Whoopie!

I’ve been enjoying my attempts to do something new most days. This week it was a double whammy of a new recipe technique and a new knitting pattern. 

I was given a book of Whoopie Pie recipes for Christmas and thought a bit of experimentation and delectation was in order for Valentines celebration. I turned my hand to the Red Velvet Whoopie Pie recipe but they sadly didn’t turn out quite as luridly ruby coloured as I had hoped.

 

In my generosity to the human spirit, I can attest that Whoopie Pies are scrumptiously moist, terrifyling morish, not in the least bit good for the belly, and fantastically great for the mood! They are not biscuits, they are not cookies, they are not cupcakes. They are moist cake-pats that bring all the best elements of cupcakes into a little sandwich, traditionally claimed to make them more lunchbox-friendly by the Pennsylvania Dutch.

Cake batter is spooned flat onto sheets and then icing is sandwiched between two of the cake layers for little handheld morsels.

In my experimentation I discovered a few good tips:

• Whoopie pie mix is thicker than cupcake mix and thinner than cookie batter. It self-circles pretty well on the baking sheet so you only have to be a little bit delicate when splodging out the batter.
• The pie pieces are quite sticky so best not to pile them on the cooling tray in layers. Storage in between kitchen paper was better than baking parchment too as the paper absorbed extra moisture better than the parchment did
• Buttercream freezes BEAUTIFULLY! I had a load left from Tilly’s birthday cake so I put it in a freezer bag and threw it in a freezer drawer, hoping for the best. Returned the bag to the fridge the night before the bake-off and there was no separation, curdling, lumpiness or any other problems that I’d feared. Well worth remembering as it can be a bit ‘cloudy’ to beat the icing sugar in, so making in bulk and freezing in batches is definitely a trick for the future.
• Only missed trick was that I cut the top off the freezer bag and spooned it out, rather than snipping a corner and piping it through the small hole . Next time, next time.

The pies went down a treat with a mid-morning coffee and a speed-stitch for a newly arrived baby. Really enjoyed this pattern and the cheeky monkey it created. Think another for the nephew’s birthday along with a Curious George book or two may be in order…