I don't know why these little cakes are called whoopie pies. Maybe for the same reason cow patt--- Never mind. Anyway, whatever they're called, I love them. Perfect little individual cakes for when you want a treat.
I made these for a Halloween party and they were a big hit. The only real change I made was to substitute a little whole wheat flour in for the white and an adjustment for salted butter. For 12 cakes, here's what I used:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
1 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs room temperature, lightly beaten
1 cup canned pure pumpkin puree
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 1/4 teaspoon salt
1⅔ 1⅓ cups flour
⅓ cup white whole wheat flour
Filling
4 ounces cream cheese, chilled
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1 cup powdered sugar
A few pinches salt
Heat oven to 350.° Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. In a standing mixer with whisk attachment, mix together butter and brown sugar until smooth. Add eggs, pumpkin puree, spices, vanilla, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using a spatula, fold in the flour. Using an ice cream-style batter scoop, drop batter by heaping tablespoons, 12 to a sheet and evenly spaced. Bake until springy to the touch, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool completely.
For the filling, cream together the cream cheese and butter. Add syrup, sugar, salt, and vanilla (see discussion below); mix on low speed until blended, then beat on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Spread the flat side of 12 cakes with the cream cheese frosting. Top each with another cake.
I was irritated to find there were some errors in the recipe. For one, the ingredients called for maple syrup in the filling, but the directions mention vanilla. So then you have to wonder whether they'd swapped maple syrup in place of vanilla in a standard recipe and forgot to remove it from the directions, or if they'd simply forgotten to include the vanilla in the ingredient list. It's really up to you whether you want to include it or not; I did not.
The bigger irritation was that the directions called for using an ice cream scoop with "generous" scoops-- that would give you about four giant cakes. I initially followed their directions, but of course ran out of batter immediately and then had to start redistributing the batter to get the right number of cakes. But because the batter contains baking soda, it had started to rise immediately and I deflated some of those air bubbles while I was redistributing the batter. I don't know what they were thinking. I modified the directions to use the appropriate amount of batter per placement.
Conclusion: These were delicious! Very rich and perhaps a bit sweet. I would be inclined to slightly reduce the sugar in the cake part. They don't keep too well as the filling soaks into the cake, but that also made them easier to eat-- the cake doesn't squish the filling out with each bite. And they probably freeze okay.
Recipe: Pumpkin Whoopie Pies via PBS Food
