Whoopee Pies

I used a Namaste GFCF chocolate cake mix (needs eggs) to make the chocolate heart cakes, but here is a recipe for chocolate cake that can be used for the whoopee pies. This is from the Feingold Blue Book.

3 cups of flour (I use King Arthur but any is fine)
1 1/2 cups of sugar (any cane sugar – I use organic from Costco or C&H)
6 TB cocoa  (I use Hershey’s)
1 tsp salt (I use sea salt)
2 tsp baking soda
1 TB vanilla extract (watch for corn syrup)
3/4 cups of oil (I use organic canola or coconut oil)
2 TB Heinz white vinegar
2 cups of cold water

Combine the first five ingredients together in a bowl and mix. Add remaining ingredients. Stir until well combined. (Batter will be very thin.) Bake at 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes in a 9x13 pan or 20-25 minutes for cupcakes.

For Wilson heart cake pans, bake for 8-10 minutes (I did 8).  Grease the molds generously (I used coconut oil). Fill only 2/3 full (it’s easy to overfill these).  This makes a lot of hearts so I also made six cupcakes too. Place heart pan on a cooling rack for 8 minutes to cool before taking out. Clean and grease pan again before making your next batch. I made about 30 heart cakes and 6 cupcakes with the Namaste mix.

Filling:

6 TB of butter, softened (I used 3 TB of Earth Balance Soy Free butter and 3 TB of shortening – use Spectrum or I use Tropical Tradition Palm Oil)

1 ½ cups powdered sugar

1/8 tsp salt

7 oz (almost 1 cup) of marshmallow crème (I use Suzanne’s Ricemellow Crème (has soy) from www.veganessentials.com)  

1 tsp vanilla extract (watch for corn syrup)

In a large bowl beat the butter with an electric mixer until creamy. Add sugar and salt to the butter and mix well. Add the marshmallow crème and vanilla and blend well. Use immediately or you can refrigerate it covered for up to one week. Bring back to room temperature and lightly beat before using.  Makes enough to fill about 12 whoopee pies.

The filling is a Wilton recipe.

I used a small heart shaped cookie cutter to cut out a heart in one of the heart cakes (do this before placing on top of the frosting and bottom cake). Then we topped with India Tree sugar crystals from Whole Foods.

This filling is a little sweet for me but my kids loved it. There is another whoopee pie filling recipe that uses egg whites instead of marshmallow crème but you have to use a double broiler method to make it. That sounds too daunting for me.

Next time, we are going to try using chocolate frosting or strawberry frosting.

http://feingoldrecipes.blogspot.com/2012/06/chocolate-frosting.html

http://feingoldrecipes.blogspot.com/2012/07/strawberry-cupcakes-with-strawberry.html

I may even have to try making the strawberry cupcakes in these pans. Pink hearts! That would be super cute. You could even use vanilla ice cream (365 brand from Whole Foods) to make ice cream sandwiches. Or you could use a yellow cake mix too to make little Twinkies. Oh, the possibilities! J

http://feingoldrecipes.blogspot.com/2012/07/yellow-cake-with-butter-frosting.html

I think my kids are going to want these over plain old cupcakes from now on. These freeze really well too and thaw quickly. Place on a plate in the freezer for 30-60 minutes, then transfer to a large zip lock freezer bag.

Feingold Stage 1 (strawberry would be stage 2)