Whoopie Pie Recipe Review!
Media Type: Recipe (card)
Source/Author: Unknown (likely a recipe that was part of a gift basket)
2.5/5 Cinnamon Buns
A whoopie pie is traditionally a chocolate cake sandwich with vanilla frosting as filling. This particular recipe calls for shortening in both the cake and the filling, whereas other recipes tend to use butter. The filling was the most unique aspect to this recipe--it’s made with a thickened flour mixture!
Cinna-Mod’s Alterations:
We did not have baking soda on hand.
However, I believe using baking powder was the correct call. The recipe for the cake used baking soda as the leavening agent which requires an acidic ingredient like cream of tartar, lemon juice, or buttermilk to rise. The other ingredients for the cake were, in fact, not acidic.
The Experience: Overall, the recipe came together fairly quickly, but with a few surprises!
The cake required mixing the “wet” ingredients (sugar, eggs, shortening) together, then adding the dry ingredients (flour, salt, and cocoa powder), and lastly adding warm water with the leavening ingredient dissolved in it. The mixture was very thick like a fudgy brownie batter before adding the warm water + baking soda (powder), which made incorporating the liquid tricky.
I was doubtful that simply spooning the batter onto a cookie sheet would produce round, even cakes. The mixture was the perfect consistency such that it settled, but did not spread too much, resulting in cakes that were relatively the same size and thickness.
The filling called for sour milk (milk + lemon juice) and flour to be heated “until thick.” I have made flour buttercream previously, so I heated the mixture until it was very thick (like pudding), but the recipe does not specify how thick the mixture needs to be.
We spread the filling onto the cakes at a similar thickness as what is pictured on the recipe card. There was enough filling for approximately half of the cakes we made.
The Taste:
Whoopie pie tasted as expected, interestingly enough, it reminded me more of a store-bought dessert than a homemade one.
Cake was lightly chocolate flavored with a tender crumb, but slightly dry.
Frosting had a little bit of graininess from the granulated sugar not quite fully dissolving.
For Next Time:
Use butter instead of shortening. I believe this will result in a more moist cake.
Use more cocoa powder and/or chocolate chips to the cake.
Make extra frosting.
Skip adding lemon juice to the milk for the frosting.
Add sugar to the warm pan with the thicken flour to help sugar dissolve.
TLDR: Fun recipe for whoopie pies. Includes a flour-based vanilla frosting! May make again with (more) alterations. Will make a variation of the frosting again. 2.5/5
(Cinnamon Roll icon by Kaylen Yul Lee from the Noun Project. Recipe transcribed under the cut.)
