12 Tips For Making The Best Homemade Whoopie Pies

There are few recipes as near and dear to my heart as whoopie pies. Despite the disputed history of the whoopie pie, if you're a New Englander, chances are that you've indulged in one of these soft, pillowy cakes filled with a lightly-vanilla frosting a time or two. I grew up baking these cakes (which some people classify as cookies) with my grandmother; they remain a pertinent part of my family's dessert routine even to this day. 

Don't let these treats fool you. Although they seem really easy to make, there are some tricky bends in the whoopie pie-making process that can trick any home baker. I'm here to offer some of my best tips for making flavorful, yet still classic, whoopie pies that will appease every eater. Once you get comfortable with the basic recipe, you can start exploring different flavorful additions, frostings, and recipe renditions to find your perfect pie. I want baking (and eating) these treats to feel like a "Whoopie!" for you every time. 

If you're going for the classic, timeless whoopie pie, then you're going to want to opt for a chocolate base with a vanilla filling. The cake itself should be very rich and chocolatey — just like a tasty chocolate layer cake should be. Rather than adding more chocolate to the mix, amplify the flavor of this ingredient by pairing it with coffee. Coffee and chocolate make a heavenly match because they have complementary profiles; the bitterness of the coffee can round out the flavor of the chocolate. 

You have to express a little bit of caution when baking with coffee, though, as adding a cup of strong coffee to the cake mix may make it too wet. Instead, I'd recommend adding espresso powder or instant coffee straight into your dry ingredients, both of which have a super concentrated java flavor. Fear not, your chocolate whoopie pies won't transform into coffee ones (though, I think that would be quite delicious on its own); the flavor of the chocolate will just become more pronounced. 

You might not think twice about how you prepare your cocoa before you add it into your batter. But, taking a couple of extra minutes to bloom your cocoa before adding it to your cake batter may help improve its flavor even more. 

Blooming is a simple process. Simply warm up the liquid that your cake recipe calls for, whether it's oil, melted butter, or milk, and pour in the cocoa powder. Then, give the mixture a stir before pouring in the rest of your ingredients as normal. The same can be done with any extra spices that your recipe calls for, like cinnamon. Unless your recipe calls for warm liquid, make sure to give the blooming cocoa time to cool. 

Typically, you can get away with using a 1-to-1 ratio of your liquid of choice to cocoa powder. Though, the important exception to blooming cocoa is if your cake doesn't call for extra wet ingredients, like one made with creamed butter (via reverse creaming). In that case, you won't want to melt the butter specifically to bloom your cocoa; the extra moisture from the fat can create issues with the texture of the finished product. 

If I had a nickel for every time that I stressed the importance of baking with a scale, I would be rich (and would probably buy everyone their own kitchen scale so I wouldn't need to repeat it ever again). So, you're going to hear it again, this time with increased stress on the word must: You must measure out your dry ingredients for whoopie pies. The pies are designed to have a soft, cakey consistency that has just enough give when you bite into it. If you add too much flour, either accidentally or on purpose, you're setting yourself up for a dry cake that lacks that signature whoopie pie texture. 

Once your ingredients are out, tare the bowl and pour them in. You can also find the weight conversions for your ingredients online if you're working with a recipe that only lists cup and teaspoon measurements. If it's your first time making whoopie pies, use a highly-regarded recipe that has weight measurements listed (King Arthur Baking Company is a go-to for me); that way, you won't need to guess on if the texture looks "right" or not.

I find that a ton of whoopie pie recipes call for buttermilk. And as a frugal home baker myself, I can understand why you might want to skip over this ingredient and swap in plain milk instead. But, buttermilk is the secret ingredient for tender whoopie pies, thus should be added to your recipe every time you make it (and if you have extra, I guarantee that you can find a use for leftover buttermilk).

Buttermilk is commonly added to cake recipes, including whoopie pies, for several reasons. When you cook (or in this case, bake) with butter milk, you'll find that the dairy product not only makes your goods more tender because it slows the development of gluten, but you'll also find that your cake comes out more evenly-risen because the acid interacts with the baking soda or powder in the recipe. The dairy product is also slightly tangy, though you won't be able to taste it too well over the sweet filling and sugary cake layers. 

If you don't want to crack open a new container of buttermilk, consider investing in a container of buttermilk powder or making your own substitute using milk and an acid (like vinegar or lemon juice). You'll be glad you did. 

Spooning out cookie dough onto a baking sheet can always be a bit of a mind-boggling process. How do you anticipate how much your cookies are going to spread on the baking sheet as they cook? Certainly, you want to be efficient about your space, but you don't want to risk crowding your whoopie pie rounds on the baking sheet. 

I will always recommend that bakers err on the side of caution and leave more room than they think they'll need on the sheet. For a solid old-fashioned chocolate whoopie pie recipe, I would recommend leaving no less than 2 inches of space on all sides of your cake base before you put it in the oven. You can also assist in the flattening and shaping process by coating your hands in a little water (to prevent any batter from sticking) and giving your dough a slight press. It's important to remember that whoopie pies are more cake-like than they are cookie like, so they don't have the same butter content that would cause them to spread out and flatten completely (like your favorite chocolate chip cookie would). Your rounds should be slightly domed and puffy when they're finished baking. 

I'm always amazed at the ways that people can get their dough or batter from a bowl to a baking tray. Some people grab a standard teaspoon, others will repurpose an ice cream scoop, while more daring home chefs will try to pour and portion out the dough by tipping out the bowl and frantically trying to stop the flow of batter.

