Pumpkin Cake Pops Recipe – No Refined Sugar

The Perfect Pumpkin Surprise

I am always trying to come up with pumpkin recipes for the fall that my kids will actually like. They aren’t huge fans of pumpkin, so it’s no easy task. Which is why I am pleasantly surprised that both of my kids have been absolutely loving this pumpkin cake pops recipe!

But this great success has not come easily. After numerous failed attempts to create picky-kid-approved pumpkin perfection in my baking, I have frequently had to defer to fall recipes that do not actually contain any pumpkin.

This isn’t all bad, since my date-sweetened caramel corn, fall cut-out cookies and (my favorite) chocolate covered caramel apple slices have been huge hits 🙂 But still, I’ve been desperately wanting to make a successful pumpkin recipe that kids can enjoy.

Fortunately, I’ve continued experimenting with pumpkin as well and I have learned a thing or two about what and why my kids like or dislike a pumpkin recipe. And with this knowledge, I had some very specific goals with this pumpkin cake balls recipe.

My main goals came from the knowledge that pumpkin has two inherently strong tastes that picky kids are averse to: Healthy and overly rich. Now, overly rich chocolate is all well and good, but overly rich fruits and vegetables are often not appealing to kids.

So I knew that I had to limit how healthy the pumpkin spiced cake base tasted … While still in fact making them healthy pumpkin cake pops. I knew that I could not go overboard with the pumpkin, because that would be too “healthy rich”.

I also took a moment to consider why my 7-year-old loved a pumpkin bread loaf our neighbor made for us several years back when she has never liked anything pumpkin I have made. And the answer to that question came pretty easily.

It was because that pumpkin bread was excessively sweet (and definitely not sweetened naturally). So I began to think about how I could semi-replicate the experience of that pumpkin bread in a healthier way.

And the solution to that was to make the pumpkin spiced cake very sweet (but still secretly healthy) along with limiting the rich, healthy pumpkin flavor. So I cut way back on the amount of pumpkin puree I often use in my attempts to make pumpkin-lovers out of my children. And I made them very sweet.

Often my favorite natural sweetener to use when I need to make something very sweet is maple syrup. But in this case, I also needed to be careful not to overdo the sweetness. So I used a combination of date paste and maple syrup to achieve the perfect balance of sweetness to go with my perfect balance of pumpkin flavor.

And what do you know? My pumpkin-despising children are now begging to eat these healthy pumpkin cake pops for breakfasts, snacks and desserts!

When & How to Make These

You just have to make these cake pops this fall. Put these pumpkin cake balls on your fall baking list because they are an absolute must. But don’t worry if you can’t get started on them today, because you have all of September, October and November to safely bake with fall spices and flavors.

Here are some tips on how and when to make and assemble these fall cake pops:

1. Bake the pumpkin spiced cake first. You can do this ahead of time and stick the cake in the fridge or freezer to assemble the cake pops another day (or week). And the cake is super quick and easy to throw together as long as you have your date paste already made.

2. Mix up one batch of spiced cream cheese frosting and crumble your cake. Whenever you have another 30 minutes or so on your hands, whip up one batch of the frosting, crumble your pumpkin cake into a bowl, mash and mix it all together and roll your pumpkin cake balls. This is also all very simple and relatively quick to do.

You can keep your cake balls in the freezer (or the fridge) in an airtight container until another time or day you are able to decorate them.

3. Make another batch of frosting and do some decorating. If you find yourself with a half hour of free time, go ahead and do some decorating! I recommend decorating these in batches, so all you need to worry about is the first third of your cake pops with this first round of frosting.

4. Finish the job. As time and freezer space allows, make your other two batches of frosting incrementally and decorate the rest of your fall cake pops.

It really is all very easy and not overly time consuming. Even though you can spread the steps out over several days, you can easily do all of the assembling and at least the first round of decorating in one day if you have several chunks of time to do it.

But the nice thing about whenever you make these is that it is totally flexible. You can choose whether to conquer it all in one day or take one little piece of the recipe to accomplish in your spare moments each day over the course of a few days.

Ingredients

Pumpkin Spice Cake

• Butter: Butter makes this beautiful pumpkin spice cake light, fluffy and flavorful. I use Irish grass-fed butter or organic.

• Date Paste: My homemade date paste recipe is super simple and can be made by literally anyone. If you prefer, you can purchase date paste on Amazon or at Middle Eastern grocery stores, but keep in mind that it will be more dense and will need to be softened up with some hot water. I find it much easier to work with homemade date paste.

• Maple Syrup: Maple syrup is the perfect natural sweetener to add on to the date paste for just that little bit of extra super-sweet but not too super-sweet taste that appeals so much to little bellies.

• Eggs: Eggs are the binder in this cake. I use farm-fresh, organic and/or cage-free for the most health benefits.

• Pumpkin: I use canned pumpkin in this recipe for simplicity. Whatever your preferred canned pumpkin brand is should work fine. Make sure you have pure pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie mix.

• Flour: Any all-purpose flour will do. I use organic, unbleached flour.

• Pumpkin Pie Spice: I have been having a hard time finding pumpkin pie spice at my local grocery stores so far this season, so I’ve been making my own. The Pioneer Woman has a super simple recipe that only requires four fall spices you likely already have in your cabinet.

• Baking Powder: Baking powder is the rising agent in this cake. Make sure you have aluminum-free baking powder.

• Salt: Salt brings out all the wonderful fall flavors.

Pumpkin Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting

Cream Cheese: Cream cheese is the base of this pumpkin spiced frosting. Whatever brand of cream cheese you normally use will work fine.

