When that autumn sweet tooth hits, there’s Pumpkin Gingersnap Icebox Cake. This isn’t just any ole icebox cake with cookies and whipped fluffy stuff thrown together (although that is delicious). This icebox cake tastes like the feeling of wearing your favorite cozy sweater on the first brisk evening of fall… mixed with pumpkin spice.

These perfectly gingered molasses cookies bake in four (nine inch) cake pans to make beautifully even and stack-able scratch-made cookie rounds. The whipped filling is lightly sweetened and spiced, featuring an entire can of pumpkin puree. After these flavors and textures mingle overnight, you’ll have a mouthwatering, showstopping Pumpkin Gingersnap Icebox Cake that could summon fall right out of summer in one bite!

The Cookie Rounds – Helpful Tips

• If you don’t have four (nine inch) cake pans, no worries. You can bake two cookie rounds at a time. If you have three cake pans, consider baking your fourth round in your nine inch spring form pan.
• Use parchment paper to line your cake pans (NOT wax paper). The cookies will stick to the wax paper.
• Consider placing a strip of parchment under each parchment round when preparing the cake pans. Tabs of the strip should extend a couple of inches past the round on both sides. Pull gently on those extended tabs to help release the cookie rounds after baking and cooling.
• The cookie dough will be sticky. You’ll be tempted, but DO NOT refrigerate. Just drop little blobs of dough in the pans as show below. The room temperature dough will spread when baking to create a single cookie round in each pan. Refrigerated dough may not create enough spread.
• When the cookie rounds come out of the oven, use a spoon to flatten any of the cookies’ edges that baked a little up the sides of the pan.
• Let’s be real for a sec. Sometimes you’re in a rush to get fall yums on the table. In a dessert emergency, swap out the cookie rounds for (gasp!) store bought gingersnaps. Yes, you’ll lose the pizzazz of the perfectly stack-able rounds and the goodness of homemade. But it’ll do the trick in a pinch!

The Whipped Filling – Helpful Tips

• Add the pumpkin slowly while mixing. Dumping it in quickly could result in little blobs of cream cheese lingering in your mixture.
• Also pour whipping cream in slowly while whipping the mixture (same risk of not getting a silky-smooth texture if the whipping cream is poured quickly).
• Scrape down the sides of the mixer frequently!

The Assembly – Helpful Tips

• Remove the bottom of the nine inch springform pan and place the springform pan on whatever pretty plate you’ll serve your Pumpkin Gingersnap Icebox Cake.
• Open the springform pan and situate your first cookie round in the bottom. Close the springform pan.
• Whipping up a small amount of cream can be a challenge. I use the small whisk attachment on my hand mixer. The attachment is small enough to fit into a drinking glass, so I use the glass as a bowl for whipping the cream and confectioner’s sugar. Hold onto the glass tightly while whipping, lest you have a delicious spray of whipped cream across your kitchen. Not that it’s every happened to me. Ahem.
• If you’re out of pumpkin spice for dusting the top, use cinnamon.
• I used a 1M decorator’s tip to pipe the whipped cream around the edges.
• Refrigerate the icebox cake for several hours or overnight before carefully removing the springform pan. Consider using a knife to assist in freeing the cake from the sides as needed. Smooth the edges of the cake as needed after removing the pan.

And then – just sit back and enjoy the taste of fall. *Best enjoyed while gazing at brightly colored fall leaves, wearing the softest sweater, and daydreaming of how to best arrange your new barrage of fresh pumpkins and gourds.*