Ready for my “not quite colonial” recipes from our Declaration of Independence-inspired party?

Gingerbread Whoopie Pies

I intended to make a recipe from my friend Heather at Chickabug, but then I discovered gingerbread mix. I’m like water  – I choose the path of least resistance.

So here’s my semi-homemade version:

Buy Betty Crocker Gingerbread Cake & Cookie Mix. Make the cookie recipe. Scoop dough with a soup spoon and roll into balls (maybe ping pong ball sized?). Then roll your ball in granulated sugar. Put on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Don’t flatten the balls. Cook for the minimum time recommended. Let cool completely.

Buy a tub of vanilla buttercream frosting. Cut a hole in one corner of a tiptop bag. Push a large piping tip though the hole. Scoop in your frosting. Pipe onto the flat side of your gingerbread cookie. Sandwich another cookie on top. Makes 7 whoopie pies.

Simplified Orange Raisin Cake

For the real deal, try this recipe for Orange Kiss-Me Cake. My food processor doesn’t like me, so I wasn’t going to be grinding an orange. This is what I came up with instead. Everybody liked it, and I think these would be yummy breakfast muffins.

Makes: 40 mini muffins

2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

2 eggs

¼ cup orange juice

1 cup golden raisins

1/3 cup walnuts

1 . Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray mini muffin tins with cooking spray.

2 . Lightly spoon flour into measuring cup; level off. In large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, milk, butter and eggs at low speed until moistened. Beat 3 minutes at medium speed.

3. Incorporate orange juice, raisins and walnuts.

4. Pour scant 1/8 cup batter into each mini muffin tin, being sure to get walnuts and raisins in each scoop.

5. Bake at 350°F. for 15 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

6. Cool 5 minutes in tins and then transfer to baking rake until completely cooled.

Grandma’s Apple Pie

This pie was the main attraction at our dessert table. (I may or may not have eaten the last piece straight from the pie plate.) I’ve seen many apple pie recipes that are more involved, but why mess with simple perfection?

4 cups sliced apples

1 cup sugar

5 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 pie crusts

Line pie plate with pastry. Mix sugar, flour and cinnamon together and sprinkle about two tablespoons on bottom of crust. Mix remaining flour, sugar and cinnamon with apples, coating apples thoroughly. Put apple mixture in bottom crust, being sure that apples are evenly distributed and are lying flat around the edges. Apply top crust that has been slotted four or five times.

Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 375 degrees until done, 35 to 40 minutes.

Grandma’s Pie Crust

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

¾ cup butter-flavor Crisco

¼ cup boiling water

1 tablespoon milk

Sift flour and salt. Blend with Crisco until small lumps appear. Poke holes in dry ingredients and add water and milk. Mix until dough forms a ball and sides of bowl are clean. Quickly knead dough slightly and divide in half. Roll out each half between sheets of lightly floured wax paper. Makes two pie crusts.

I used a cookie cutter to cut out two small stars. Then I brushed the crust with an egg wash, put the cut out stars on the crust, and sprinkled it with sugar.

Revolutionary War Balls

I found a thread on Food.com about colonial era food. Read this recipe and tell me this doesn’t sound pretty darn close to cinnamon donut holes. I took myself to Dunkin’ Donuts for these.

1 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 c. milk
1 pinch salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 big dash nutmeg
3 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
Powdered sugar
Cinnamon sugar

Mix first eight ingredients. Drop by tablespoon in hot fat. While warm, roll in sugar or cinnamon mixture. Militiamen carried them during the Revolutionary War.

Hasty Pudding Push-Up Pops

These were a hit and super easy. The only thing they have in common with Hasty Pudding is the word “pudding.”

Buy and defrost a pound cake. Buy chocolate pudding cups (the kind that doesn’t have to be refrigerated). Slice the pound cake long-ways into four sections. Use one of your push-up pops to cut out circles of pound cake.

Put one piece of pound cake in the bottom of your push-up pop. Blop in some pudding, then wipe down the edges of the push-up pop. (You could pipe this in.) Repeat with another layer of cake and pudding. Top with a third circle of cake. Pipe some of the frosting left over from your whoopie pies on top. Done!

And don’t forget…

Be sure to enter our GIVEAWAY to enter the Stars & Stripes collection from Squared Party Printables that I used at my party! It ends Friday, June 8, 2012, at midnight ET.

Vendor Credits

Party styling: Double the Fun Parties

Photography: Viridian Images Photography

Printables: Squared Party Printables