Valentine’s Day Whoopie Pie

Recently, I was browsing in a bookshop and found a whoopie pies cookbook. I had no clue what a whoopie pie was but the photos looked great. So I decided to give it a try since the book only cost £1!

If you have not heard of whoopie pies before, they taste cakey and originated in the US. It is made of two round mound-shaped pieces of cake, filled with a filling or frosting sandwiched between them.

Anyway, I also bought two different sized whoopie pie trays which could also be used for macaroons. I had a couple of failed bakes when I first tried this recipe as I kept burning it. So do watch your oven and if necessary, turn the temperature down or move it to the bottom tray.

Ingredients:

• 250g plain flour, sifted
• 1 tablespoon bicarbonate of soda, sifted
• Large pinch of salt
• 115g butter, softened
• 150g caster sugar
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 150ml buttermilk
• Pink colouring gel

Method:

1. Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt together.
2. Whisk the butter and caster sugar until it is pale and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract followed by half the flour mixture. Then the buttermilk and colouring gel.
3. Stir in the rest of the flour and mix well.
4. Pipe it onto the tray and bake for 10 minutes at 160°C fan assisted. Check it regularly to prevent over baking or burning.
5. Take out to cool for 5 minutes before removing them from the tray and leave to cool on a wire rack.
6. Once cooled, pipe the buttercream on the flat side of half of the cakes and top with the rest of the cake. You can finish it by decorating it with icing, sprinkling with icing sugar or piping buttercream on it.

This whoopie pie is quite cakey and delicious. It is quite easy to make. I did find it hard to find buttermilk. So far I have only came across one brand. This was my first time buying buttermilk and when I opened it up, it was quite thick and smelled sour! After some research, I discovered that it is supposed to be this way as it is the liquid left after butter has been churned. Anyway, hope you like this recipe! It tastes great!