I’m worse than those convenience stores that sell halloween costumes in August, or Christmas decor right after halloween. I complain about those stores all the time, and here I am already bringing pumpkin spice into the mix and it’s hotter than hot here in Los Angeles. As I type this I have the AC on full blast and it’s well into the evening. What is going on right now? I’m not about this kind of life. Summer isn’t even over yet and I’ve begun to force autumn down your throats. Sure it might not feel like fall right now and okay, maybe I am rushing things a little bit, but I have good reason to. Hopefully you’ll forgive me once you find out about what’s going on. The word GIVEAWAY will most certainly catch your attention. More so because I just capitalized it. It should catch your attention though because I myself love free things. More free things for everyone, is my motto.
I don’t host as many giveaways on here as I should, and I always tell myself, “Self, you should host more giveaways on the blog.” I then proceed to tell myself what a good idea I just had, and give myself a few pats on the back. But then I somehow forget about it, but that’s probably a good thing, because when I do remember to give stuff away, it makes it a lot more special. Don’t you agree? This giveaway happens to be special. Look mamma! I’m on the cover of a magazine! Well, not me but my work is, and that definitely still counts. That’s my big bundt (cake) right there on the cover. Isn’t it marvelous? Right there on the cover.
A few months back, way back when summer was just starting and it most certainly felt way too soon to think about, let alone talk about fall time desserts and pumpkin spice in general, I was busy brainstorming a few recipes for this magazine, “The Pumpkin Spice Handbook.” It’s the ultimate guide to the incredibly loved fall time spice blend. There’s over 100 recipes, that all use pumpkin spice in it, from savory to sweet. It’s all jam-packed into this amazing looking magazine. I myself have two recipes in it (humble brag) and I would love it if you snagged yourself a copy. Note: This Pumpkin Pie Cake isn’t one of the two recipes. This is one from the drawing board that didn’t make it in the issue. So you’ll definitely want to get the other two recipes I contributed. You won’t regret it. It’s on sale now and you can find it in Barnes & Noble, Target, Walmart, CVS, Walgreens and most major grocery stores nationwide (basically all the stores).
Lucky for you, yes you reading this post, right at this very moment, I’m giving away a few copies to three lucky winners! Big shout out to the gracious editor, Elise Portale, for making this giveaway possible. All you have to do is leave a comment below telling me what your favorite fall dessert is (or savory dish for those without a sweet tooth). Three people will be picked at random on Saturday. My mom will pick the winners because she loves reading all of your comments anyway, so we might as well make her useful (kidding, mom). No, but really. Good luck! I’m sending you all positive vibes. I want you to win.
Let’s talk about this cake for a second. This cake is everything I love. It tastes just like pumpkin pie but in cake form. There’s definitely pie crust involved because it wouldn’t be pumpkin pie with crust. That’s the best part. Mix the dry ingredients first. In a large bowl, whisk (or sift, if you’re into that sort of thing) the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and pumpkin spice.
**Note: Pumpkin spice already has cinnamon in it, but if you’re like me and love cinnamon, it’s never enough. So I add a bit more to the dry ingredients so that we can really taste it in the cake.**
Cream together the butter and brown sugar until lightly and fluffy, using an electric mixer (handheld or stand) because this is the 21st century after all and the last thing anyone should be doing right now is creaming together butter and sugar by hand. Ain’t nobody got time for that.
Add the eggs one at a time, making sure to blend well after each addition. You might have to stop the mixer and scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl…just to make sure it’s all evenly incorporated.
Stir in the pumpkin and vanilla. It’ll look curdled after you mix in the pumpkin, but don’t worry that’s okay. Everything will be fine!
**Note: Canned pumpkin is totally okay for this recipe, but if you’re feeling adventurous and want to roast the pumpkin at home you definitely should. Just in case you don’t know how and need a little tutorial, here’s one from a few years back! Homemade Pumpkin Purée.**
Next, add the dry ingredients along with the buttermilk, alternating between the two. Make sure you start and end with the dry ingredients. So add a 1/3 of the dry, and mix, then add half of the buttermilk, mix, 1/3 of dry, mix, last of buttermilk, mix and last of dry. Mix once more. Once the last addition has been added, make sure to get to the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula to get everything incorporated fully.
