Making Whoopie Pies!!

I had to laugh when I titled this post "Making Whoopie Pies."  I almost titled it "Making Whoopie", and then thought that probably sounded a little dirty... and totally inappropriate from a mom who blogs mostly about her girls....

It seems like Whoopie Pies are everywhere these days.  I see them advertised at my gas station of all places, they're featured in magazines!  Featured on blogs!  So, I decided they must be really really awesome, and when I saw the recipe in my February Family Fun magazine, I knew I had to get my little baker and get to baking.

So we did!  And we learned a lot!  First lesson to learn?  READ ALL THE DIRECTIONS THOROUGHLY!  Remember in 5th grade where you get a paper that has all these questions on it, and you answer away and think "wow, I'm SO going to ace this quiz!"  Then when you get to the bottom, the last question said "do not answer any of these questions, and turn into the teacher now."  gulp  Oops.  FAILED big time!

Now, I am trying to teach Maddie how to read a recipe, and when I realized that we were doing it incorrectly, it was a great teaching experience.  Now I hung my head in shame....  and happily, they still turned out wonderfully! 

I was practicing my photography with my camera on manual -- so I used this opportunity to snap pictures of Maddie in action.

we did an "oops" here.....

I love all the flour on her face!

You can get the recipe complete with pictures on the Family Fun website, but I transferred it over for you as well.

 Cake

• 2 cups flour
• ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ cup softened butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg

FILLING

• ½ cup softened butter
• 1½ cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 cup marshmallow crème
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• Red food coloring (optional)

1)  Heat the oven to 350°. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2)  In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. In a glass measuring cup or small bowl, stir together the buttermilk and vanilla extract.

3)  In a large bowl with a hand mixer set at medium speed, beat the butter and sugar until evenly blended, about 1 to 2 minutes. Add the egg, increase the speed to high, and beat until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute more.

4)   Pour half the flour mixture into the butter-sugar mixture, and beat at medium speed until combined. Add the buttermilk mixture and continue beating until just blended. Add the remaining flour mixture and beat again.

5)  Use a cookie scoop or spoon to place a heaping tablespoon of batter on a prepared cookie sheet. Add more mounds of batter, evenly spacing them, until there are nine on each sheet. Slightly flatten each mound with a spoon.

 6)  Bake the cakes one sheet at a time for 10 minutes (they should be moist and spongy). Let them cool on the sheet for 2 minutes, then carefully transfer them to a rack to cool completely. Reline the sheets and scoop, shape, and bake the remaining batter.

7)  Using an electric mixer at medium-high speed, beat all the filling ingredients except the coloring in a medium bowl until evenly blended, about 2 minutes. If you want to give the filling a Valentine hue, fold in drops of red food coloring until the desired tint is reached.
 
8)  To make each pie, spoon and spread a heaping tablespoon of the filling onto the bottom of a cake, then gently press another cake on top.