yippee...whoopie!

if you've been in a whole foods recently, you'll know that they've added whoopie pies to the temptations surrounding the check-out line. and in a weak moment, we caved and bought one.

but the cake was so dry! and the filling...mush! it wasn't even sweet! what an absolute waste of calories...s i g h...oh well. at least the ones at whole foods were no longer a temptation...=P

but i couldn't get them out of my head! a fluffy little chocolate cake filled with a soft sweet filling...

SALVATION!
(and i must say...the mint buttercream was just pure genius.)

whoopie pies

(from the nytimes)

note: i used natural cocoa since the recipe called for baking soda. and i used a small ice cream scoop (maybe 2 tablespoons of batter) and came out with 24 cakey cookies that were at least 2.5" in diameter and at least 1" tall. more than big enough imho...

mint buttercream
(you can get away with making half this recipe as this makes more buttercream than you'll need to fill the whoopie pies)

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 teapoon peppermint extract
1/4 cup whole milk

4-5 cups confectioner's sugar, sifted

1. cream butter until smooth.
2. add peppermint extract, milk and 3 cups of sugar. beat to combine.
3. slowly add more confectioner's sugar to taste and piping consistency.

a little bit of sunshine...

the weather in nyc has been ridiculously beautiful the past few days. alas my days of being a lady of leisure are over...(hand to forehead here)

but i did manage to catch a little bit of sunshine with these lemon coolers.

in the interest of full disclosure...i've never had a lemon cooler before because i don't normally reach for the cookies that are covered in powdered sugar. but the hubby requested them and so i went hunting for a recipe...

these were silly easy...and surprisingly quite tasty! sunshine lemon coolers
(adapted from here)

1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 1/2 teaspoon water
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon unsweetened lemonade mix

1. preheat oven to 325 degrees. line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silpat.
2. cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. add the egg, vanilla and water and mix until smooth.
3. add in the salt, cake flour and baking powder. mix until the dough comes together.
4. drop by the teaspoon onto the baking sheets and flatten the cookies a bit with wet fingers.
5. bake for 15 - 18 minutes.
6. while the cookies are baking, mix the powdered sugar and lemonade mix in a plastic bag.
7. remove the cookies from the oven and while still hot, toss a few cookies in the powdered sugar mix until well coated. repeat until finished.

NOTE: i did think about refrigerating the dough for a bit as the dough seemed quite soft but the hubby's tummy did not want to wait and they came out perfectly fine.