**Tip: Try not to over-mix the batter at this point. After each addition, stir until just incorporated. It’ll prevent the cake from becoming dense and dry!**
Pour the batter evenly into 3, 8-inch round cake pans. Give the pans a gentle rap on the counter to dislodge any air bubbles trapped in the batter and pan. Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Meanwhile, let’s make a basic pie dough. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt and pumpkin pie spice.
**Note: This part of the recipe is strictly optional. The pie crust is only used for the decorations that’ll go on the finished cake to give it that great looking appearance. You don’t have to do this step if you don’t want to. Or you can just use store-bought pie dough if you don’t want to make it from scratch.**
Cut in the butter and shortening using your fingers, two knives, a pastry blender or a vegetable masher (it works).
**Tip: For super flaky pie crust, make sure the butter and shortening are super duper cold. Also make sure to work rather quickly so that the warmth from your hands doesn’t softened them up too much.**
Add the cold water, one tablespoon at a time, and mix by hand with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon until the dough comes together.
Shape into a disc and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour or overnight. (If chilling overnight, make sure you set it out on the counter at least 30 minutes before rolling to thaw a bit).
Once chilled, roll out on a lightly floured work to about 1/4-inch thick and then cut out into desired shapes. I used leaves and small circles. Brush the cutouts with egg wash (egg whisked with a splash of water) and sprinkle with turbinado sugar for an added layer of texture.
**Note: You can score the leaves with a pairing knife to make them look like grooves on a leaf if you wish. Do it before the egg wash.**
Bake for until golden brown, about 10 to 15 minutes. Make sure to turn the pan halfway through baking, so that they brown evenly.
Once the cakes have cooled completely and the pie crust cookies have finished baking, you can make the frosting.
In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and cream cheese. Add the orange zest and fresh orange juice and a tiny bit of pumpkin. Then mix until combined. Add the sugar, a cup at a time, and then beat on high until light and fluffy, about 7 minutes.
To assemble the cake, trim off the tops of each layer to flatten them out. Then place one layer on a cake stand or cake plate. Add a dollop of frosting and spread out evenly with an offset spatula.
Continue in the same manner with the remaining two layers. Then add a crumb coating of frosting to the cake so you can grab your bearings.
**Note: A crumb coating on a cake is when you frost it very thinly with frosting and it’s not super perfect and there’s crumbs all up on it and what not. This is to hold it all in place, right before we add the nice layer of frosting. Once crumb coated, place the cake in the fridge and allow it to set for about half an hour to an hour. This will make frosting 100% easier, I promise.**
Add the final layer of frosting and smooth it out as much as possible using your offset spatula, or plastic bench scraper if you’re really skilled. Add a nice decorative border on the tip if you’re feeling fancy.
Decorate the cake with the pie crust cookies and chopped pecans as you wish. Again, that’s optional, but I feel like it adds a nice element to the cake. It makes it look like autumn.
You can go ahead and decorate exactly like I did, and take all of the credit. I don’t mind at all. We’ll pretend like you had the idea. What are friends for? I won’t say anything. It’ll be our little secret.
If you’re not going to serve/eat it right away, you can store the cake in the fridge until ready to unveil it to your friends and family or guests. You’d probably want it to come to room temperature before you slice it though, just so it’s more enjoyable.
And that concludes my swan song…my cake song. Make this cake this weekend because you don’t want to be missing out. We’ll pretend like it’s fall (and not over 100 degrees at the moment) and reminisce about all the things we’re going to make/eat soon.
Remember to enter the giveaway just leave a comment below letting me know what your favorite autumn dessert (or dinner for those of you without a sweet tooth) and three lucky winners will be picked at random. My mom will pick Saturday morning, because she loves getting involved on the blog, so the winners will be notified Saturday afternoon. A couple of rules (because we should make this as fun as possible for everyone):
- DON’T enter more than once. It won’t up your chances. That’s basically cheating and if you think we won’t know, think again. We will know, trust me. (My mom knows everything, its scary).
- DON’T just give me one worded responses. I mean you could if you want to, but I want to hear some details. Like when did you have this dish? How old were you? Why do you like it so much? Does it have a special memory attached to it? My mom likes reading your stories.
- DO have fun because that’s what life is all about. We should have fun with these things so that we can have more giveaways in the future!
- Good luck! I’m rooting for you!
Orange Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
- 1 8-ounce block cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 cup 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
- pinch of salt
- 1 tablespoon pumpkin purée optional
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons fresh orange zest
- 1 tablespoon fresh orange juice
- 4 to 6 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
- Beat the butter and cream cheese on medium-high until light and fluffy. Add the salt, pumpkin purée, vanilla extract, orange zest and orange juice and mix until well combined.
