A long time ago (like when Zoe was a baby), my mom made whoopie pies.
I don’t really remember how I felt about them back then (I probably liked them!), but the memory of the whoopie pies made me want to bake them with my mom.
So, we googled to find a recipe and came across a Cook’s Country recipe on another blog.
(Cook’s Country is an offshoot of Cook’s Illustrated.)
We followed the directions exactly, and whoa. This makes some HUGE whoopie pies.
(this is my mom’s hand, for reference.)
Due to their enormous size, we really could not manage to eat one of these in a single sitting. In fact, some of us ate just a quarter!
So if we make this recipe again, we’ll probably make the whoopie pies about half or fourth of this size.
Alllllrighty.
Heat your oven to 350° and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl; set that aside for the moment.
Then in a mixer bowl on medium speed, beat the sugar and butter until it’s fluffy, about four minutes.
Now, we beat ours for four minutes, but we wouldn’t exactly say it was…fluffy.
It was really just like well-creamed butter and sugar.
Beat in an egg and the vanilla, scraping the sides of the bowl.
Now it’s time to make it chocolate!
On a low speed, you’ll alternate between adding buttermilk and the cocoa powder/flour mixture.
We thought ours was nicely combined, but when we took the bowl off of the mixer stand, we realized we had a few remaining pockets of dry ingredients, so we just used a spatula to mix those in.
So, the recipe says to drop 1/3 cup dollops of the dough/batter onto the baking sheets.
But you will probably want to make your pies smaller. We think at least half that size would be a good idea.
For the 1/3 cup pies, you’ll need to bake them for 15-18 minutes. For half-size whoopie pies, check them at around 10 minutes.
Let them cool right on the pan for an hour (if they’re not cool, they’ll just melt the filling.)
While they’re cooling, you can make the filling, which is a lot like the marshmallow frosting recipe we used for our sheep cupcakes.
To make the filling, beat softened butter together with powdered sugar. Then beat in a bit of vanilla and salt, and finally the marshmallow cream.
Mix it until it’s all smooth, about two minutes.
It’ll be too runny at this point to serve as a filling, so refrigerate it for a half hour.
Once the filling is cold and the pies are completely cool, spoon 1/3 cup of filling onto one chocolate cake.
(for smaller whoopie pies, you’d obviously need less filling.)
Place another half on top and press down gently until the filling reaches the edges of the cake.
Store any leftover whoopie pies in the fridge in an airtight container.
(You can let them warm to room temperature before eating them, but honestly, we thought they tasted juuuust fine straight from the fridge.)
Chocolate Whoopie Pies
For cakes
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup packed light brown sugar
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened but still cool
1 large egg, room temperature
1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk (shake before measuring)
For filling
12 tablespoons (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened but still cool
1¼ cups confectioners’ sugar
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
½ teaspoon salt
7 oz jar of marshmallow creme
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Whisk all dry ingredients together in a small bowl. Set aside.
Cream butter and sugar in a mixer bowl until fluffy (about 4 minutes.)
Beat in the egg, and scrape the sides of the bowl if needed. Next add the vanilla and salt.
On low speed, mix in 1/3 of flour mixture and 1/2 of buttermilk. Repeat with half of remaining flour mixture and all remaining buttermilk. Finish by adding in the last of the flour mixture.
Spoon 3 tablespoons lumps of batter on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes. Let cool on sheets for at least one hour.
For the filling, beat the butter and sugar for about 2 minutes. Add the vanilla and salt next. Mix in the marshmallow cream until smooth. Refrigerate for about a half hour.
Place about 3 tablespoons filling on the flat side of a cake, top with another cake, and gently press down until filling reaches edges of cake.
Refrigerate leftover whoopie pies in an airtight container.