Two Fat Cats Whoopie Pies

My Dad is an engineering professor at the University of New Brunswick. His office used to be in the Gillan wing of Head Hall, which was less than a block away from the Goody Shop bakery. The Goody Shop has been there as long as I can remember (at least since I was 5 or so), and during the time that I was living in Fredericton, it was still owned and operated by the same ancient man who baked all of the treats himself. I suspect that is no longer the case, but I prefer to think of the shop as I remember it. Regardless, the point is that I was introduced to Whoopie Pies when Dad first brought them home as a treat once upon a time when I was a very little girl. Right up through undergrad, my friends and I would occasionally pop down to the Goody Shop between classes for a treat. Some people went for those hot dogs that sit on the heating roller racks (the turnover was so high at this shop that those weren’t nearly as scary as they seem at gas stations and 7-11), but I was always there for the whoopie pies. Like so many things, this recipe isn’t quite the same as those childhood memories, but it’ll do in a pinch. 😉

When I saw the picture for this recipe in Rose’s Heavenly Cakes, I imagined that after these were made for the shoot, the people involved got to taste them, and someone got so carried away that at some point they realized that someone had already bitten into the last one… so they photographed it that way.

I didn’t get any pictures of the process. I guess I was in too much of a hurry to get these done and ready to eat. Basically, you beat together the sugar, butter, and eggs, then beat in the melted cooled chocolate. Then add the dry ingredients, alternating with the buttermilk. I didn’t use buttermilk because I didn’t have any, but I substituted regular milk with a bit of lemon juice. Scoop the batter out onto a cookie sheet, then bake.

Now, the frosting/filling.

So, you make a meringue, then add a hot sugar/corn syrup mixture to “cook” the meringue. Then after it’s mostly cooled, beat in a pat of butter and vanilla.

Cool that in the fridge for a few minutes while you beat together some butter and icing sugar. Beat the two mixtures together.

The frosting/filling tastes like a rich vanilla ice cream, only better. The cake part has a really lovely texture. Because of the dark brown sugar, there’s a hint of molasses in with your chocolate, which is great. It’s still not quite Goody Shop Whoopie Pies, though.

I thought I’d share my Mom’s recipe, which is a bit closer to what I grew up with. It’s from a hand-written spiral bound notebook Mom gave me when I moved away for grad school. The recipes are copied from her hand-written cookbook of recipes that she has been accumulating over her lifetime. Sorry, no weights, but you can probably figure them out if you want them. As you can tell by quantities, this makes a whole lot more than the recipe from Rose’s Heavenly Cakes. Come to think of it, I wouldn’t be surprised if Mom managed to wheedle this recipe out of the guy who ran the Goody Shop. 😉

Whoopie Pies

Cream:
1 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla

Sift:
4 cups flour
1 cup cocoa
2 tsp baking soda

Add mixture of cocoa to creamed mixture alternately with 1 cup cold water and 1 cup thick sour milk. Add slightly more flour if milk is not too thick. Drop by spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet. Bake in hot oven 15 minutes or until cookie springs back.

Whoopie Pie Filling

Beat 2 egg whites with 3 tsp vanilla, 2 cups icing sugar. Add 1 1/2 cups shortening and continue beating until smooth. Sandwich between cookies.