When I make homemade whoopie pies, my utensil of choice is almost always a 2-tablespoon cookie scoop. It's important to look at the size of the scoop before you start distributing your batter because you don't want your pies to be too small. However, there are some folks that will also pipe out their whoopie pies with a piping bag. I personally think that this process creates a lot of undue stress, as you have to worry about applying equal pressure (otherwise, you'll end up with lopsided rounds). Plus, you have to refill the bag, which is an experience in and of itself. If you do decide that a piping bag is a must, I will recommend that you purchase a macaron baking mat with pre-drawn lines; this will allow you to more easily pipe equally-sized rounds. 

I understand the rushed feeling of pulling your baked goods from the oven and immediately wanting to frost them. But, with whoopie pies, it's really imperative that you hold off on this process until you know that your rounds are completely cooled. Regardless of the fat that you use for your frosting, or even if you opt for a cooked frosting, you will have to contend with the steam gushing from your freshly-baked cake rounds. Excess heat can make your cake rounds slide around, thus ruining your frosting. Hold off for at least 15 minutes before you add your frosting to your cake rounds to prevent any sloshing from occurring. 

Another heat-related issue to note is that you should always pull your cakes off the baking sheet after you pull them from the oven. Sure, we all have the habit of walking away from the tray as soon as we remove it from the oven to tend to something else, but the carryover cooking can actually cause the cakes to become over-baked. You can tell that they're finished baking when the outside appears dry and they spring back a little bit when you poke them with your finger (just like a regular cake). Once you remove the sheet pan, test your cakes to make sure that they're set and firm enough to move them with a spatula. 

Not every frosting will work for your whoopie pies. Typically, a whoopie pie frosting should be super fluffy and soft — which rules out the potential of using a dense, heavy buttercream. However, you still want a little bit of structure, which is why I would recommend opting for a cooked frosting, otherwise known as ermine frosting. This type of frosting is made by making a flour and milk mixture (kind of like the tangzhong method for breads), then adding sugar to it. From there, the sugary roux can be added to a normal, butter-based frosting. 

Cooked-flour frosting is a great option for your whoopie pies for several reasons. The first is that it tends not to be as sickeningly sweet as a buttercream or some other whipped frostings. When you sandwich it between your cakes, you'll also find that it won't squish out to the sides like a plain whipped cream frosting will. 

One ingredient that comes up frequently in whoopie pie frostings is marshmallow creme. This ingredient is a shortcut for several different things. The first is that it adds a sweet flavor to your frosting, which can be further complemented by the addition of a sweetener like powdered sugar. The more important thing, though, is that it adds stability to your frosting. It effectively does the same thing as adding unflavored gelatin sheets to your whipped cream frosting to stabilize it. The benefit of using marshmallow whipped cream over a stabilized whipped cream frosting, of course, is that you won't have to mess with gelatin sheets at all — the gelatin (or some other stabilizer) is likely already in the marshmallow creme. 

You don't want to just slather the marshmallow creme between your cakes (although it does make a convincing filling at first glance). Simply add a little bit to your frosting recipe to give it that sweet, nostalgic goodness — and some structural scaffolding, too. 

When my grandmother first taught me how to make whoopie pies, she swore by a container of Crisco for the frosting. Until I made my first batch for myself, I couldn't tell why someone would opt for shortening over butter, as shortening really lacks any sort of flavor. But, after seeing the structural benefits of using it in frosting, I knew that my I couldn't use any other fat for it ever again. 

Shortening adds stability to frosting, which makes it more preferable than butter for your whoopie pie recipe. The hydrogenated fat won't melt or move when the temps start to rise. Moreover, the mouthfeel of a whoopie pie frosting made with shortening is a bit more traditional than one that's made with butter. Although it sounds a bit silly, the frosting should be bland, so that it highlights the sugar in the frosting as well as the subtle chocolate notes in the cake. Butter would make it too rich. I would recommend using a 100% vegetable shortening-based frosting, although some folks will use equal parts butter and shortening for their recipe. 

One of the biggest mistakes that I see folks making with baked goods — not even whoopie pies, but baked goods as a whole — is that they don't combine the sugar well enough into the frosting. There's perhaps nothing worse than biting into a decadent cake only to find that the icing is gritty as all get-out because someone didn't spend enough time creaming together the sugar and the fat.

When you're making your whoopie pie filling, I recommend beating the sugar into your recipe for as long as you can conceivably do it for. Of course, if you use milk in your frosting, you don't want to whip it to the point that it becomes butter, but you do want to make sure that all of that sugar is well-distributed. Using powdered sugar, which has a smaller granule size, can also be helpful — though you will still need to mix it well with the other ingredients to prevent residual grittiness. When I'm making icing, I'll shamelessly dip a spatula or a spoon into the bowl and taste it to make sure that it's not gritty. Moreover, you can also train your ear to know when to stop mixing — especially if you're using an electric hand mixer. If you can hear the granules crunching against the walls of your bowl or feel them against the paddle, you need to keep mixing. 

Whoopie pies may be a recipe that you think of as a one-trick pony, but there are tons of variations that you can make on the classic chocolate cake with vanilla filling. For one, you can try to invert the cake by making a vanilla base and adding cocoa powder into the frosting. Or, try a batch of red velvet whoopie pies with cream cheese frosting for a twist on the classic cake. The cakes are so decadent and brimming with that beautiful beet color; it's the perfect contrast for a subtly tangy filling. You can also make seasonal whoopie pies, like those with a pumpkin base instead of a chocolate one. 

I'm the last person to denounce the nostalgia factor of a chocolate whoopie pie filled with a soft vanilla frosting — but I'm always up for experimenting with this classic, too. Once your pies are assembled, try rolling them in chopped nuts or sprinkles to add some texture. Or, you may want to consider adding a layer of fruit jam or preserves between your frosting and the cake.