Baking the Night Away

Today is the annual bake sale at my daughter's school which means I did a lot of baking yesterday.  Now, I love to bake, it is truly one of my very favorite hobbies.  The problem is that things go so much smoother in my mind when I am planning to bake than they do in the actual kitchen.  I always underestimate how much time it is going to take.  I thought I would crank out a couple of dozen treats and have them individually wrapped in about an hour.  In reality, it was more like three hours (not counting the time it took to clean the kitchen!).  In my fantasies, I have the perfect little assembly line with nary a speck of flour in the wrong spot.  But in reality, EVERYTHING ends up covered in flour, with not an inch of extra counter space.  Sigh.  In the end though, it was worth it- these little puppies turned out delicious!

Here is what I made:

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies (recipe from Betty Crocker.com)

Cookies

1	pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker® sugar cookie mix
1	tablespoon Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1/2	cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
1/3	cup butter or margarine, softened
2	teaspoons ground cinnamon
1	egg

Filling

2/3	cup marshmallow creme (from 7-oz jar)
1/3	cup butter or margarine, softened
2/3	cup powdered sugar

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1. Heat oven to 375°F. In large bowl, stir together cookie mix and flour. Add remaining cookie ingredients; stir until stiff dough forms.
2. Onto ungreased cookie sheets, drop dough by 36 rounded teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart. Lightly press tops with floured fingertips to flatten slightly.
3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until set. Cool 2 minutes; remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks. Cool completely, about 15 minutes.
4. In medium bowl, beat filling ingredients with electric mixer until light and fluffy. For each whoopie pie, spread about 2 teaspoons of the filling on bottom of 1 cooled cookie. Top with second cookie, bottom side down; gently press together. Store tightly covered in refrigerator. Sprinkle with additional powdered sugar just before serving.

These are so good!  I wanted to do something a little different than the traditional chocolate chip cookie or cupcake, so I searched around for something and stumbled across these.  They were actually really easy to make.  You can find completely from scratch recipes online, but I was going for the quickest, easiest route.  I made two different fillings: the marshmallow creme and a cream cheese filling.  Yum!

Here are some of the finished treats, all wrapped up and tied with a pretty bow!

I made a few extra for the family.  I sent the ones with the marshmallow creme to school and kept the ones with the cream cheese filling at home. 

The cream cheese filling made them taste just like a pumpkin roll.  Yummy!

I even made a cute little sign for my treats with some leftover scrapbook paper I had.  I know, I'm a nerd.

Tonight is the annual "Cougar Bash" at my daughter's school.  It is a fundraising event with food, games, and a silent auction.  Last year I bid on and won one of the silent auction gift baskets.  It was Christmas themed and included a homemade rag wreath, a gift certificate for a pedicure, and one of THESE pretty bracelets.  Maybe I'll get lucky and get the winning bid on another neat basket this year!

Have a great weekend!!

Trunk or Treat

We had "Trunk or Treat" at our church last night, and it was so much fun!  Lots of games, food, and fun with friends.  I didn't get as many pictures as I had intended.  I was busy chasing a little monkey around!  Here are my kiddos costumes.

Abby is a "fancy" black cat.  Everything this girl does has to be fancy.  Sigh.  I made the tutu and it turned out really cute but in this picture it is sticking to her shirt.  I finally used a little Static Guard to make it lay right.

True to his nickname, Wyatt is a monkey this year.  Love the little banana in his pocket!

Sorry, I used the flash in this picture and it looks awful.  But is this not the cutest little black cat and monkey you've ever seen?!

We got some cute pictures at Trunk or Treat of some sweet friends.

Look at this cute conductor in his "train".  How creative is that?  He even had a train whistle!

How precious is this little sweetie?  I could just eat her with a spoon!  This is train conductor's baby sister (pictured here with her grandma).  Her mama made this cute tutu and bow!

What a sweet family!  Love the cute little giraffe! 

Abby, Wyatt, and "Dr. Parker" enjoying lots of candy!

Mama's little monkey!

Mama's "fancy" black cat!

Batman even showed up at our Trunk or Treat!  Terrible picture, I know, but there was a lot of movement.  Superheroes are busy!

I'm glad my kids got to trick or treat last night because they are home sick this morning.  : (  I don't know if we will ever be well at the Tolliver house!  They've been on antibiotics for 4 days but still have lingering, hacking coughs.  I was up all night with Abby because she was coughing and this morning Wyatt coughed so hard he threw up.  At the breakfast table.  Ugh, poor baby!  I'm calling the doctor first thing in the morning to see about getting some cough syrup so we can get some rest around here. 

We will have to miss the Chili Cook-Off after services this morning but I did send my dessert with Casey.  I decided to make a chocolate chip cookie cake. 

I decided to keep it really simple and only use chocolate and vanilla frostings so I wouldn't have to tint a lot of buttercream.  I found the bat template online and just piped around then filled it in. 

Have a safe, fun Halloween!!