Wow, what a weekend! Sorry I’ve been kind of MIA on the weekends lately; somehow they seem to fly by. I’ve been eating a lot these past few days, so instead of boring you with way too many details I’ll do a recap of last night’s Halloween festivities, with a recipe that you won’t want to miss!

The day started bright and early with the search for a costume for me. The past few weeks I refused to be bothered with costume talk and said I was just going to put on my back-up devil horns and tail and wear all black. Of course the day before the party, with everyone around me super excited, I got the Halloween bug. Once Adam and I were at the iParty store I got so many ideas and actually ended up wearing my costume for the majority of the day (running errands and all ). [If you're impatient, scroll down to see my costume, otherwise let's talk about the yummy food ]

The party hosts mentioned they’d like me to bake something. I had dozens of recipes bookmarked but at the end settled on making pumpkin whoopie pies with cream cheese frosting. My co-worker sent me the recipe on Friday, saying I had to make them because they were the best thing she’s ever had in her life. That’s a hard review! Here is the recipe. Yes, they were fantastic!!!

Ingredients

For the pumpkin whoopie cookies:

· 3 cups all-purpose flour

· 1 teaspoon salt

· 1 teaspoon baking powder

· 1 teaspoon baking soda

· 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

· 1 tablespoon ground ginger

· 1 tablespoon ground cloves

· 2 cups firmly packed dark-brown sugar

· 1 cup vegetable oil

· 3 cups pumpkin puree, chilled

· 2 large eggs

· 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the cream cheese filling:

· 3 cups confectioners’ sugar

· 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

· 8 ounces cream cheese, softened

· 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. Make the cookies: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat; set aside.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves; set aside. In another large bowl, whisk together brown sugar and oil until well combined. Add pumpkin puree and whisk until combined. Add eggs and vanilla and whisk until well combined. Sprinkle flour mixture over pumpkin mixture and whisk until fully incorporated.

3. Using a small ice cream scoop with a release mechanism*, drop heaping tablespoons of dough onto prepared baking sheets, about 1 inch apart. Transfer to oven and bake until cookies are just starting to crack on top and a toothpick inserted into the center of each cookie comes out clean, about 15 minutes. Let cool completely on pan.

4. Make the filling: Sift confectioner’ sugar into a medium bowl; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter until smooth. Add cream cheese and beat until well combined. Add confectioners’ sugar and vanilla, beat just until smooth. (Filling can be made up to a day in advance. Cover and refrigerate; let stand at room temperature to soften before using.)

5. Assemble the whoopie pies: Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. Transfer filling to a disposable pastry bag and snip the end. When cookies have cooled completely, pipe a large dollop of filling on the flat side of half of the cookies. Sandwich with remaining cookies, pressing down slightly so that the filling spreads to the edge of the cookies. Transfer to prepared baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate cookies at least 30 minutes before serving and up to 3 days.

*This recipe makes 12 large whoopie pies if you use an ice cream scoop. I used a medium cookie scoop (leveling off against the bowl) and this recipe yielded 33 mini whoopie pies. Perfect for a party! The result:

The cake was so moist and the filling was absolutely delicious. Cream cheese frosting is the best! I think you may be able to cut the sugar by a bit even. I may try that next time. Here is another pic of one of the babies, in more natural lighting. I can tell you that I had about a million of them by now and they are really amazing.

THE PARTY FOOD

The hosts apparently asked everyone to bake because there were SO many sweets. Very dangerous for someone who has no self control around baked goods and candy. Here is most of the stuff – so festive!

I will not go into details about what I ate; honestly because I don’t remember. I tried most things and enjoyed them all. I had a few of my own whoopie pies too. These things are addictive!!!

THE COSTUMES

There were some really creative costumes. I decided to go as a hippie and was happy with how it came out.

Such a fun weekend!!

Did you dress up for Halloween? What was your favorite treat?