Whoopie pie recipe

This chocolate whoopie pie recipe is so easy, you'll soon have gorgeous domes of velvety chocolate sponge, sandwiched with smooth buttercream.

With very simple ingredients no special skills required, it's my favourite way to make whoopie pies. And I have Amy-Beth Ellice to thanks as this recipe is from Amy's Baking Year, a cookbook she wrote when she was just 16!

I've made a few tiny adaptations to get this whoopie pie recipe just how I like it.

The main change is that Amy uses a piping bag to get the sponge batter onto the trays, whereas I use an ice cream scoop to get tall, substantial whoopie pies.

The batter for the chocolate sponge is made by whisking butter and sugar together, then whisking in eggs, followed by buttermilk and vanilla. You'll then sift in cocoa, flour and bicarbonate of soda and fold everything together.

You'll then scoop blobs of batter onto lined trays and bake - it only takes 12 minutes!

Once your sponges are cool, you'll make a super simple buttercream by whisking butter, icing sugar and vanilla together (add the fine zest of 1 unwaxed orange to the buttercream to make them chocolate orange whoopie pies!), then pipe it on the sponge halves and sandwich them together.

Here's the full whoopie recipe. It makes 10 large and intensely chocolatey whoopie pies.

Instructions

Make the chocolate sponges

Preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan, 350F).

Line at least two baking sheets with baking parchment.

Sift the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder into a bowl.

Stir together.

Put the butter and sugar in a second bowl.

Whisk until pale and creamy.

Add the egg.

Whisk again until combined.

Add the buttermilk and vanilla.

Whisk together.

Sift in half the flour and cocoa mix.

Fold through, then sift in the other half.

Fold again to complete your batter. If the mixture is very loose, cover and place in the fridge to chill for 10 minutes.

Use a medium 5cm (2 inch) scoop to pick up level scoops of the batter and drop onto the lined trays. Allow space for them to spread while baking.

Bake for 12 minutes. Try not to have more than 2 trays in the oven at once as it can affect heat circulation.

Allow to cool on the tray for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Make the buttercream filling

Put the butter, vanilla and icing sugar in a clean bowl.

Whisk until soft and creamy. 

Transfer the buttercream to a piping bag and snip off the bottom 1cm (half inch).

Once the cake halves are totally cooled, flip half over to reveal the flat bottoms.

Pipe a generous amount of buttercream onto the upturned halves.

Sandwich the remaining cake halves on top to complete your whoopie pies.

Have you baked these at home? I'd love to see pics!

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This recipe is adapted from Amy-Beth Ellice's Amy's Baking Year and published with permission from John Blake Publishing. 

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