Honey Whoopie Pies

Whoopie pies are a sweet filled sandwich cake or cookie that originated in the United States. I think they fall somewhere in the cake dessert realm and remind me of something similar to a Viennese whirl. They are great with a cuppa - but they also make a fantastic dessert in a bowl with a little pouring cream. Whoopie pies are typically chocolate flavoured and are filled with sweet creamy filling but there are also less common other flavours such as pumpkin and gingerbread too! For our Honey Whoopie pies we've used a cinnamon spiced honey blonde dough with a lightly spiced buttercream and marshmallow filling... yum!

This recipe will make around 12 whoopie pies.

To make our Honey Whoopie Pies you will need:

Whoopie Pie Batter:

• 100g of Unsalted Butter
• 100g of Golden Caster Sugar
• 150g of Just Bee Original Honey
• 1 Medium Sized Egg
• 250g of Plain Flour
• ½ Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract
• ½ Teaspoon of Baking Powder
• A Pinch of Salt
• ¼ Teaspoon of Ground Cinnamon

Marshmallow Honey Buttercream Filling:

• 50g of Unsalted Butter
• 100g of Icing Sugar
• 1 Tablespoon of Just Bee Honey (Original or a flavour of your choice)
• 2 Tablespoons of Marshmallow Fluff Spread
• A Pinch of Ground Cloves
• A Pinch of Ground Cinnamon
• A Pinch of Ground Nutmeg

You will also need:

2 Baking Trays

A Large Mixing Bowl

A Small Mixing Bowl

A Medium Sized Saucepan

Time to make and bake: Around 35-45 minutes. (Depending on how many batches you need to bake it might take up to an hour)

Let's get baking!

Step One: Get the oven on!

Preheat your oven to Gas mark 4 or 180c. Don't forget as it won't take long to make the whoopie batter!

Step Two: Blend the wet ingredients for the batter.

Add the 100g butter, caster sugar and honey to the saucepan and heat gently on the hob, stir often until all the ingredients are melted and blended together. Try not to overheat the mixture, it only needs to be warm enough for everything to melt and emulsify. Once done, put aside to cool off a little.

Handy Hint: Leave the 50g of butter for the filling out of the fridge, it will make life easier later if the butter is at room temperature.

Step Three: Add the other batter ingredients to the mixing bowl.

Take your mixing bowl and add the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Give that a mix around with a fork, then add the vanilla extract. Beat the egg with a fork in a cup or mug and add that too.

Step Four: Mix all the batter ingredients together!

Pour the honey mixture from the saucepan into the mixing bowl and give it a good mix until you have a smooth and sticky batter. It should all come together fairly quickly without too much effort.

Step Five: Prepare the trays.

Line the baking trays with non-stick baking paper. Using a teaspoon, add heaped spoonfuls of mixture onto the trays. You don't need to worry too much how they look right now as they will spread and level out in the oven. On my trays I could fit three rows of four, so twelve on a tray. They will end up around the size of a shop bought ginger-nut, so leave a little room around them and adjust the amount on the tray as necessary. They cook quickly so don't worry too much if you have to cook them in several batches. 

Step Six: Bake the pies.

Pop the first tray in the centre of the oven and bake for 8 – 9 minutes. They are ready when they are just lightly browning on the edge. We don't want them to be crunchy so it's important not to over bake them, we want them fairly soft and cake-like. When they are done take them out of the oven and leave them on the hot tray to cool. They will continue to cook underneath a little while on the tray, which is what we want. Pop the second tray in now while the first batch are cooling on the first tray. If you need to do a third tray to get them all on that's fine, just use the first tray again once it's cooled. Repeat as necessary until all your whoopie pies are baked and cooling. 

Step Seven: Let's make the filling.

While the cakes are cooling off fully we can make the filling. Add the 50g of butter to the small mixing bowl, then with a fork gradually mix in the icing sugar until soft and blended together. It might feel difficult at first but it will soon soften up and mix together. Then add the spices and a tablespoon of Just Bee Honey. You can use regular or one of our flavoured honeys if you prefer. I chose to use Valencia Orange Honey this time. Give that a good beating until it's blended, smooth and creamy.

Next mix in 2 heaped tablespoons of marshmallow fluff. This is an American marshmallow spread that you should be able to find in most supermarkets near the chocolate spreads. If you've never had it before it's essentially the same filling as a Tunnock's Snowball. I don't know if I would really want it on a slice of toast for breakfast- but it does make a great baking ingredient!

Step Eight: Making the sandwich!

Once your whoopie biscuits are fully cooled, we can fill them and turn them into whoopie pies! You can use a piping bag, a zip-lock bag with the corner cut off or simply spoon on the filling. Whatever you choose it's simply a matter of choosing two similar sized biscuits, putting a good sized dollop on the flat size of one biscuit and gently pushing them together to make a sandwich. 

Storing and serving.

When you have finished them all, put the whoopie pies in an airtight container and pop them in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to chill. They'll keep fine for up to 5 days and I think the texture really improves while they are in the fridge. The filling becomes less gooey and the cake more like a soft gingerbread in texture.

You can serve straight from the fridge or remove a little earlier and allow to return to room temperature. On a warm day I'd recommend keeping them chilled. You can serve them as they are or with cream or ice-cream to make a really tasty dessert.