Halloween Pumpkin Spiced Cream Tart

Name: Halloween Pumpkin Spiced Cream Tart
Prep time: 80 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 90 min
Ingredients: 185 g butter; 1 cup caster sugar; 1 tsp vanilla extract; 1 egg; 1 egg yolk; 1 tsp cinnamon; 1 tsp ginger; 1/2 tsp nutmeg; 1/4 tsp allspice; 1/4 tsp cloves; 2½ cups plain flour; 250 ml thickened cream; 250 g white chocolate melts; 300 g cream cheese (room temperature); Orange and brown food dye; Halloween chocolates; Lollies; Fake spiders; Dried flowers

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You’ve probably seen these double decker cookie cakes covered with fresh flowers and fruits across your social media channels lately and they have become known as “Cream Tarts”. I made an Easter version earlier this year and it went bonkers on the internet and I was thrilled to see so many of you make your own version!

With Halloween fast approaching, I thought it would be another good opportunity to make a holiday-themed dessert with a spooky twist. Whilst these Cream Tarts generally take the form of a letter or number, there are a never ending supply of shapes you can make, and for Halloween I decided a pumpkin shape was the way to go! If you want to give this a go yourself, feel free to download my template to print and cut out here.

I also gave it a seasonal taste upgrade and added pumpkin spice to the cookie dough – this is a mixture of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice and cloves and it definitely smells like the holiday season to me!

The process to make this cream tart is similar to the Easter version. First we start with a shortbread biscuit that is extremely easy and quick to make. The dough is rolled out between 2 pieces of baking paper (to prevent it from sticking to the rolling pin and bench) and I then transferred the rolled dough to the fridge for 10 mins to firm up slightly. It’s spring here in Australia and the heat and humidity is starting to ramp up, so I knew the slightly chilled dough would be much easier to handle!

Once the dough has chilled slightly, I used the template as a guide and cut out 2 pumpkin shapes with a sharp knife. With the leftover dough I cut out some small pumpkin shapes too. All the cookies are then carefully transferred to baking trays and baking until golden brown around the edges (around 10-12 minutes).

Allow the cookies to cool down completely before icing. This cream cheese ganache is the perfect flavour match to the spiced cookies. Remove 1/8 of the icing and put it in a seperate bowl and colour this with brown food dye for the pumpkin stem. With the remaining icing, colour it bright orange.

Spoon the mixture into an icing bag with a nozzle attached and pipe dots of ganache onto the first layer of the pumpkin cake. Gently transfer your second layer of pumpkin cake on top of the first layer, and continue piping dots of ganache until the surface is covered. Decorate your cream tart with Halloween lollies, chocolates, fake spiders and dried flowers.

Halloween Pumpkin Spiced Cream Tart

This double decker cookie cake is a fun and tasty creation to make for the holidays!

5 from 4 votes

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Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Cake, Halloween

Prep Time: 1 hour 20 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Servings:

Author: Swah

Ingredients

Halloween Tart

185 g butter
1 cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp cloves
2½ cups plain flour

White Chocolate Ganache Icing

250 ml thickened cream
250 g white chocolate melts
300 g cream cheese room temperature
Orange and brown food dye

To Decorate

Halloween chocolates
Lollies
Fake spiders
Dried flowers

Instructions

Halloween Tart

Preheat oven to 180℃ and line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
In a stand mixer, cream the butter, sugar and vanilla together until well combined.
Add in the flour, egg and egg yolk and keep beating until the mixture forms a dough.
Place dough between 2 pieces of parchment paper (so it doesn't stick) and gently roll the dough out to approx 3mm thick. If the dough starts to get too soft and unmanageable, pop it in the fridge to firm up for 10 minutes.
Using a stencil, cut out the shape of your pumpkin twice and place them on your lined baking trays. With the leftover dough I cut out smaller pumpkin shapes.
Bake for 10 minutes or until the edges are a light golden brown.

White Chocolate Ganache Icing

Bring cream just to the boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat, add white chocolate and stand until melted (5 minutes).
Stir the ganache mixture until smooth and glossy.
Refrigerate until completely cool (about 1 hour).
Place the room temperature cream cheese into the bowl of your stand mixer and beat until smooth.
Add in the cooled ganache mixture and continue beating until everything is well combined and the icing is thick and holds its shape.
Remove 1/8 of the icing and put in seperate bowl. Colour this with brown food dye for the pumpkin stem.
Colour the remaining icing orange.

To Decorate

Spoon the mixture into an icing bag with a nozzle attached and pipe dots of ganache onto the first layer of the pumpkin cake.
Gently transfer your second layer of pumpkin cake on top of the first layer, and continue piping dots of ganache until the surface is covered.
Decorate with halloween lollies, chocolates, fake spiders and dried flowers.
Enjoy!