- Add the powdered sugar, one cup at at time, mixing until just combined. Once all the sugar has been added, raise the speed to high and beat for about 7 minutes until light and fluffy. If it's too soft, add more sugar. If it's too thick, add a splash more fresh orange juice or milk. Use right away on pumpkin pie cake. Enjoy!
Notes
Pumpkin Spice Pie Crust Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin spice
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter diced
- 4 tablespoons vegetable shortening
- 4 to 6 tablespoons ice cold water
- 1 egg whisked with a splash of water
- 1/4 cup turbinado sugar
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt and pumpkin spice. Cut in the butter and shortening with your fingers, two knives, a pastry blender or a vegetable masher until it resembles coarse crumbs the size of peas.
- Add the cold water, one tablespoon at a time, and mix by hand with a rubber spatula or a wooden spoon until it comes together to form a rough dough. Shape into a disc and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Chill in refrigerator for at least 1 hour or overnight.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and set aside.
- On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the chilled dough into a large rectangle about 1/4-inch thick. Cut out into desired shapes and place on prepared cookie sheet. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
- Bake until golden brown around the edges, about 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool on baking sheet for about 5 minutes. Transfer to wire rack and allow to cool completely. Use on pumpkin pie cake. Enjoy!
My favorite fall dessert is my grandmother’s pumpkin pie. There was no recipe and I haven’t been able to duplicate it. It was not as custardy as mine and included a miniature bottle of some kind of whiskey. (She used to save the miniatures from when she took trips on planes or trains or cruises.)
I’m a huge fan of carrot cake – especially in the fall. Something about the cream cheese frosting (and I add a bit of cardamom!) feels really fall-like. I may have to branch out this year. My birthday is at the end of September and I’ve been looking for a new recipe to try for my cake! This could be the one! It’s beautiful!
Hi “Mom”: Happy Fall to Y’All!! My favorite fall treat would probably be a 1) pumpkin cheesecake 2) spice cake 3) apple cake 4) pumpkin pie. It’s so difficult to choose because the flavors of fall are my favorites – apples, pumpkins, pears, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon. Enjoy Fall!! Thanks for the opportunity. Congrats on the magazine front – looks delightful!!!
Pasta with Pumpkin and Sausage Sage Sauce. Every year I cook for a widows banquet in the Fall and I love using main dishes that burst with the flavors of Fall!
I found this recipe, tweaked it to my liking and served it to the old ladies. They all thought it was “delightful”! The best part was telling them what was in it when they came to me saying they just “couldn’t put their finger on the ingredient they were tasting”! I love cooking for those ladies!
Oh my! Your cake looks absolutely devine. We are going to visit friends for Thanksgiving and this cake will be going along. Can’t wait to try your other two recipes in the magazine.
Your cake looks wonderful and super delicious!! It almost seems like a crime to cut into it?? Wow!! Is your family going to gobble that up?
pumpkin whoopee pies!!! i love pumpkin spice flavored things, but for some reason pumpkin pie is not my favorite!
I can’t wait to try this one. My favorite fall dessert is one I put together myself: caramel cinnamon cheesecake. Now that you mention pumpkin spice, I may need to try that in place of the cinnamon next time. It was inspired by a Werther’s cinnamon caramel hard candy. 🙂
Absolutely stunning!
Can’t wait to make this in a few months!
My favorite autumn dessert is a drink: apple cider! The first time I had it, I was at a thanksgiving potluck and it was perfuming the whole house. It’s best right out of the pot when you can see the apples floating around with cinnamon sticks stuck in them~ and it’s not cider unless there’s a little bit of brandy too 🙂
Yet again, you have blown me away with your creative recipes and gorgeous food styling. Also, I’m really looking forward to hot chocolate. I’ve been wanting to make a cup for a very long time, but it’s 90 degrees still.
love me a good warm pumpkin peanut butter crumble…its the memories tat are associated when the dish was first accidentally made that make it a fave
I love the look of this cake, I am sure it will be as good as it looks. My two (2) favorite fall recipes are of course the ever soon wonderful pumpkin spice roll and candied sweet potato casserole topped candied pecan streusel.
