This is hard for me to talk about, but I’m going to suck it up.  Remember last year when my husband and I won — gulp — “Best Presentation” in his office’s holiday baking contest?  That was a tough day for me.  But I’m strong.  I got back on that horse.  Ain’t nothing gonna break my stride. Nobody’s gonna slow me down. Oh no, I’ve got to keep on moving.  (The Men at Work totally understand.)

This year MY office had a baking competition for Halloween so I decided to redeem myself.  I had a secret weapon waiting for a moment like this.  Something so wonderful that I actually thought I could win.  What is this incredible treat? 

Pumpkin whoopie pies.  Oh yes.  Whoopie, indeed.

Let’s cut to the baking competition and then I’ll give you the deets on the recipe.  I should first say that I work in an office filled with fantastic cooks.  Office potlucks are amazing!  It is very intimidating, to say the least.  So when I arrived at the Halloween party to see a huge layer cake, a stack of homemade brownies, homemade caramel corn, homemade chocolate candies, and so much more deliciousness, I starting to lose my confidence.  At least if I lost, I was going to lose to some good looking food.

Staff cast their ballots and the ballot-counters went to work.  They returned to annouce… drum roll… “the winner is the whoopie pies!  Oh, and the cake!  There was a tie!”  YES!  So it was a tie, who cares!  I got first place!  I win (along with the girl who sits across the hall and made that really nice cake)!  Then… “So, Michelle… the tie breaker means that the Cake chef wins.  She made a few other things and they got votes too, so we decided that she should get the first prize.”  YOU CANNOT STEAL MY WIN, SOCIAL COMMITTEE!  But then I realized… first prize was a scary movie.  Second prize was a basket of chocolate Halloween candy.  Ehem… *fixing my hair and adjusting my top*  I will graciously take the second prize and head back to my office to enjoy it.  Alone.  Thankyouverymuch.

Truth be told, the best part was that people were coming up to me to tell me how awesome the whoopie pies were.  I don’t really like to bake but baked goods make people really happy, and that makes me really happy.  So fine.  I’ll bake.  With my husband’s help.  So I don’t screw up the recipe.

Mini Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Cake:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup pumpkin
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix all wet ingredients together and then add dry ingredients until smooth.  Yep, that’s it!

Spoon 1 measuring teaspoon circles onto non-stick baking sheet.  I used my little cookie scooper and it was perfect.  You use whatever you have.

Bake at 350 for about 7 minutes or until they’re cooked through. Mine took 9 minutes.  (This recipe is for mini-whoopie pies. Don’t be concerned if they look tiny on the pan, they’ll get much larger when baked.)

Cool completely!

Cream Cheese Filling:

• 4 ounces cream cheese
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar (I prefer a cream cheesier frosting, so I only used about 2/3 cup)

Mix cream cheese, butter and vanilla together. SLOWLY add powdered sugar until smooth.

I put the filling into a plastic bag and cut the corner off to “pipe” between the cooled cookies. It made it a lot less messy and it looked nicer.

My suggestion for serving: chill them.  I think the cream cheese frosting is best that way.  Plus, the cake part is really sticky but is less so when it is right out of the fridge.

(This recipe came from my Twitter buddy, @ApriFin, who got it from her coworker.  Thanks ladies!)