Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 13-by-9-inch pan.

Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, stir together cocoa and water; whisk in milk until smooth. Set aside.

Using an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until fluffy; scrape bowl. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Add flour and cocoa mixtures, alternating each 3 times, scraping bowl (batter may separate a bit).

Spread batter in prepared pan. Bake, rotating halfway through, until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Cool in pan for 1 hour. Run a knife around edge of cake and turn out onto a platter.

Finely crush chocolate cookies in a plastic bag with a rolling pin or use a food processor. Cover top and sides of cake with chocolate frosting and sprinkle generously with cookie crumbs. Score top of cake into 12 equal rectangles.

Pipe "RIP" and other scary words on Milano cookies with black icing; cut a slit in each square to insert a Milano or Chessman cookie for gravestones; add candy rocks, if desired.

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment.

Make dough: Whisk together first 7 ingredients. In a separate bowl, cream butter and brown sugar until pale; beat in eggs. Mix in pumpkin, evaporated milk and vanilla, followed by flour mixture gradually.

Put some dough in a large plastic bag; snip a corner. Pipe 2 1/2-inch rounds about 1/2-inch thick onto sheets. Continue with rest of dough. Bake, rotating halfway through, until tops spring back when touched, about 12 minutes. Top each with a half marshmallow; bake for 1 1/2 minutes. Transfer, on parchment, to racks; cool.

Make icing: Using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add confectioners' sugar a little at a time until icing is thick but spreadable. Add food coloring.

Gently frost cookies over marshmallow. Let set for 20 minutes. Pipe icing faces and stems onto each cookie.

Divide dough in half. Color one half with green food coloring, knead until desired shade, place in plastic wrap and roll into a 2-inch cylinder; freeze until cold, about 1 1/2 hours. Knead other half with cocoa, flatten into a disc, wrap in plastic and chill thoroughly.

Unwrap green dough and slice into 1/8 -inch-thick rounds. Space well apart on 2 cookie sheets. Roll chocolate dough between plastic wrap to 1/8 -inch thickness. Using a knife, cut triangles for hats (freeze for a few minutes if dough is too soft). Force chocolate scraps through a garlic press to make hair; place strands on sides of each green face. Put a triangle on top for hat. Freeze until very chilled, 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake cookies right out of freezer, rotating sheets halfway through baking, until done, about 10 minutes. Cool on sheets. Pipe on brown icing eyes. Dab on an icing dot and stick candy to it for a nose.

Fit a pastry bag with a plain round tip (or use a plastic bag with a corner snipped off). Fill bag with Cool Whip. Pipe cream into peaks on each cupcake.

Position two mini chocolate chips as eyes and one regular chocolate chip as a mouth on each ghost, flat ends facing out. (Cupcakes may be refrigerated for up to 3 hours. Bring to room temperature before decorating.)

Beat together butter and shortening for 2 minutes. Slowly beat in confectioners' sugar. Add vanilla and salt; beat for 1 minute. Mound 1/4 cup frosting in center of top of each larger cupcake.

For faces, add M&M's, pieces of licorice and halved jellybeans (see photo).

For hats, dab frosting on mini cupcakes, invert and stick to chocolate wafers. Put one on each icing mound.

Make cake: Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease 2 (8- or 9-inch) round cake pans; line with parchment, grease again and dust with flour.

Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in sour cream, then cocoa, baking soda, allspice, cinnamon, ginger and salt. Reduce speed to low; beat in apples and flour until blended. Stir in raisins and pecans (batter will be thick).

Spoon batter into pans, smoothing top. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes, turn out onto racks; remove wax paper; cool. Refrigerate until ready to use. (Cakes can be made a day ahead, wrapped tightly in plastic and refrigerated, or up to 3 weeks ahead and frozen.)

Make brown-sugar frosting: Melt butter over medium heat; stir in brown sugar and cook over low heat, stirring, until sugar and butter are blended, about 5 minutes.

Stir in milk and cook over medium heat just until mixture comes to a boil, stirring often. Let cool, about 1 hour.

Add confectioners' sugar, about 1/2 cup at a time, whisking until smooth and spreadable. Whisk in vanilla. Add food coloring in small increments until icing is desired shade of pumpkin. Use immediately.

Assemble cake: Spread about 3/4 cup frosting evenly on top of a layer. Place second layer on first and frost top and sides with remaining frosting.

Using black icing, pipe on a spiderweb (see photo). Make spiders with M&M's, adding eyes and legs with icing. (Cake can be loosely covered and kept at room temperature for up to 2 days or refrigerated for up to 5 days. Bring to room temperature before serving.)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Cream butter and sugar in a mixer. Mix in yolk and vanilla, then flour and salt, well. Roll into balls (size of a large marble). Coat in green sugar. Bake on 2 baking sheets for 12 minutes; rotate pans halfway through.

Remove from oven. Lightly indent centers. Push licorice "eyelashes" into cookies; bake for 2 minutes. Push tip of whitechocolate chips into centers. Bake for 3 minutes. Immediately press a mini M&M in center of each chip. Cool.