Speedbump Kitchen: November 2011

Thanksgiving baking is in full swing here. I always bring pies, rolls and cranberry relish to the family dinner and this year, I'm on top of it! The pie crusts and fillings are all prepped, stored in the fridge and waiting to be assembled for baking on Thursday. The roll dough is in the freezer, the relish is "melding". It seems like all those years of failed allergy baking experiments have finally borne fruit, and I can confidently face Thanksgiving dinner.
But I'm not one to rest on my laurels. I have a terrible weakness and curiosity that pushes me to try something new. I had an extra couple cans of pumpkin that were just begging for a home, and these mini treats are just perfect. They also freeze wonderfully, so eat half and put the other half in the freezer for a little lunchbox dessert.

Mini Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Maple Cream Cheese Filling
Makes 30 mini pies

2 1/2 cups white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
dash cloves

1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup oil
1 29 ounce can pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla

1.) Preheat oven to 350.
2.) Whisk the white flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt & spices in a large mixing bowl.
3.) Whisk the sugars, oil, pumpkin and vanilla together in a medium mixing bowl.
4.) Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and carefully blend together.
5.) Scoop 2 tablespoon sized blobs of dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet. I have a #40 sized food scoop that is indispensable. It's the perfect size for cookies.
6.) Bake for 15-18 minutes or until the tops are fully set and edges are slightly browning. This is a case you don't want to underbake, and should err on the side of overbaking...otherwise the cookies get really sticky and doughy.
7.) Cool completely before filling.

Maple Cream Cheese Filling
(you'll have a bit extra to spread on graham crackers later)

1 tub Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese
1 stick dairy-free margarine, I use Fleischmann's Unsalted Margarine.
2 Tablespoons maple syrup
5 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Dairy-free milk as needed

1.) Cream the Tofutti cream cheese and margarine together until fluffy.
2.) Add the maple syrup and beat again.
3.) Slowly add the powdered sugar.
4.) Add the vanilla at the end.
5.) If the filling seems too thick, add a few splashes of soy/rice/coconut milk.

You can make a half batch of this very easily. Just use the smaller 14 oz sized can of pumpkin, eyeball a half tub of Toffutti and cut all the ingredients in half. You're smart, you can do it.

Vegan Pumpkin Whoopie Pie Recipe, Dairy-free Pumpkin Whoopie Pie Recipe, Egg-free Pumpkin Whoopie Pie Recipe, Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe, Dairy-Free Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe.

This cake is so much fun! I was in a serious time crunch this year for the girls' 7 & 9 year birthday party, so I needed something using basic ingredients with minimal decoration and no fondant! Thankfully I stumbled across this Rainbow Cake from fellow Michigan blogger, Whisk Kid, at the Nth hour.
The party theme this year was a Construction Site Carnival. We're under construction with a dumpster in the front yard and a front-end loader in the back...so I just decided to work with it. Scaffolding worked well for the concession stand, construction debris made adventure golf more fun, gravel piles and lumber came in handy as well.
The important thing about making this cake, is making it after hours or when the kids are out of the house so they can't see the process. Cutting it has to be a surprise. My girls were VERY concerned about the cake. They saw the plain white cake and kept asking me "are you SURE you're done decorating?" Katie was concerned enough that she went into the garden and picked raspberries to put on top. The gasps and glee when the cake was opened...priceless.

Awesome Rainbow Cake
I've made this a few times now, with bright colors and with pastels. It would be great with green and red batter for Christmas, or blue and red batter for 4th of July!

2 3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups soymilk + 2 teaspoons vinegar, set aside to thicken
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2/3 cup oil
1 Tablespoon vanilla

Gel Food Coloring (I use Wilton)
1.) Preheat oven to 350.
2.) I only have two 8-inch round cake pans, these cook quickly, so it works fine. Trace your pans onto some parchment paper and cut out 6 rounds.
3.) Whisk the flour, powder, soda and salt together in a big bowl.
3.) Mix the thickened soymilk, sugar, oil and vanilla together.
4.) Add about 1/2 the liquid into the dry ingredients, and beat it pretty well. Yes, I know beating causes gluten formation and a potentially tough cake, but this is a case where you can't have lumps or you cake is speckled with white. Add the second half of the liquid and fold in gently. I really screwed this up the first time, had tons of lumps and had to run the batter through a sieve/food mill. Hopefully you have better luck, but the sieve option is there as a back up.
5.) Using a scale, divide the batter up into 6 equal portions. I did this by zeroing out a big empty bowl, adding the batter to determine total batter weight. Then divide total batter weight by 6 and measure out 6 portions to color.
6.) Color them up! Gel color works much better here than regular drops, which don't have nearly the color options or vibrancy.
7.) Line each 8-inch pan with parchment and spray with cooking spray.
8.) Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the center is set.
9.) Carefully remove cake from pan to a cooling rack, add a new parchment liner to the pan, re-spray and cook the next layer color.
10.) Frost & build the cake once all the layers are cooled. I was impatient the first time around, and started stacking warm layers. The frosting started to melt in between the layers and the whole thing started sliding all over the place. Oops.

Vanilla Frosting
1 cup shortening
1 cup dairy-free margarine (I use Fleischmann's Unsalted Margarine)
7 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
pinch of salt
1/4-1/2 cup soy milk

1.) Beat the heck out of the shortening and margarine until fluffy and well blended.
2.) Add the powdered sugar slowly.
3.) Add vanilla and salt.
4.) Add the soymilk until the right thickness is achieved.