Vegan Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Cream Cheese Filling

Vegan pumpkin whoopie pies are soft and pillowy cakes spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger, and filled with delicious, sweet vanilla cream. They make a wonderful treat with a fall twist, especially when served with a glass of hot chocolate or tea.

They are also easy and budget-friendly to make. Just make sure you don’t overmix the batter, plus that you let the cakes cool completely, before adding the filling.

You can also play around with this recipe to customize it to your own taste:

• Use whole wheat flour for the pies and cut the sugar in the filling in half, for a healthier version
• Or make the filling even sweeter with more powdered sugar
• For the filling, you can use homemade or store-bought cream cheese. Cashew, tofu, or starch-based cheeses work well here
• Instead of store-bought egg replacer use flax eggs or apple sauce
• Play around with the spicing - use less pumpkin spice mix, or more cinnamon; or add extra cardamom or vanilla, if you like
• You can also spice the cream cheese filling with pumpkin spice, cinnamon, or a splash of rum
• Or do something completely different, and use some jam or chocolate icing as a filling
• You can also experiment with the size of these. Make mini whoopie pies, or some extra large once to share
• Decorate these with a little caramel stem and some leaves to resemble a mini pumpkin

Prep time: 20 minutes
Bake time: 12 minutes

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Makes 30-35 whoopee pies

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups plant milk
• 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 2.5 cups of pumpkin puree
• 1/3 cup of vegetable oil
• 3 cups of flour
• 1 cup of brown sugar
• 1/3 cup of white sugar
• 2 tbsp egg replacer powder
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tbsp pumpkin spice (or use cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves)
• salt

For the filling:

• 1.5 cups vegan cream cheese
• 1/2 cup vegan butter
• 2 cups of powdered sugar (or more)
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F/180 C.
2. To make vegan buttermilk combine plant milk and vinegar. Let stand for a few minutes, until it thickens and curdles.
3. Once it thickened, add pumpkin puree and vegetable oil, and whisk to get a smooth mix.
4. In a large bowl mix together flour, brown and white sugar, egg replacer, baking soda, baking powder, pumpkin spice, and a pinch of salt.
5. Add buttermilk-pumpkin mix to the flour mixture, and stir to combine. Don’t overmix, but make sure there are no lumps.
6. Using a piping bag pipe out small circles onto a prepared baking sheet. Make sure you leave some space in-between.
7. Bake for about 12 minutes, or until slightly puffed and golden brown.
8. Let cool completely before removing them from the pan.
9. While cakes are cooling, prepare the filling. Using a whisk mix together cream cheese and butter. Add sugar, maple syrup and vanilla, and whip until fluffy and creamy. Taste, and add more sugar, if needed.
10. Once cakes are cold, spread the filling onto half of them, then top with the other halves.