I’m enormously taken with this splendidly simple cake-decorating idea from Dessert by Candy: A little bit of cookie-crumb “dirt” and some fingers made from marzipan turn a plain cake into something marvelously creepy.

She provides a recipe for the cake she made, but you could substitute your own favorite recipe. I quite like the smooth, shiny look of the dark-chocolate glaze, but regular frosting (or fondant, if you want a smooth surface but not a glaze) could be used instead.

Instead of marzipan, the fingers could be made of fondant or white modeling chocolate (which is what I initially thought they were), and could also be the “witch finger” cookies for which recipes abound: Some good-looking ones are here and here.

The ghostly-white color is nice, but you could also use food coloring to tint your marzipan/chocolate/fondant either a more natural flesh tone or a zombie-esque green. I do think that the sliced almonds would look a bit more natural pressed slightly into the backs of the fingers rather than perched on top.

In addition to being a fairly fast and easy way to spook up a cake, this has the advantage of looking rather elegant instead of going for the gross-out factor. It would be a fine dessert for a grown-up Halloween party.