The One Where I Make Whoopie {Pies}

One of my favorite baking-related Christmas presents (thanks, Aunt Sal) was this cute little set with a whoopie pie pan, recipe book, and mix.

I had been waiting and waiting for the perfect time to use it. Well, wait no more because Thursday combined all sorts of special occasions - Snow Day/Make-Up Groundhog Day/Soup Night at Aunt Sal's!

I gathered up all of my ingredients - not too tricky, since it was a boxed mix. But I discovered that we were almost out of milk. This being a snow day, I did not feel inspired to run right out to the store for more. So I included the half-and-half as a back-up plan.

The recipe on the back of the box didn't say anything about how full to fill the whoopie pie pan. It just said that the mix would make 24 mini pies (whoopies? What is the shorter way to say whoopie pie? Is there one?). So I thought, ok I'll just fill up my pie pan with all of this batter and make 12 bigger ones. (I forgot that for each pie, you need 2 halves, so I was really only making 6). The mixture was for red velvet cake, and wow! It really was red. I started feeling very Southern, y'all!

While the whoopies were baking, I started in on the frosting (also a mix included in the box). Happily, it turned out the milk was just enough to make the pies and the frosting.

When the pies came out of the oven, I realized that I had filled them just a little too full, because they looked more like cupcakes than whoopie pies!

Even though they were gigantic, and there were only 6, I didn't have any milk (or eggs) left, so these were really the only option! I frosted one half, then stuck the other half on top. They kind of looked like two cupcakes stuck together with frosting in the middle - maybe a new baking sensation - Cupwiches!?

And then I just couldn't resist sticking a groundhog in the top of one. Since Portillo's was closed because of the snow on the real Groundhog Day, we had to use the whoopie pies as a chocoloate cake substitute!

Here's what I learned from my first try making whoopie pies. Next time I will... 

1. Try a recipe from the whoopie pie cookbook - this cake was a little dry, and the frosting was very sweet.
2. Fill the pie pan much less full - perhaps measuring it out would make things better!
3. Less cake, more frosting!

Stay tuned for Whoopie Pies 2.0, coming soon!