Zombie Finger Dirt Cups: Creepy-Cute Halloween Treats for Kids

If you’re looking for a Halloween dessert that’s equal parts creepy and delicious, we’ve got just the treat. These Zombie Finger Dirt Cups are served up in individual cups, packed with gooey layers of chocolatey goodness, and topped with a gross (but adorable) zombie finger sticking straight up out of the “grave.”

We made these for a Halloween party and they were a total hit — especially with the younger kids who thought they were equal parts hilarious and horrifying. It’s the kind of recipe that looks wild but is secretly super easy to throw together, especially if you use store-bought ingredients like we did.

What You’ll Need

Here’s everything we used to assemble our little zombie graveyards in a cup:

• Pre-made vanilla cake (from a box mix, colored with neon green food coloring before baking)
• 1 package of Oreo cookies – about 16 cookies, crushed or crumbled
• 1 container of vanilla frosting – already in a piping bag (we used Pillsbury!)
• 1 container of chocolate frosting – also in a piping bag
• 1 container of chocolate sprinkles (aka jimmies)
• Red food coloring gel
• Zombie finger lollipops or suckers – these are the stars of the show!

How to Assemble the Zombie Finger Dirt Cups

Here’s how we build them:

1. Start with the cake. Crumble a layer of vanilla (green) cake into each clear plastic cup. We use pre-made cake to keep things quick and easy.
2. Add the “dirt.” Sprinkle a generous spoonful of crushed Oreo cookies over the cake layer.
3. Pipe the gooey layers. We swirled some chocolate frosting in the middle for extra flavor and stuck to vanilla frosting on top.
4. Top it with chocolate sprinkles and more cookie crumbs to add texture and more “grave dirt.”
5. Stick a zombie finger right into the center! That sucker (literally!) becomes the creepy topper, poking out of the dirt like it’s rising from the grave.
6. Pipe the red food coloring around lightly to give a bloody vibe.

Note: if you want to just purchase a pre-made unfrosted vanilla cake, you can use that. You can just have vanilla cake in the cup and still add on all the other toppings. And you could mix in some green food coloring into the vanilla frosting instead to get the green coloring in the dessert.

A Great Make-Ahead Halloween Treat

These cups can be made a few hours ahead and stored in the fridge — just wait to insert the zombie fingers until right before serving so they stand up strong and don’t get soggy. They’re perfect for:

• Halloween classroom parties
• At-home spooky movie nights
• Kids’ Halloween party dessert tables
• Little helpers who want to “make something gross and fun!”

And of course, it’s super easy to adjust the toppings or decorations to your crew’s tastes. You can swap in gummy worms or candy eyeballs if you’re making a bigger batch or want some variety.

Fore more Halloween fun, check out our Halloween mummy brownies or our less creepy fruit ghost skewers.