make a chocolate tiara cake, then using gummy worms and chocolate pudding, fill the well in the top of the cake. Let some worms stick out for a ghoulish effect. Cover the pudding with Oreo cookie crumbs. Then, using the long wafer cookies (I think Pepperidge Farm makes them: "Milano") as gravestones, build a graveyard. You can use any other decorations you can come up with, such as a clean bare twig for a spooky tree. The kids love it, and it makes a great centerpiece, too.
The Great Pumpkin Cake
Make two (separate) batches of any cake mix you like. Bake each in a fluted bundt pan. To make a pumpkin, place one cake upside-down on a plate and the other on top of it right-side up. (The "flat" part of each cake should be joined.) Frost in orange frosting. Cut a banana in half; place it in the hole of the cake so it looks like a stem. Using brown icing, make a jack-o-lantern face. It's that easy!!