Sugar Swings! Serve Some: whoopie pies and a blogoversary giveaway.....!

Monday, February 21, 2011

whoopie pies and a blogoversary giveaway.....!


whoopie pies

....so one of my new year resolutions was to make more stuff with less artificial dyes and to make more stuff using natural dyes....the first attempt was here....red velvet cake made "red" with beet juice....

whoopie pies

.....and whoopie pies are just plain fun....made them before here and the chocolate were everyone's absolute fav.....this recipe seems pretty perfect (although for full disclosure, i have only made them once before and have not tried any other chocolate whoopie pie recipes to compare)....but these are super simple to make....and don't let the batter scare you....it's a little thinner than you would expect.....but they baked up great.....


...the frosting is a vanilla buttercream tinted with india tree natural decorating colors that i've been eyeing at whole foods for awhile.....they are way pricier than regular food colorings but i finally bit the bullet and got them.....

...they are made from vegetable colorants and it comes in a pack of 3 with red (beet), yellow (curcumin) and blue (red cabbage)....they are not gels like wilton or americolor food gels....but more liquid-y.....and the yellow seemed like it's in oil and you really need to shake that one up....(see pic below)....

...added about 5 drops to about 1-2 cups of frosting....and these are the colors you get.....light yellow, pink, and a pretty lavender color....the peach was made by mixing the yellow and pink that was leftover.....you definitely won't get a deep red, yellow, or blue easily with these colorants....but it will work nicely for soft pastel colors....(very nice with easter coming up soon......!).....think i'm going to experiment with some vegetable powders as well to see what colors you can get with those.....not giving up using the other food color gels since i doubt you can get really deep primary colors without them....but may use these in between....!...and i pretend the frosting is really not that bad for you with these mixed in....so you can eat an extra 1 or 2 or 10....!

whoopie pies

....and since it's my "blogoversary" (woo hoo!) on the 22nd....i'm giving away another set of the india tree natural decorating colors....!..just leave a comment and you're entered...! (If you decide to follow the blog or on FB (or now on twitter @sugarswings) even better but not required!)..constructive feedback welcomed too!.....i'll pick a comment randomly on March 1st.....

......i'd love to send these to you and see what goodies you can bake up with them....! (addresses only in the US, sorry!)...and if you have had luck with other natural food colorants/dyes....i'd love to hear about that as well....!

...thank thank thank you to everyone that reads the blog....it's kinda cheaper than therapy for me....and i enjoy it way more than i anticipated....! now off to enjoy a whoopie pie for the special day.... :)

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8 comments :

  1. I've never seen these dyes before. The pies look delish!

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  2. I have always been too intimidated by whoopie pies, but I love that you posted a pre-baked picture! I'm really excited to try these now. Thanks for all the great ideas you post.

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  3. if i get chosen, can i just have that 6-pack of whoopie pies? :) keep up the great work!

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  4. Thanks for visiting! I love your blog, you're so creative! And these dyes are too cool. I'm now following here and facebook too :)

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  5. Mmmmmm Woopie pies mmmmm (said in a homer simpson voice)

    I think these colors are quite pretty and would be great for spring and Easter. Probably right about the more saturated colors though.

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  6. Yum!! The colored dies would be wonderful for decorating Easter goodies

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  7. Your whoopie pies look delicious. Now I have to go into the kitchen and back some.

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  8. Those whoopie pies look very tasty. I'd like to invite you to stop by and link your whoopie pies up to Sweets for a Saturday #6 (link will be open till tomorrow night). http://sweet-as-sugar-cookies.blogspot.com/2011/02/sweets-for-saturday-6.html

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