Recipe: Chocolate and Mocha Buttercream Whoppie Pies

These pretty, melt-in-your-mouth Chocolate and Mocha buttercream whoopie pies are an emazingly sweet treat!

An emazingly sweet treat to get you through the week

Cupcakes have dominated the baking ‘it’ world for a little while now but recently the novelty of a whoppie pie has been challenging cupcake's reign. After recently getting back from the United States I thought I would look deeper into something they claim to be their own - the good old whoppie. After much googling and reading cook books on the whoppie pie (yes there are actually entire cookbooks devoted to the whoppie pie) what I learnt is the actual origin of the whoppie is unclear. Some say it originated in Boston when printed in a book called the Yummy Book dated 1930 and others (and most food historians) believe it was that Amish women in Pennsylvania who created and sold them at markets.

What is this craze all about though?  Basically people seem to have found joy in the two disks which are a hybrid of a cooking and a cupcake and their pairing with an emazingly sweet filling.  Now for a baking science lesson.  The best whoppies are those that use plain flour, baking powder and buttermilk. Because of the use of buttermilk (basically an acidic form of milk) you will need to add bicarbonate of sofa (an alkali) to balance the acid ration.  In terms of the sweetness (my favourite part) granulated sugar is a traditional ingredient used but caster sugar can be used also.  Of course I had to give them a shot and without seeming to boring, I went with what is said to be one of the most traditional recipes the chocolate whoppie and I filled it with a mocha buttercream!  But see below for some other great flavour combo suggestions :)

Ingredients:

125g butter, softened

3/4 cup caster sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups plain flour

1/3 cup baking cocoa

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup buttermilk

extra cocoa powder, to serve

Method:

1.    Preheat oven to 160°C fan-forced. Line 4 large baking trays with baking paper. Using an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Meanwhile, sift flour, cocoa, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder into a large bowl.

2.    Add half the flour mixture to butter mixture. Stir to combine. Add half the buttermilk. Stir to combine. Repeat with remaining flour mixture and buttermilk until just combined.

3.    Drop level tablespoons of mixture onto prepared trays (I found it much easier to pipe them though), 5cm apart, allowing room for spreading. Bake, 1 tray at a time, for 8 to 10 minutes or until puffed and cooked through. Stand on trays for 2 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Repeat with remaining trays.

4.    Make buttercream frosting and sandwich level tablespoons of frosting between cakes to make 22 whoopie pies. Serve dusted with extra cocoa powder.

Tips:

These whoopie pies are best made on day of serving.

Whoopie pies have a texture that resembles a cross between a cake and a biscuit.found that a tablespoon of the icing was a little too sweet so make sure you test them out before you pile it on.

I also drew circles on the baking paper before I piped them to ensure that the whoppie pies ended up as similair sizes.

Flavour Suggestions:

The Whoopie Cookies	The Stuffers	Gourmet Indulgences
Classic Chocolate	Fluffy Vanilla Cream	Toasted Coconut
Fudgy-Brownie	Marshmallow	Chocolate Sprinkles
White Chocolate	Dark Chocolate	Colourful Sprinkles
Chocolate Chip	Milk Chocolate	Cinnamon sugar
Double Vanilla	White Chocolate	Toasted Almonds
Red Velvet	Chocolate Ganache	Crushed mints
Gingerbread	Cream Cheese	mini chocolate chips
Spiced Pumpkin	Lemon Cream Cheese	Chopped Peanuts
Carrot Cake	Peanut Butter	Lemon Curd
Coffee	Cinnamon	Salted Caramel
Coconut	Peppermint	Nutella