I bought my new electric whisk and all ingredients today in the wonder that is a Tescos on a Saturday. Started this recipe late in the day, 7.30pm to be precise, due to a very busy day and time just flying by.
Making the batter for the whoopie pies, no complications, just the usual staple cake ingredients except for the natural yoghurt, I have never baked with that in a cake mix before. The first half of the batter mix is very liquidly, it put me off slightly as I thought I might have maybe measured something out wrong. Once the dry ingredients were added it looked a lot better, in fact it seemed stiffer when whisking than what you would usually expect. It then had to be chilled in the fridge for about 30 minutes whilst the oven heated up.
During this waiting time I had a little sing-song to an old cd, Destiny's Child - The Writings on the Wall. Wonderful, although I don't think my Husband would agree.
Once the mixture has hardened slightly it was time to make the whoopie pie mounds on the grease-proof papered baking trays. I overestimated the amount needed for each mound and due to this only had 14 instead of 16-20, making only 7 whoppie pies in total. This is because, in my wisedom, after ready people's comments on the difficulty of trying to get the same amount of mixture for each mould so they sandwich together properly, I thought I would use an ice cream scoop. A good idea in principal but didn't think through as to whether it would still make the estimated amount.
Either way I managed to get them all laid out and into the oven. Then started on the filling with the marshmallow fluff. Again a simple recipe to mix together. I love baking..except for one part..the damn icing sugar. It goes EVERYWHERE when u try to sieve and mix it! Just sends up a choking cloud of fine suga,r than manages to reach across the whole kitchen and cover every surface. It annoys me so much I might start taking drastic action and covering everything in dust-sheets prior to whisking.
Once the dust had settled and I could see clearly again, I measured out the Marshamallow fluff to add. Before this point I hadn't checked the amount needed in each whoopie pie filling recipe nor the amount in each jar. There is, according to the label, 212g in each jar, the recipe needs 220g. Due to the consistency of the fluff its difficult to get out of the jar and so I actually needed a little more than 8g from a second jar. In total I think one jar gave me about 190g so not too far off the mark. The filling is all blended up nicely and that then needs to settle in the fridge for 30 minutes while the Whoopie pie halves cool on the rack.
Having waited for the filling to chill, whilst now listening to a few Panic at the Disco songs and some of the Glee soundtrack ( I know, a very strange taste in music) I set about filling and sandwiching the pies together. I have to say I am actually very proud of how well my icecream scoop idea worked out with regards to the size of the halves, although some slightly varied they all seemed to have a perfect partner to squish together with. I did use a generous amount of filling in each pie yet there seemed to be a lot left over afterwards. I have learnt from the Red Velvet cupcake recipe in the first book, that the bakery use a lot of icing on their cakes, which seems too much to myself even if used willingly, so I usually half that icing recipe. I will in future now do the same with the whoopie pie filling recipe too. Too much extra to be able to spread evenly through the pies and a waste to throw away. This said the whoopie pies are complete and the time is now 10.30pm though!
And the tasting...me and my Husband had half of one each due to the...ahem..large size. Amazing!! For my first whoopie pie I think chocolate was the best choice. The filling is a little sickly if there is too much of it, so definately going to stick to my tip and half it next time, but the sponge with the filling goes brilliantly together and something so unusual about eating a sponge cake like that. Looking forward to making some of the other whoopie pie recipes in the book now.
Also going to invest in a tray for them, this will help to solve my over-eager portions and time as it is a little consuming trying to get them all the same size and height. Thanks for the advice on the pies and trays. Tomorrow I am hoping to get baking after my baby's first feed, which usually ends at 7.30AM! Looking forward to the Peppermint tea cupcakes.
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