OK. Like, OMG. Ummm. When we made the ginger-spiced icebox cake, we started on a path down a rabbit hole of different icebox cake varieties. That cake will always be my favorite. The level of spice was perfect. It tasted like Christmas. However, this pumpkin spice icebox cake may have just dethroned the ginger cake.
There are so many reasons to love fall: pumpkins, leaves, the weather, apple picking, and all the baked goods. If I had to pick my absolute favorite baked good in the fall, it would be pumpkin apple pie. I know, I love pumpkin-everything-else, but apple pie has a comforting, hominess to it. HOWEVER, pumpkin pie comes in at a very close second.
Pumpkin Spice Ice Box Cake By Mistake
When we were thinking about the next icebox cake, pumpkin was the first flavor I could think of. Surprisingly, Fatima was on board with my idea. However, this went from pumpkin spice to just spice cake. I was going to follow the same plan as the red velvet icebox cake and use a boxed spice cake mix to make cake cookies. As I was in the middle of making the dough, I thought, “I’m going to add some pumpkin puree.” We had a movie night that weekend and made pumpkin spice hot cocoa and I had a whole can of pumpkin leftover. So I guestimated and dumped it in with the eggs, oil, and a dash of pumpkin spice. However, I didn’t realize pumpkin puree can be substituted for oil in a one-to-one ratio. So I didn’t know how this was going to turn out.
Basically, I got little pumpkin bread cookies and a ton of them. The dough was more of a batter/bread dough consistency than the cake cookie dough I am used to. After tasting the pumpkin bread cookies, I felt a little better about the overall taste. As I was building the cake and layering with whipped cream, I started to get anxious. “How would this cake turn out?”
However, the pumpkin spice icebox cake turned out better than I thought. It was heavenly and reminded me why I loved the ginger-spiced icebox cake so much. It was flavorful, moist, and captured a fall feeling. You need to build icebox cakes the night before, or at least 8 hours before serving for optimum flavor. When I woke up the next day to say ‘good morning’ to the cake, it had started to slide. I may have added too much whipped cream to some of the layers. I just pushed it back up and used the ‘good side’ for the photos ;).
Pumpkin Spice Icebox Cake
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Loading...Ingredients
- For the Cookies:
- 2 boxes spice cake mix
- 4 eggs (2 eggs per box)
- 2/3 cup oil (1/3 cup per box)
- 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice + more for dusting on the whipped cream
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- For the cool whip:
- 4 cups heavy cream
- 2 tbsp. sugar
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
Mix all ingredients for the cake cookies together. The dough will be more like pumpkin bread dough than cookie dough. Will be a little sticky.
Scoop small, 1-inch balls of dough and place on a cookie sheet.
Lightly flatten with fingers.
Place in the oven for 9-10 minutes.
Let them cool for 5 minutes and move to a wire rack to cool completely.
For the cool whip, add heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla to a large mixing bowl and whip on high-speed.
Do this for a few minutes or until you get soft peaks. To get soft peaks, lift your whisk out of the mixture. Did a soft, little mountain form? Yes? Then you're all set! A stiff peak is when your mountains are tall and pointy.
Add a little of the cool whip to the bottom of the plate you are going to serve your cake on. This is going to act like glue to keep the cookies from sliding.
Make a tight circle of 8 cookies over the cool whip and 1-2 in the center. They should be touching.
Cover the cookies with a generous layer of cool whip.
Then, layer 8 cookies over the places where the bottom layer of cookies are touching and 1-2 in the middle. Press these cookies down gently so they are secured in the cool whip.
Add a layer of cool whip over these cookies.
Repeat layering cookies and cool whip until you are out of cookies. We had over 48 cookies!
Cover the cake and let sit in the fridge overnight. Trust us, this will be worth it.
Don't take the cake out until you're ready to serve.
Right before serving, dust with some pumpkin pie spice.
