Reading through the Guardian's Hot List for 2010 I had a enlightening flashback when I read that a childhood treat of yore was going to trump the cupcake as the ultimate must have baked good of 2010. And sure enough with my recent visit to the Soho outpost of the Hummingbird Bakery, there they were at £3 a piece! Yes thats right! £3 a piece!
Yes the humble whoopie pie. First of all a whoopie pie is not a pie at all, more of a miniature sandwiched cake. It's the lovechild of a cake and a cookie which has suffered the same identity crisis as the beloved Jaffa Cake. You can trace the roots of the whoopie pie back to the Pennsylvania Dutch of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
The basics of a traditional whoopie pie are two moist palm sized chocolate cakes with a gooey marshmallow filling sandwiched between. Knowing that my Uncle was a huge fan of Pennsylvanian Dutch cooking, I had a look through his cookbook stash that was bequeathed to me. I found a newspaper cutout recipe with some notations on it and thought that it would be a great starting point.
In my variation I've used the basic recipe for the cake batter. The recipe that I found called for the use of vegetable shortening. Was this just because vegetable shortening was a newfangled ingredient of the time the recipe was written? Well I played around using all vegetable shortening, all butter and a mix of both. I found that a mix of the two provided the best results. Feel free to use the whole amount of butter if you have an aversion to vegetable shortening.
For the filling I've replaced the marshmallow cream with a cream cheese butter creme filling. I think that the sturdiness holds up better than the Marshmallow creme recipe, plus the recipe I have for whoopie pie filling calls for 'Marshmallow Fluff' which is not on the shelf of every supermarket in the UK except for the likes of Selfridges or Harrods.
These are best enjoyed the day they are made with a tall glass of milk. Some childhood habits never change!
Whoopie Pies with Cream Cheese Filling
For the Cakes
325g plain flour
50g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
50g vegetable shortening (Trex)
50g butter (unsalted) softened
100g sugar
100g unrefined dark-brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
250ml whole milk
250g icing sugar
250g unsalted butter, softened
400g cream cheese, softened
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tbs lemon juice
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Line two baking sheets with baking parchment. Sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt into a small bowl; set aside.
Add butter, shortening, and sugars a mixing bowl. Using an electric mixer cream the fats ans sugars on high speed until smooth. This will take about about 3 minutes. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides.
Add the egg continue to beat until light and fluffy, with some serious beating this should take no more than 2 minutes. Add half the flour mixture and beat until incorporated, about 30 seconds. 
Next add the the milk and vanilla, continue to beat until combined. Finally add the last of the coco flour mixture and beat together until you have a homogeneous batter. Along the way scrape down the sides of bowl with a rubber spatula to ensure everything gets incorporated.
Using one of those nifty ice cream scoop that has a release lever (you know the ones that make perfect dinner lady mounds of mashed potatoes) drop scoops of the batter onto prepared baking sheets. You should space them about about 1 inch apart. Transfer to oven and bake until cookies are just starting to crack on top and a spring back when you lightly press on the domed top. This should take between 12-15 minutes.
Remove from oven; let cookies cool on baking sheets for about 10 minutes. Lift the parchment to a wire rack; let cool completely. If need be, line a cooled baking sheet with a new piece of parchment; repeat process with remaining batter.
For the filling; sift the icing (confectioner) sugar into a medium bowl; set aside. In a mixing bowl beat the butter till light and fluffy with a electric mixer. Then add the cream cheese and beat until well combined. Add the icing sugar, vanilla, and lemon juice beat just until smooth.
To assemble the cream cheese filling to a disposable pastry bag and snip the end. Pipe a healthy amount of filling flat side of half of the cookies. Sandwich with remaining cookies, pressing down slightly so that the filling spreads to the edge of the cookies. If you cannot resist the temptation to eat them straight away, then do so. But they fair a bit better if you refrigerate them for a while to firm up the filling.
If you do not eat them all in one sitting, then you can store them wrapped in cling film in the refrigerator for up to three days. Yeah right, they wont make it a day with out you devouring them.
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