shhhh... My Pumpkin Whoopie Pie Recipe!

Just follow the Pumpkin Whoopie Pie recipe at allrecipes.com:

PUMPKIN  WHOOPIE  PIE

2 cups light brown sugar, packedl

  1 cup vegetable oil

    1 1/2 cups solid pack pumpkin puree (slightly less than a small can – measure!)

     2 eggs

     3 cups all-purpose flour

    1 teaspoon salt

    1 teaspoon baking powder

    1 teaspoon baking soda

    1 teaspoon vanilla extract

     1 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

    1/2 tablespoon ground ginger

11/2 tablespoon ground cloves

1.                      Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease baking sheets (or sized-to-sheet baking parchment, Reynolds No-Stick Foil).

2.                      Combine the oil and brown sugar. Mix in the pumpkin and eggs, beating well. Add the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, 1 teaspoon vanilla, cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Mix well.

3.                      Carefully spoon mounds (I use a tablespoon-size scoop) onto the prepared baking sheets. (Pumpkin Whoopies tend to keep the shape you see, so be especially careful.)  

      Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool, then make sandwiches with an equal amount of your favorite Whoopie Pie Filling (my favorite - Maple Cream).

Deev's Maple Cream (refrigerate) - use an electric mixer to blend 2 tablespoons confectioner's (10X) sugar with 1/2 brick Philadelphia Cream Cheese (room temp); then blend in 2 tablespoons genuine maple syrup (best quality you can afford);  finally, whip in a tub of thawed Cool Whip. 

FYI,,,,  Great for busy bakers, as these taste BEST at least 24 hours after assembling.  Store in the fridge in an air-tight container.  You can store in two layers BUT have a piece of NON-stick paper or foil in between.  Freeze like a dream!  I like to offer a variety of smallish (smaller scoop) whoopies - classic chocolate with fluff filling, pumpkin with maple cream, gingerbread with lemon cream - so it's great they age so beautifully.

Thank Heaven for Little Swirls!

A dandy video that shows how to make easy 2-color frosting swirls!

Nuts About NUTELLA

Adding a generous amount of Nutella to chocolate buttercream makes for a FABULOUS frosting on a mini cupcake.  Cap it off (literally) with about 1/2" of  a Pirouline (chocolate-hazelnut "cigarette" cookies;  currently available in the cookie aisle at Dollar Tree).

Transforms a simple cupcakes into something so delicious, so stylish, you'll feel like you should be on the Rue de la Paix!

Maple Buttermilk Pancake Cupcake with Bacon Frosting

I use this recipe for mini cupcakes, but am SURE it would be utterly decadent no matter what form it took!!

Maple Buttermilk Pancake Cupcakes

From Country Living Magazine

2 1/2 cups flour

2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1 stick or 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup light-brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/4 cups maple syrup

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup buttermilk

favorite butter cream frosting 

bacon, crisp cooked & diced (to your preference - I use as much as I can)

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat your oven 350 degrees F.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and ginger together. Set aside.

Then beat the butter and sugar on medium speed in a large bowl until they are fluffy. (Your butter must be soft!) Add in eggs, syrup and vanilla. Mix until blended.

Then mix in the flour mixture alternating with the buttermilk. Do about one-third of the flour and then one-third of the buttermilk, and so on.

Fill muffin or cupcake tins, either lined or buttered, according to your preference.

Cook for approximately 20 minutes or until your tester comes out clean. I use a steak knife.

Cool totally.  

I frost my minis with a light layer of plain butter cream (I add about 1 TBS bacon drippings), enough to hold onto the diced crisp bacon.  Basically the same instructions if you're making a sheet cake.  If I was making a layer cake, would go hog wild with the bacon, frosting the flat side of each layer than sandwiching with diced bacon in between AND including bacon all over the top & sides.  

AWESOME STORIES, indeed!!

I discovered awesomestories.com, a jewel of a site, back when I taught at-risk high schoolers.  Helped me add color to the historical & scientific men & women we encountered in our educational meanderings.

Still enjoy its simple language & fascinating tales.

EATER.com

Whether you enjoy good food, love to find the hottest or tucked-away spot, have guests in town or a special occasion on the horizon, or you're a full-fledged Foodie of the most addicted sort, eater.com is THE site to check out on a regular basis.

TIP ~ great place to go when life is drab & you need to add a dash of color & a soupcon of taste to your day!

A WHIRLWIND OF INSPIRATION!

So happy to have discovered June Phaff Daley's blog!! She apparently only posts about one creativity prompt per month - but loved each one!