My favorite Fall treat is actually a two for one- homemade Apple Butter and Apple Cider! I grew up in SoCal in a not-so-tiny anymore town called Beaumont, which sits right between the San Gorgonio and San Jacinto Mountains. With 8 kids my parents never had much, but every winter we would make the pilgrimage up San Gorgonio to Oak Glen for fresh hot Apple Cider and all of the cardboard sledding our little hearts desired. To me the sledding was fun and all, but I absolutely loved the Apple Cider! Walking into the store with the roaring fire on one side, the cider mill crunching away next to the boiling cauldron on the other and the wonderful smell of it all blending together would make my heart melt every time. It felt like home..
Now I live here in Cincinnati and Oak Glen is about 2,400 miles away, making it impossible to make the pilgrimage with my own 6 kids. Not wanting them to miss out on such a great memory, I decided to roll up my sleeves and make my own, and since I was already at it, why not try Apple Butter too? Letting the kids help, watch and taste along the way turned out to be the best thing I ever did- they were hooked! Now every year we go to a local farm, buy apples, go for a hayride to pick out pumpkins, and rush home to make our own Cider and Apple Butter.. the house smells like home, and my kids are making their own favorite memories.
I love Autumn. I love pumpkins, cider, apples, and Fall foods. I usually buy several cooking pumpkins to use for pumpkin pies & other pumpkin desserts. Thanks for the giveaway but even if I don’t win, sure going to pick up a copy ! Happy Fall!
I love all the Fall sweets. I guess right at this very moment it would be these big sort ginger cookies that I made a couple of years back. They were sort of like gingerbread men, except not as molassesy. So, they we’re kind of like a sugar cookie….. Except….. Not. They were ginger and spicy sugar cookies? I’m going to shut up now.
Ps- this cake looks waaaay good!! Can’t wait to give it a try!
Sorry. That was full of errors.
Big SOFT ginger cookies
Were, not we’re.
Gah
That cake is gorgeous! Pumpkin pie is my favorite every year (that may change when I make this cake though!)
I wish I was more into sweets as they look so tempting. I love to make them and my family and friends enjoy them but… I’m going to have to say my favorite savory dish is something that has been passed down on my father’s side of the family – Brunswick Stew – made with pork, chicken and beef and tons of vegetables (the original recipe was made with rabbit, squirrel and venison.) It is whole day affair when I make it but it is so worth it. All those flavors mingling and the vegetables just bursting with flavor. Thanks for the giveaway and I love and have made many of your recipes.
This looks absolutely amazing! I might have to bring it to our Thanksgiving dinner. My favorite autum dessert is a classic: my mom’s apple pie. She has a specific recipe she follows every year and the first time she makes it I know that fall has arrived. Key components are very thinly sliced apples (no chunky!) and e x t r a cinnamon! Perfectly cooked top crust with the little x’s – and more cinnamon of course. I’m getting so excited just thinking about it!
However if I show up with this cake she would be totally floored 😉 I will have to try it! Thanks for the recipe! I love that you have your mom involved in the giveaway, moms are just the best!
My favorite thing about autumn is pumpkin walnut maple oatmeal. Just some canned pumpkin, walnuts, pumpkin pie spice, and a little maple syrup to top it off. Yummmm.
Pumpkin ravioli is at the top of my list. I have eaten this with your mom on more then one occasion! And of course you most exclude me from the drawings since I’m family and all. 😉
I can’t wait to make this cake… looks YUMMY! My favorite fall treat is pumpkin pie 🙂
Okay, so I have a serious sweet tooth but I’m not going to name an autumn dessert because I really don’t have a very favorite one. I do have a very favorite autumn dish though, baked sweet potatoes with brown sugar and cinnamon (more than necessary because CINNAMON) and butter and topped with marshmallows. This dish includes ALL of my favorite things: potatoes, butter, and cinnamon. It does not get better than this dish. When everyone is eating pie after Thanksgiving dinner I have another helping of baked sweet potatoes because I can’t help myself.
I love caramel apple crumb pie, but all things cinnamon and fall are tops on my list of favorites. I remember baking apple pies with my grandmother many, many years ago. We would use the scraps of pie dough to make cinnamon twist cookies. I would have dough all over the place, but she encouraged me to help. It fostered my love of cooking and baking. I have fond memories of the fall season and look forward to it every year. Jonathan this is just a lovely cake. My thanks to you for all your wonderful recipes.
I haven’t tried nearly as many pumpkin pie spiced goods as I should have over the past years, and that tends to be what fall is about. Right?
