Makin' Whoopie (Pies, that is)

Finally. After all these years, I've made a whoopie pie. Well, a couple of dozen whoopie pies. If you've never had one, think Devil Dog. But better because it's homemade! So, here is one way to make them. You can change up the filling by adding flavorings like mint extract or by blending in your favorite jam. You could also make up a batch of cannoli cream or whipped cream if the ingredients below sound a bit excessive.

Without further ado...the whoopie pie:

Ingredients for cakes:

1 c sugar
1 egg
1/2 c butter, softened
3/4 c cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
2 c flour
1 c buttermilk (you can use the powdered buttermilk or plan to make Irish soda bread, too)

Ingredients for filling:

3/4 c butter, softened
1 c confectioner's sugar
1 1/2 c Marshmallow Fluff
2 tsp vanilla extract*

Preheat oven to 375.

Beat egg, sugar, butter and vanilla until creamy (about 2-3 minutes). In a second bowl, mix cocoa powder, baking soda, flour & salt. Alternating ingredients, add the flour mixture and the buttermilk to the butter mixture until all ingredients are combined. It should have the consistency of a thick-ish cake batter, not solid cookie batter.

Grease baking sheets and drop batter onto sheets in scant 1 tbsp drops. The batter will spread while cooking but should stay put when you drop it! Leave room for expansion. (I learn these things so you don't have to.) Bake for 7-9 minutes. You can test with a toothpick like you would for cake. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack to cool. (No, really, even if you never do this, you should this time.)

You'll get about 40-48 cookie cakes. (Which are yummy on their own, so take care to not eat an odd number of them!)

Mix up filling ingredients until well-blended. (Make any changes like mint extract or orange extract for the vanilla extract.)

Drop filling mixture onto one 'inside' edge of a cake and squish down with second cake, making a sandwich.

You can definitely see the possibilities in how many different flavors you could have as filling. You can also switch up the cakes as well using a variety of different cake flavors. Spice cake with maple filling?

* Note for readers in other countries- extract=essence. So if you usually buy vanilla essence, that's what extract is here in the US.

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