Excellent recipe! I made it for Christmas dinner and received rave reviews! I made two changes: I used yams, not sweet potatoes, and quite a bit more than the recipe called for (5 large yams, which came to probably 7 or 8 cups, rather than 4). I also kept the pecans whole, rather than chopped, which made it look really elegant. Everyone loved it -- I've already been asked to bring it next year. Thanks!

Reviewed On: Dec. 26, 2012

Just nibbling on my first bite out of the oven. These are delicious! Plenty spicy IMO, and we have pretty heavy spice-tolerance in our household. I substituted 1 stick unsalted butter for the margarine called for by the recipe, and I did use blackstrap molasses, which IMO makes these marvelous and rich flavored -- but I tend to prefer my cookies with a little 'bite' of bitterness (think Oreos without the filling), so the blackstrap was great for that. Healthy, too. You definitely can't skip the chilling-in-the-fridge stage, or the dough is too sticky, but with a very small dusting of flour, the chilled dough rolled out beautifully. Remember not to roll it too thin, too, because your cookies will be crispy and brittle; thicker cookies are better here. This one's going into the annual-recipes box!!! Thanks!

Reviewed On: Dec. 15, 2012

This was lovely, quick and easy. I left the milk out in order to have a stiffer frosting. Worked beautifully for piping. I made 1.5 times this recipe -- 3 cups sugar, 3/4 cup butter. It was JUST enough to cover 2 layers of a 9-inch round cake, with a tiny bit left over for piping. If you're doing a lot of piping (multiple colors, etc.), you might want to make a double batch. Definitely keeping this one for future cake-baking; no more store-bought frosting for me!!!

Reviewed On: Jan. 17, 2012