Last year I had a special guest staying over for thanksgiving and I was in charge of the desserts. Now the traditional sweet dish served after we’ve all given thanks and stuffed ourselves (a little more than what we intended before dessert time) is pumpkin pie. Now I did not want to go traditional. That is not my fortay. I was going to go where few men and women have gone before: A pumpkin cheesecake. That’s right. All the delicious spice from pumpkin pie whipped through a rich cream cheese held wi a grahm cracker crust.
This Thanksgiving was going to be remembered as the “Oh I loved that year! You had that really good dessert” year. The “I looked and looked for that cheese cake but no one seemed to make it! Please make it next time!” Year. And after buying all the ingredients (it may or may not have been the day before…) I was ready. Heck, I was pumped. And when I looked through my cheesecake making tips I suddenly realized I had forgotten the tool that woukd make all this possible: a spring form pan.
I didn’t own one! Like I said I didn’t have much background in the pie making business and I was jumping straight to cheesecake. What was I thinking? I couldn’t do it without the right pan! All my dessert savings went to the spices. I thought I couldn’t do it. But somehow I pushed through and even though I didn’t make the dessert I intended I ended up with a pretty good substitute. A littke tradition made its way back to my dinner table through pumpkin pie form, but I snuck in a little something different that goes by the name of graham cracker crust.
It was perfect topped with a couple gobs of my home made whipped cream and I definitely plan on making it again. I think I can even call it my favorite autum dessert.
Fall is most definitely my favorite season. I adore pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, but I am most excited to start making hearty, soul-warming meals again… some of my favorites are turkey chili and sausage and tomato risotto (via Smitten Kitchen!).
xo, ellie
with love from ellie
White chocolate pecan pumpkin cookies are my favorite!
Whoa. This cake is gorgeous!
My favorite fall dessert is something I saw on The Kitchn a couple of years ago – cranberry curd bars. I LOVE cranberries, and while I hate the word “curd” because it sounds like it describes a really disgusting food product, those things are amazing. And the crust is walnut shortbread. I love walnuts. I love shortbread. I couldn’t stop eating them when I made them the first time so I tried to hide them in the freezer but THEY TASTE BETTER FROZEN.
This cake is beautiful, and I will definitely make it. I live in Texas where it is still teasing the 100 degree mark, but I long for a crisp fall day. I love so many things about fall food, but good ol’ pumpkin pie with lots of whipped cream tops the list every time. Also, I’m not happy until I eat a caramel apple or two around Halloween. Congratulations on the magazine and thank you for the giveaway.
Spectacular cake!! Just the smell of pumpkin pie spice lifts my spirits. Favorite would be pumpkin maple pie with gobs of homemade whipped cream.
My favorite fall dessert is pumpkin pie. I remember making it with my mom when I was young; I loved being in the kitchen with her. I lost my mom when I was fourteen but she passed on a love of baking and great recipes, including her grandfather’s pie crust recipe. The aromas of fall baking, cinnamon and nutmeg, always bring with them happy memories of baking with my mom.
This looks crazy good. My favorite fall deserts usually involve either pumpkins or apples. A few years back I made a salted caramel apple bread pudding out of some apple bread that had gone a bit stale and I’ve been trying to re-create it ever since!
Hi Jonathan & Mom, First let me say I Love how you tell your stories, I enjoy reading everything, I love all your funny comments and your take on things! You remind me of my Sons! Oh and not to mention the wonderful recipes too.. lol. Now I too am a Mom – Grandma, But, I used to love making my apple cake which had extra cinnamon & sugar on top, and the secret ingredient was pumpkin spice in the cake. This was a recipe I learned back when I was in junior high school in home economic class back in NY. It is a recipe I have made many many years during the fall. My Mom loved it so much. I have since made other cakes and pies, but always made this cake for my Mom. It brings back so many memories growing up and cooking with my mom. Since she has passed, when ever I do bake during the fall holidays, it puts a smile on my face just thinking of her. Remembering her waiting to get a huge slice of it. Yes there was pumpkin pies and cheese cakes too (had to make 2 of each, one for her to take home, mom didn’t bake). and as she got older, I had to learn to make them diabetic friendly, but she would always say she wanted my apple cake full flavor! That was her treat (I miss her so much). Anyway, Please continue to write as you do, You make this old lady laugh and I enjoy every minute of it. Congrats on the cover! And Hug Mom, She did a fantastic Job with YOU!! (My sons are wonderful cooks, so my daughters in law say) LOL. Regardless of the giveaway… You are Fantastic as a writer and your Recipes Fabulous!