Butter: Butter adds richness and balances out the tartness of the cream cheese. It also helps the frosting to firm up when cold.

Honey: Raw unfiltered honey is essential for this cream cheese frosting. The runny, processed honey from the plastic bear bottles will not work for this recipe and does not have all the nutrients of raw honey.

Pumpkin Pie Spice: Pumpkin pie spice adds just a touch of that spicey fall flavor to the frosting.

Raisins: Technically, raisins are not a part of the frosting itself, but they are used for creating the faces on the pumpkin cake pops. I usually get my raisins in a large box from Costco.

Instructions

Make the Pumpkin Spice Cake

Step 1

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and oil a square 8×8 baking dish.

Step 2

In a medium-size bowl, use an electric hand mixer to combine softened butter, date paste and maple syrup.

Step 3

Add in eggs and pumpkin and mix until combined.

Step 4

Add in all dry ingredients and mix until combined.

Step 5

Pour batter into the 8×8 baking dish and bake 23 minutes. The cake will be very soft but the color should not look underbaked in the center and a toothpick should come out clean when it is done.

Step 6

Remove from the oven and allow cake to cool in the pan for 20 minutes. Then, remove from the pan and allow to finish cooling on a cooling wrack or a plate.

The cake may stick to whatever it cools on, but don’t worry about how the cake looks since you will be crumbling it up anyway.

Step 7

If you want to save the cake to make the cake pops later, place the cake in an airtight container and store in the fridge for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to one month. You can break the cake into pieces to store it however is easiest.

Make the Cake Balls

Step 1

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Step 2

In a small bowl, add one all cream cheese frosting ingredients x1. Mix with an electric hand mixer until everything is fully combined. Set aside while you crumble your pumpkin cake.

Step 3

In a medium-large-size bowl, use gloved hands to break the pumpkin spice cake into pieces and crumble it with your fingers.

Step 4

Add the cream cheese frosting to the crumbled cake and use your gloved hands to thoroughly mix everything together.

Step 5

Using your gloved hands, roll the cake and frosting mixture into balls that are about 1 1/2 inches in size. You should end up with roughly 30-34 balls depending on the size of your balls.

Place the balls on the lined baking sheet as you roll them. Once they are all rolled, place the baking sheet in the freezer for an hour.

Step 6

After an hour, take the cake balls out of the freezer to decorate them. If you do not wish to decorate them yet, place them in an airtight container so that they do not get freezer burned or stale until you are ready to decorate.

You can store these in the fridge for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to one month before decorating.

Decorate the Cake Pops

Step 1

To decorate your cake pops, first make your frosting. You will need three batches (each ingredient x3) of the cream cheese frosting in total to frost all of the cake pops.

However, I recommend making one batch at a time and decorating 1/3 of the cake pops in a single sitting as they do take some time to decorate. To do this, combine all of the ingredients for the cream cheese frosting x1 in a small bowl and mix with an electric hand mixer (the same as you did for the frosting that went into the cake ball mixture).

Step 2

Once the cream cheese frosting is mixed, separate out about 1 tablespoon of the frosting into a small bowl.

Step 3

Using India Tree food coloring (or your other coloring of choice), color the 1 tablespoon of frosting green and color the rest of the frosting orange.

Step 4

Using a star tip with your piping bag (the small sized tips, not the large ones meant for cake decorating), fill the bag with the orange frosting.

Step 5

Get out a handful of raisins on a small plate and cut them in half (or in quarters if they are large).

Step 6

When you are ready to decorate the cake pops, pull them out of the fridge or freezer.

If your cake balls have been in the freezer, allow them to sit for just a few minutes so they are soft enough to insert your cake pop sticks.

If they have been in the fridge, only take out a few cake pops at a time to decorate so they do not become too soft.

Step 7

Push the cake pop sticks into the cake pops you are ready to work on.

Step 8

Working one at a time, decorate your cake pop with orange stars until the cake ball is covered all over. Don’t worry if it doesn’t look perfect. This design is meant to be forgiving.

Step 9

Using a small spoon or spatula, dollop a little bit of green frosting on top of the pumpkin for the stem.

Step 10

Use raisins to make a face on the pumpkin.

Step 11

Place cake pops standing up in a mug to chill in the freezer. Don’t overcrowd the mug so that they don’t touch each other. I can usually fit about five in each mug.

Step 12

Leave the cake pops in the freezer to firm up for 2 hours before moving them to containers for storing.

*See note for storing instructions.

Substitutions & Tips

• The best way to mix up a completely smooth cream cheese frosting is by making sure your cream cheese and butter are both softened sufficiently before mixing. Irish butter often takes longer to soften, so it will need to sit on the counter for a good bit before you make your frosting. Cream cheese only needs to sit out for about 10-15 minutes to soften.

• As you are shaping the cake balls and as you are decorating them with star-tipped piping bag, don’t stress over making them look perfect. This recipe is pretty fail-proof and forgiving.

• If your cream cheese frosting is becoming too melty and runny from working with it while you are decorating, stick it in the fridge for about ten minutes to allow it to firm up just a little bit.

• If you don’t care about these looking like orange pumpkins, an alternative quick and easy coating for these cake pops is to dip them in chocolate. If you prefer to do this, use my homemade chocolate recipe or my pumpkin spiced chocolate recipe. Instead of pouring the chocolate into molds, you will just leave it melted to dip your cake pops and then freeze your cake pops standing up in mugs to harden the chocolate.

Optionally, you can sprinkle them with chopped pecans or walnuts for a little decoration.