Foodie Finds and Whoopie Pies

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

What is a whoopie pie? According to the ever faithful Wikipedia, a whoopie pie “is made of two round mound-shaped pieces of chocolate cake, or sometimes pumpkin or gingerbread cake, with a sweet, creamy filling or frosting sandwiched between them.” Whoopie pies originated in New England, but the exact history has been disputed. Pennsylvania, Maine, and New Hampshire have all claimed to be the birthplace of these sweet treats.

My first whoopie pies, mid-assembly

My first whoopie pie baking experience was almost exactly one year ago. A good friend of mine asked me to bake carrot cake whoopie pies for her boyfriend’s birthday party. I made two batches of this recipe from Tracey’s Culinary Adventures (thank you, Google, for helping me find this blog!). They were delicious! My “quality control test” before handing the treats over to my friend included more pies than I’d care to admit.

Carrot Cake Whoopie Pies

Shortly after I made this recipe for the first time, my mom came across Whoopie Pie Pans at Williams-Sonoma. For Christmas, she gave me a pan and a Pumpkin Whoopie Pie Mix from Baked. Both products were fun to try, but have pros and cons. Let’s discuss…

Whoopie Pie Pans

Whoopie Pie Pan

The wonderful thing about these pans is that you end up with “cookies” of a consistent size and shape, making the sandwiches much easier to make. They also make the whoopie pies very pretty! The downside is that the sides end up more stiff than they otherwise would be. The cookies lose some of the ideal cakey texture. Which is more important: appearance or texture? Another downside (or is it a plus?) is that the whoopie pies end up being quite large.

The cakey cookies

Pumpkin Whoopie Pie Mix

Baked Pumpkin Whoopie Pie Mix

This flavor is not currently available, but you can find the Red Velvet variety at Williams-Sonoma. I appreciates how quick the mix was to make. The resulting cookies were good, but somewhat bland. I would have liked a bit more spice in my pumpkin cookies. The cream cheese frosting has a great creamy texture, but was a bit too sweet for me. Next time I make pumpkin whoopie pies, I’ll probably opt for this recipe for Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Maple-Marshmallow Cream Filling. I think I’ll try it with Maple-Cream Cheese filling instead though!