This cake is gorgeous! Thank you for always presenting such beautiful photos of your recipes – there are days when your posts just make my whole day.
My favorite fall food is Pumpkin Chili. I LOVE it. And I would love even more to get your takenon it!
Pumpkin snickerdoodles. You heard me. Pumpkin + snickerdoodles = i just blew your mind
My favorite fall food is pumpkin bread pudding. It’s so warm and comforting.
I love chicken and dumplings!
My grandpa often made pie for us when we’d come to visit. Pumpkin, Strawberry Rhubarb, or Mincemeat depending on the time of the year. I wish he had written down his recipes because they were always my favorite growing up. He passed away before I was old enough to think to ask for them. To this day Pumpkin Pie remains one of my favorite fall desserts, although I doubt mine will ever taste as good as his.
Autumn means pumpkin spine cheese cake. But this fall I intend to try this cake for a change
Hello! To be cliché, long time listener, first time caller. While I have followed your blog for several years and made several of your recipes I have never written in. I am a working mom from Canada with two small kids with a passion for baking and cooking. Needless to say fall is a favorite season for my family and a book dedicated to pumpkin spice would be the bees knees for me. I have never seen that magazine up here! To your point – my favorite fall dessert is a sour cherry, pistachio crisp. It is not too labour intensive (a bonus for the stage of life I am in), but it hits all the right spots. The sour cherries are a deep vibrant red (like the burgundy-everything that is all the rage right now), the crisp is comforting and toasty and the pistachios’ give it crunch and texture that compliments the whole experience. A big bowl of this is like warm socks and a blanket right out of the dryer. It is an absolute must that it be served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Let that scoop melt on top for a few seconds so there is neither warm nor cold just the perfect mix of awesome.
That’s my pitch;)
First, congrats on the magazine cover! The Bundt is beautiful, and so is the pumpkin cake! Definitely going to make that one and take the credit for the lovely decorating ideas for myself (thank you). My favorite fall food is pumpkin pie. I wait every year for fall to come around and then eat my fill – I wonder why I wait – it’s not wrong to eat pumpkin pie in the summer, is it? Who knows why, but I do. Probably because I eat so much of it, I don’t want it again until the next fall, but I do love it! Oh well, that’s mine, the humble but delicious pumpkin pie with real whipping cream 🙂 YUM!
My absolute favorite fall dessert has always been this wonderful cheesecake I used to get in California. We live in Florida now so much to my utter heartbreak I haven’t been able to have it, though I have tried variations. It was a Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake from Hangtown, and it was incredible! Since then I have tried my hand at making a variety of pumpkin pie cheesecake inspired treats, and since my parents are both pumpkin pie fans it works out. This year I will be trying a pumpkin pie cheesecake snickerdoodle recipe, though I think I will have to squeeze that bundt cake recipe in for Thanksgiving, especially since I just got a really nice pan earlier this year!
Insane congratulations on getting on the cover of a magazine, that would be a dream come true to me. Your photography and recipes are always a delight to see on my dash on tumblr, thank you for all your hard work and dedication to your passion!
Oh wow that is just a gorgeous cake! I really like the way you decorated it with the pie crust cutouts, so pretty 🙂 I don’t really have a favorite fall dessert in particular, though I do always like a good pumpkin spice latte, might not be as cool as talking about my grandma’s favorite pie or whatever but it’s the truth 😛
baked apples! after picking the apples yourself!
My favorite fall dessert is pecan pie. I loved it as a kid because it was my grandfather’s favorite dessert – we were close and shared the same birthday, I really looked up to him. He passed away 8 years ago. I didn’t have it again for years because no one in my family really likes it. But when I went to the first Thanksgiving with my inlaws, my now-husband told my MIL how much I liked it. She made me 3 pecan pies! All from different recipes so that I could pick out my favorite. They were all awesome but I did pick one and she makes it for me every year. She still makes one extra for me to bring home with me too.
I’m so bad at picking favorites buuuut I think I will go with my Grandmother’s sugar cookies. Its a simple but yummy recipe I’ve been making since I was young. It has an optional ingredient of lemon or orange zest that I often left out as a kid, but now I realize the sheer yumminess it adds and zest everything. During the holidays I also adjust the recipe to do cutout cookies. Lastly, I keep the recipe mostly secret… meaning I have to make them fairly often.
Hi Mom! It’s so sweet you read the comments.
