March Madness Whoopie Pies

March Madness is one of our favorite times of the year. We love the NCAA tournament,and love it even more when the UTES get in. I tried out this recipe for  March Madness Whoopie Pies last night. Whoopie Pies are popular in the state of Maine and in Amish communities. They are suppose to be better the second day. I thought they were quite delish the first day! If you love cake with cream filling, you’ll love these. I tried these out on Grant’s 11 year old scouts, and they were definitely a kid pleaser. Whoop or hoop it up this month! Bad joke, I know.

March Madness Whoopie Pies

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Author: Si Foster

Ingredients 

for cakes:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup Dutch process cocoa powder
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg

for filling:

• 1 cup solid Crisco shortening
• 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 2 cups marshmallow cream
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

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Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in a bowl until combined. Measure buttermilk into cup.
• Beat together butter and brown sugar in a large bowl until pale and fluffy about 3-5 minutes. Add egg, beat until combined well. Reduce speed to low and and alternately mix in flour mixture and buttermilk in batches, beginning and ending with flour, scraping down sides of bowl until all combined.
• Spoon by Tablespoons onto greased cookie sheet. Do not attempt to spread batter, try to drop batter in uniform sizes onto pan. About 9 cookies per pan. Bake for 10-12 minutes until tops are puffed and cakes spring back when touched. Transfer cakes to a rack to let cool completely.
• Make filling:
• Beat together shortening and powdered sugar. Add marshmallow creme and vanilla, continue beating until smooth.
• When cake is completely cooled, frost flat side of one cake and top with another flat side of cake.
• Makes about 18-20 3″ Whoopie Pies.

Notes

-I combined this recipe for the cakes with another recipe I found online for filling. Apparently, the filling should only be made with shortening, and not butter to be “authentic” Whoopie Pies. I decided to stick with the recommendation to make the filling with shortening, but think next time I’ll try a mixture of shortening and butter.

-The original recipe calls for dropping the batter by 1/4 cup measurement onto cookie sheet. I thought this was WAY too big, so I reduced the amount of batter to 1 tablespoon per “cake or pie”.

-Even though every review I read said the pies were better the second day, I thought they were best fresh