Halloween pumpkin whoopie pies with cream cheese frosting filling

Combine the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ground ginger and ground clove; whisk about half a minute until evenly combined and set aside.

Whisk the pumpkin puree, brown sugar, egg and vegetable oil until evenly combined and smooth.

Optionally add two or three drops of orange food coloring so the baked cookies stay pumpkin orange rather than tan.

Whisk the dry and wet ingredients together into a fairly loose batter.

Portion onto a lined sheet pan with a sorbet scoop or rounded tablespoons; round and flatten slightly with a wet finger.

Bake the bottoms in the upper centre of a 350 degree oven about 18 minutes, until the outside edges turn barely golden brown.

Cool on the pan 10 to 15 minutes, then move to a cooling rack.

For the tops, mix a generous amount of brown or black food coloring into extra batter, transfer to a piping bag with a very fine tip (or a zip top bag with the corner snipped) and pipe Halloween designs, such as spiderwebs or jack-o'-lantern faces, onto portioned batter.

Bake the tops at the same temperature for the same time; cool completely on a rack.

Beat the cream cheese with room-temperature unsalted butter, milk, vanilla extract and powdered sugar with an electric mixer or whisk until smooth and creamy; chill a little so it firms before piping.

Spread filling on a bottom cookie, not all the way to the edge; top with a design cookie and squeeze gently until the filling just reaches the edge.

Refrigerate the finished whoopie pies before serving for better taste and texture; stacked, they tend to stick.