Right now in America, it feels like everything is pumpkin spiced this October. You can now buy everything from coffee, cookies, crisps, hummus (why), yogurt, even chewing gum that is flavored with that familiar fall spice. It seems like adding the term ‘pumpkin spice’ has some magical sales enhancing factor for food companies. In general I find most pumpkin spiced products to be very sweet and sickly. However the idea of real pumpkin spice is much more appealing. It’s a simple mix of cinnamon, ginger, allspice, cloves, mace, and nutmeg. It’s not really a thing in Europe, but if you do want to make your own pumpkin spice, the Kitchn has a great recipe.
So, with this recipe for real pumpkin spice in mind, I decided to make pumpkin spice whoopie pie, which are definitely more subtly spiced than most recipes I’ve seen. When I tasted the cakes straight from the oven, they reminded me of carrot cake! That inspired me to sandwich my pies together with the same delicious citrusy frosting that is generally used on carrot cakes. These whoopie pies were now perfect, and have changed the way I feel about the whole pumpkin spice craze.
Makes about 10 pies – depending on size
Ingredients
- 100g of butter, melted
- 100g of brown sugar
- 200g of cooked and pureed pumpkin (you can use tinned)
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 tablespoon of pumpkin spice mix
- ¼ teaspoon of vanilla
- 250g of flour
- 1 teaspoon of baking powder
- 1 teaspoon of baking soda
Filling
- 100g of cream cheese
- 50g of butter, softened slightly
- 50g of icing sugar
- Grated zest of one orange
- ½ teaspoon of lemon juice
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180C or 350F
- Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. I don’t have a whoopie pie tin, so I draw circles on the parchment paper, so that each whoppie pie would roughly be the same size.
- Using an electric beaters or food processor, beat together the melted butter and brown sugar until smooth.
- Next, add the pumpkin puree, eggs, vanilla and pumpkin spice and beat together until well combined.
- Sieve the flour, baking powder and baking soda into the mixture.
- Fold the flour into the batter using a spatula.
- I piped the mixture to get a nice even shape – spoon the batter into a piping bag with a large round nozzle and pipe the mixture onto the circles on the parchment paper.*You could easily use a tablespoon to place the mixture onto the parchment paper if you don’t have a piping bag.
- Place the pies in the oven and cook for about 10 minutes. To test if they are cooked, prod then lightly with your finger and the cake should spring back when cooked.
- Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool.
- As the pies are cooling, whip the butter and cream cheese together in a large bowl.
- Add the icing sugar, zest and lemon juice and whip until smooth.
- Spread the frosting on the flat side of half the pies. Then, sandwich with the remaining pies.
