Makin' whoopie..

Whoopie pies are a huge favourite in our house, they are super easy to make and a nice treat. I'm not sure they beat a good cupcake but they do come a close second!

Trying to find a recipe was the tricky part, there are lots of variations and some are better suited to certain flavours than others. The recipe posted below is one of our all time faves - double chocolate!

Double chocolate whoopie pies

280g plain flour

30g cocoa powder

1tsp baking powder

2tsp bicarbonate of soda

150g soft brown sugar

60ml sunflower oil

125ml Crème Fraîche or buttermilk works well too

1 large free range egg

60ml boiling water

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Pop the sugar into a large mixing bowl and give it a stir to break up any lumpy bits.

Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder. Then add to the sugar and mix it up.

In a bowl whisk the egg, crème fraîche/buttermilk and oil. Add the boiling water whilst you are whisking and then quickly stir the liquid into the sifted flour mixture. Be mindful the it should look like a thick batter, don't over mix it.

Leave the batter to cool down for approx 5 minutes. Whilst waiting for it to cool down prep the baking tray, you can get a reusable non stick liner that works well for this or treat yourself to a whoopie pie tin for more uniform pies.

With a spoon pop a small scoopful onto the liner and pat gently. The batter should be about 5 cm round, they do expand and spread so bear this in mind when you are leaving space between the whoopies.

Put them in the preheated oven for 10 - 12 minutes. You should be looking for a soft almost half cookie/half moon cake. Once cooled down they will have a bit of a crunch on the outside but the inside will be soft and cake like. Put the cooked whoopies onto a cooling rack to finish cooling down.

Once cool match up 2 like size whoopies and fill the middles. Traditionally they have been filled with marshmellow but we prefer buttercream.

So to make the chocolate buttercream

4oz unsalted butter
6oz icing sugar
3oz cocoa powder
Milk

Mix together the butter, icing and cocoa powder. Beware it will go everywhere! Add small amounts of milk until the dry powder has completely mixed and gone smooth. Dip finger in and taste - if you go 'mmmmmm' then it's just right!

Enjoy xx