My favorite happens to be pumpkin pie!
thefiggtree@yahoo.com
The cake looks so delicious and perfect for autumn! I love to bake pumpkin pie sweetened with maple syrup and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies!
I love that you have your mom picking the winners! This cake looks to die for! The addition of pie crust is incredible!
My favorite pumpkin recipe is a pumpkin whoopee pie with cream cheese frosting!! I come from a family of whoopie pie lovers and the pumpkin ones are so moist! Also I add a little maple syrup to my cream cheese frosting! They’re the best! Especially out of the fridge!
That’s a tough question. On the one hand, French Silk pie is always terrific. However, my mom’s absolutely perfect pumpkin bread is so delicious. It’s a tie!
Hmm. My favorite fall dessert has to be pumpkin brioche buns!! So soft and warm fresh out of the oven. Like a baby’s bottom, I kid you not!
My favorite fall dessert is pumpkin bread pudding!
Your crust decorations…GASP!!!! Be still my heart! LOVE! The cover is gorgeous, congrats!!
My favorite fall dessert are my mom’s cow chip cookies. She calls them Cow Chip because they’re super large and flat and look like…well…cow patties! LOL! But there’s brown sugar butter chocolate chip cookies…crispy on the edges and soft/chewy in the middle. Divine!
Pumpkin pie– I hardly ever eat it, but it not only tastes good but it smells good too!
This cake is stunning, absolutely stunning. I’d never have thought of using pie crust as a decoration on a cake – genius. I know being in the UK I won’t be entered for your giveaway, but I have to say, my favourite Autumn treat is Apple Pie. It may sound simple but it reminds me of my Grandma, who helped teach me to bake. She always said “If you’re angry make bread, when you’re calm make pastry.” When I was younger, about 15 years, Grandma came to visit. I had made an apple pie, just as she had taught me. When we had eaten the pie Grandma said that it was very good and gave me a cuddle. In all the cooking and baking I do, that will always be my highest accolade. You see my Grandma made THE BEST Apple Pies ever. So as I look at the two apple trees in our garden, I’m reminded of my Grandma. A lady who had lived through WWII, had 5 children and still had time to teach her eager granddaughter to bake. I know she would be really proud of me now.
I love that your mom is picking the winners. Sharing makes life better.
Still love this cake. Sammie http://www.feastingisfun.com
This cake looks amazing, I may have to try it on my friends! My favourite autumn dessert is this pear pie that my mom always makes. She does the pastry by hand, tons of pears and caramel inside and then a crunchy nut and oat topping. I’ve never attempted it myself as she has always made it but someday I’ll have to I’m sure. Pears and caramel are my favourite and this pie just encompasses everything I love about fall into one dessert!
My favorite autumn dessert is my friend’s recipe for pumpkin oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I didn’t use to be a big fan of pumpkin, but I tried my friend’s cookies one day at a bake sale, and they were amazing! I almost couldn’t tell that they had pumpkin, and yet they had a delicious taste and were soft and chewy. I now make them all the time in the fall. Your recipe sounds amazing, and your pictures are fantastic as always. I’ll have to give it a try! Thanks!!
My favorite fall dessert is my pumpkin sheet cake (made with orange zest, juice, and spices) with cream cheese frosting. I make every holiday dinner, and I kind of don’t have a choice. It’s such a family favorite, I would get heck if I didn’t make it. It is really delicious though, and has become a family tradition. ???
That dessert sounds divine and your photos are beyond words (as always). While I do love some sweets, my favorite fall recipe would have to be my Cheesy Potato Chowder. By age twenty, I had been making it since high school. It was a recipe that I had developed and perfected over several years. In September of 1995, I met my now-husband when I accidentally called the wrong number and he answered. (True story!) We got to talking and I ended up inviting him to a party I was throwing that evening. (Yes, he could have been a serial killer … thank goodness he wasn’t!) We hit it off and have been together ever since (twenty years this month). We now have five children together. The first week that we met, I invited him back over and I made him this soup. The recipe calls for adding a few splashes of milk towards the end of cooking. Since it was fall, I had a jug of apple cider in my fridge. I realized after pouring probably a half a cup’s worth in that I had grabbed the cider and not the gallon jug of milk! I panicked, but tasted the soup and it seemed fine. I served it to him and he loved it! I later told him of my “mistake.” To this day, that chowder is one of his favorite things that I make. But he jokes that it’s never been quite as good without that little bit of apple cider. 🙂 Perhaps he was just blinded by new love back then. But, he tells me that that soup was one of the things that made him fall in love with me even more that first week.
