How to Make Whoopie Pies

Extraordinary Whoopie Pies and How They’re Made

Whoopie pies won’t go away. They’ve been around for decades and unlike most food fads, these just stick around. That’s usually a pretty good sign that they’re worthwhile.

These are not your ordinary whoopie pies. We served whoopie pies in our store. Instead of two cake-like cookies sandwiched with frosting, we filled them—chocolate cookies with cherry filling and others with strawberry frosting and cream cheese centers. Very yummy and very easy.

We dipped each whoopie pie in melted chocolate frosting. Then we drizzled lines across the top with a small pastry bag for decorative effect. (If you don’t have a pastry bag, spoon some frosting into a zipper-type bag, clip the corner off and squeeze,

How to Make Your Whoopie Pies

Vanilla Bean Baby Cake Mix
Madagascar Vanilla
European Cocoa
Frosting Mixes
Pastry Fillings (If you choose to make whoopie pies with filled centers)
Sweet Sensations Chocolate Frosting (If you choose to frost your whoopie pies as above.)

Basic Whoopie Pies

A whoopie pie is constructed with two cake-like cookies made into a sandwich with a filling between them. An easy way to make the cookies is with a cake mix. But a cake mix spreads too much—especially the light, airy mixes you get from the grocery store–and you have to add flour to thicken the batter. A very thin batter may require a cup of additional flour.

Here is how to make whoopie pies with our Vanilla Bean Baby Cake Mix. Raspberry tidbits (baking chips) were added to the batter.

Step 1. Lightly grease a baking sheet or line it with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Step 2. Mix the batter according to instructions adding 1/2 cup flour to thicken the batter.

Step 3. Scoop mounds of batter onto the baking sheet leaving plenty of room for spread. Since these are sizable, you’ll probably want only 12 cookies on a large baking sheet. Make the mounds as round as possible. We use an ice cream scoop with a one-inch diameter. The tendency is to make the mounds too large.

Step 4. Bake the cookies for 9 to 10 minutes or until done. Remove them to a wire rack to cool.

Step 5. Mix buttercream frosting or make marshmallow cream for the filling. A mix is an easy way to make buttercream frosting. You can color and flavor it as you choose. We have marshmallow cream recipes on our website for vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, and cherry marshmallow cream.

Step 6. Pair the cookies so that each cookie in a pair is similar in size and shape. Either spread or pipe frosting onto one cookie and place the other cookie on top of the frosting so that you have a sandwich cookie with the tops of the cookies facing out.

What about a Pan?

With most mixes, the biggest problem when making whoopie pies is controlling the spread. For those using store cake mixes, they usually add extra flour to thicken the batter. (That’s not necessary with Baby Cakes mixes.)

They do make a pan that controls spread. It’s called a muffin top pan and has circular indentations about a half-inch deep into which the batter is added and that stops the spread.

The chocolate frosted whoopie pies at the top were baked on a baking sheet. These in the step-by-step pictures were made with a pan.

Learn more about the muffin top/cupcake sandwich pan.

Whoopie Pies with Filled Centers

See the step-by-step pictures for filling the centers.

Obviously you have an array of choices with different cake mixes and different frostings. You can expand those choices by filling the centers of your whoopie pies with pastry fillings from Bavarian cream to raspberry to apple. (We sell 12 kinds of filling.) It’s easy to do.

Step 1: Pipe a border of buttercream frosting around the perimeter of a cookie. We use a star tip and a pastry bag. If you don’t have one, fill you can fill a zipper-type plastic bag and then clip the corner to squeeze the frosting out.

Step 2: The frosting will act as a dam to hold the filling. Squeeze a sizable dollop of filling into the center of the frosting ring.

Step 3: Place the other cookie on top to make a sandwich.

We prefer these center filled cookies. We love the fillings and the balance of the fillings with the cake and less frosting.

Baker’s Notes

The trick with making whoopie pies is to get the right cookie profile, not too flat and not too high. That’s a question of spread. Like with other cookies, you can control spread.

Cookies spread more on a light pan than a dark-colored pan.
Cookies spread more at lower temperatures. To cut back on spread, turn the temperature up 25 degrees.
A thinner batter spreads more than a thicker batter. Add more flour to your recipe, one-half cup at a time.
A heavier greased pan makes cookies spread more.

We prefer a denser cookie to a very light cookie. Too much filling or frosting on very light cookies is overwhelming. Our Vanilla Bean Baby Cake Mix is an excellent choice.