Every holiday deserves a cookie in my book.

Others may associate Halloween with hermetically sealed commercial candy. I think of the cookies frosted in orange icing that my mother and I made when I was a child.

She would roll out the dough and I would help cut out the rounds and bake them. When they were cool, we would frost them with orange buttercream and decorate them with raisins to make jack-o-lantern faces. Then we would pack them up, two at a time, in waxed paper sandwich bags to give to the trick-or-treaters who knocked on our door.

My father was in the service at the time and, although we moved every two years, we usually lived on or near a base in a community with other Navy families. Everyone knew everyone else and no one worried about sickos putting razor blades in apples or drugs in candy at Halloween. The sacks of little wannabe witches and pirates were stuffed with homemade cookies, popcorn balls and caramel apples.

One of my fondest memories revolves around Halloween and my mother’s cookies. I was four years old and recuperating from an illness. Mom decided I couldn’t go trick-or-treating and I was devastated, but she had a plan. We had made cookies as usual and I passed them out to the littlest kids, who arrived early in the evening. Once the first wave had passed, Mom closed the door, turned off all the lights and we crept into the bedroom – with a plate of cookies. While older tricksters roamed the neighborhood, we sat in the dark, eating cookies and telling stories. It was the best Halloween ever.

My tastes have matured a bit since then. I no longer consider raisin faces the peak of artistic expression. But I still love cookies. So I created these pumpkin cookies in honor of that Halloween years ago. This time, there’s really pumpkin in the soft, cake-like rounds spiced with cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg. The fluffy icing contains cream cheese and orange zest for even more flavor.

It’s too bad treats like these are no longer acceptable as goodies for young ghosts and goblins. Still, they’re just the thing for a Halloween party. With their classic fall flavors, they also could star at any holiday event between now and January. Enjoy.