Want a Halloween dessert recipe that’s a little bit spooky, but majorly delicious? Then you need to try these Ghostly Pumpkin Spice Mousse Cups! To build these pretty adorable ghost mousse cups, we spooned our pumpkin spice mousse (recipe below), over a premade chocolate cake, then topped them off with our whipped cream ghosts. The mixture of flavors and textures in this recipe work perfectly!
And with the help of a premade or boxed chocolate cake, these yummy ghosts are super easy to put together. They can easily be made gluten-free, sugar-free, low-carb, and/or keto-friendly. They’re the perfect dessert to make for Halloween!
How to Make the Ghostly Pumpkin Spice Mousse Cups
Make the Pumpkin Spice Mousse
To make the pumpkin spice mousse, start by whipping cream cheese, pumpkin puree, pumpkin spice, vanilla extract, and the sweetener of your choice. Prepared whipped cream is then folded in to lighten up the texture.
Tips for a Super Smooth Mousse: Make sure your cream cheese is softened before whipping with the pumpkin puree for a silky smooth mousse. If it’s not softened enough and you find yourself with little white specs of cream cheese, pop the bowl in the microwave for about 10-15 seconds to soften and then whip until smooth.
This pumpkin mousse is also super delicious as a standalone dessert, even dare we say without the ghosts.
Assembling the Dessert Cups
Chocolate Cake (bottom layer)
Add your favorite premade chocolate cake to the bottom of your jar or dessert dish. You can use your dessert dish to punch out the perfect sizes and then slice horizontally through the middle to make the cake about 1/2 thick. You can also just lay the bottom with cake crumbles. Your favorite chocolate cookies will work here too.
Pumpkin spice mousse + garnish (middle layer)
Spoon your mousse over the top of the cake. We like a 2:1 ratio of mousse to the cake. Then garnish with cake crumbs and chopped pecans, which add another layer of flavor and a lovely crunchy element to this dessert.
The whipped cream ghosts! (top layer)
Place your whipped cream in a piping bag fitted with a large round piping tip ( We used Wilton 1A Large Round Piping Tip). If you don’t have one, simply place the whipped cream in a plastic bag and make about a ½” wide cut-off across the corner.
Pipe the whipped cream over the top of the pumpkin mousse in a tall swirl.
How To Make The Ghost Faces
- For the ghost eyes: We used candy googly eyes.
- For the ghost mouths: We rolled moistened cake crumbs into oval shapes and flattened them.
- You can substitute the eyes and mouth with mini chocolate chips instead.
💡 Tip: Practice piping your ghosts a couple of times on a piece of waxed paper to get them just right.
GET THE RECIPE!
Ghostly Pumpkin Spice Mousse Cups
For a super easy, delicious, and adorably spooky dessert this fall, try these Ghostly Pumpkin Spice Mousse Cups. Want to make them low-carb and sugar-free? Just use a sugar alternative like erythritol or stevia, and use a low-carb chocolate cake instead.
Ingredients
- 1 15 oz. can pumpkin puree
- 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
- 2 cups heavy cream or heavy whipping cream
- 2 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup powdered sweetener of choice, for sugar-free used stevia, erythritol, monk fruit and adjust to taste)
- 1/2 cup 1/2 cup toasted pecan halves
- candy Googly Eyes
- leftover or premade chocolate cake
DIRECTIONS
-
The whipped cream: Place your beaters and bowl in the freezer for 5 minutes to chill. Then add heavy cream to the bowl, with 1 tsp vanilla and powdered sweetener of choice. Beat on high until thick. Chill until ready to use.
-
The pumpkin mousse: Whip cream cheese, pumpkin puree, pumpkin spice, vanilla extract, and 1/8 cup of sweetener of choice to taste until smooth. Gently fold in 1/2 cup of the whipped cream. Set in fridge for 2 hours to chill and set.
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Assemble: Add cake or cookie crumbles of choice to the bottom of a small parfait dish or jar. Then add pumpkin mousse and top with cake crumbs and pecan pieces. Put whipped cream in a piping bag with a wide round tip and pipe on top in the shape of a ghost. Add googly eyes and for the mouth, roll moistened leftover cake crumbs into a small oval shape and flatten. Enjoy!
-
Tips: No googly eyes? Use chocolate chips instead. Or roll leftover cake crumbs into small balls.
Notes
Notes: Use a sugar-free, gluten-free or grain-free cake to make this dessert low-carb and keto-friendly.
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