My favorite pumpkin dessert is a pumpkin roll. I love the cream cheese icing and how pretty it looks. The first time I made it for Thanksgiving, my mom thought I bought it from a bakery. I’ve been making it ever since.
Wow the photos! Being a florist, I am guilty of judging a book/magazine by its cover, a pie/cake by how great it looks. I saw the magazine at my local grocery store, I am hooked to try all the sweets. And now I have found a new blog, YOU! And Kudos, moms always add that touch….Thanks!!!!
I guess my favorite is apple crumble. Pretty boring but it was one of my first go-to recipes. And it’s crust-less (just the crumble on top) so it’s super quick to make and eat 🙂
I was lucky enough to go to King Arthur Flour in Vermont last year and cook with Joy the Baker. We made her Pumpkin Pie with Pecan Praline Topping and it is to die for!
my favourite fall dessert would be a cinnamon streusle apple cake, with a cup of chai tea… the more spices the better! there’s just something so comforting and lovely about spices warming you from the inside, plus you can never go wrong with a tender moist apple cake!
stoppppp. this dessert is the epitomy of fall!!! yum. My favorite fall dessert is a whiskey fall spiced apple cake. I doused it in a butyery whiskey syrup and it gets better the longer it sits. super moist and the right amount of fall. spiciness! serve with some pumpkin ice cream and candied pecans.
One of my favorite fall sweets are pumpkin spice cookies with maple pumpkin spice frosting and topped off with a candied pecan. Hubby found the recipe in Houston Chronicle or something like that. I swapped the butter fat for coconut oil, the white flour for white whole wheat and doubled the spices…so delicious. It’s the only sweet I’ve made multiple times and certainly every fall. It won me a Professional KitchenAid Mixer in my neighborhood cookie competition(!) Your cake looks divine–love the addition of orange in the frosting–a nice fresh twist!
My favorite is probably Apple Pie. Sounds boring to write that, but I didn’t think lying would help my odds. I will have to make this cake. Maybe it will be my favorite. Then I’ll have something more “wow” to say if asked this again. 🙂
I love pumpkin flavored food BUT not coffee! I just love fall and feel like I always have.
My favorite fall dessert is sweet potato bread. It is my grandmother’s recipe.It is the one desserts that I look forward to every Fall.
pecan pie! my hubby thought he didn’t like pie til he had my pecan pie
Carrot cake with brown butter cream cheese frosting.
My fav is pumpkin pie which I know sounds boring BUT I never had it till I was like 29. Being NYers we had like babka as dessert! Omg I made it myself the first time it was amazing
I love all kinds of fall desserts, but when asked what my favorite fall dish, there is something more savory that I dream off all year. My mom and I, since I was 17, have made twice baked stuffed sweet potatoes. We stuff them with spicy chorizo, pumpkin puree, a little orange zest, chipotle, and top them with smoked cheddar. Its sweet, spicy, salty, tangy, cheesy perfection. I highly recommend/require all kinds of potatoes to be present at Thanksgiving! Happy Fall, Y’all!
Love,
Katie
I love all fall desserts/flavors. If I am going with a pumpkin theme, I love a classic pumpkin pie or pumpkin quickbread. Simple, yes. But the spicy pumpkin flavor reminds me so much of the holidays with my family. In recent years, the apple desserts have started to speak to me. I make an apple crisp at least once a season, along with a classic apple pie for Thanksgiving.
The past 2 years I have made a marbled pumpkin cheesecake for thanksgiving if that isn’t a fall dessert I dont know what is!
Looks amazing! I love fall and all things fall, but I love apple pie. I can’t remember how young I was when I first ate it. My grandma was the one who always did so perfect and high with they apple tart and still I bit firm, flaky crust, with the perfect amount of cinnamon sugar. I can still taste remember the taste. What a great memory! Cool giveaway!
Yams… all of the yams.
My favorite fall dessert is my grandmother’s pecan pie. My mother’s parents only ever visited once a year and it was always for Thanksgiving. The pie might not be anything special, but it brings back memories of times spent with family whenever I make it, which is worth way more than just a tasty dessert, on its own merit. Now that my grandparents have passed away and my family is all over the country and we can’t be together for Thanksgivings, the tradition of making those pies helps me feel close to my family and our traditions.