Heavenly Cake Bakers: Whoopie Pies & Banana Cupcakes

Do you ever have the best of intentions to follow a PLAN that you've carefully thought out and scheduled accordingly? And once the PLAN is in place, have you ever had that PLAN completely fall apart or rather be replaced with a new PLAN, because LIFE happened? This is what has happened to me over the last month (some really BIG decisions regarding Jillicious Desserts moving in a new direction) and I'm in the process of finalizing these plans and will share when I know more. But more about that later and in case you noticed (or not) it's been a month since my last post, so today I'm getting back on track, at least in the blogging world.

Today's Heavenly Cake Bakers recipe is: Two Fat Cats Whoopie Pies, named after the Two Fat Cats Bakery in Portland, Maine.

These were quite easy to make and very quick, both in mixing and baking. The whoopies are made with dark chocolate and cocoa powder, but aren't overly chocolatey (as if there is such a thing as TOO much chocolate--well, at least not in my book).

The filling was actually the part that took the longest, but again, not too difficult. Rose points out that this "marshmallow cream" is actually a type of mousseline-buttercream; having more butter and sugar than a classic mousseline. And if you would like to know exactly what a mousseline is, see the definition below.

mousseline [moos-LEEN] "Any sauce to which whipped cream or beaten egg whites have been added just prior to serving to give it a light, airy consistency." ~ Food Lover's Companion, pg. 400

The filling is fairly sweet, so the dark chocolate whoopies are a nice contrast to the sweetness and help to balance it out. I actually liked them better after they had chilled for an hour in the refrigerator. I felt like the sweetness of the "marshmallow cream" filling relaxed and it worked well with the dark chocolate whoopies.

Now, I would like to review last week's Heavenly Cake Baker's pick: Banana Refrigerator Cake w/Dreamy Creamy White Chocolate Frosting. The recipe yield was a 9 x 2-inch round, single layer cake, but I decided to make mini-cupcakes instead.

This was a fairly straight forward recipe and was quick and easy to make. It called for either creme fraiche or sour cream and since I had sour cream on hand, the choice was made. Instead of granulated sugar, Rose uses turbinado sugar (raw cane sugar) which added a nice flavor, to these cupcakes.

I was looking forward to trying this Dreamy Creamy White Chocolate Frosting, since so many of the Heavenly Cake Bakers had great things to say about it. I must say, I was pleasantly surprised and I too, agree that this is a wonderful frosting.

I think that refrigeration is the KEY to making this recipe a success. I tried these right after I frosted them and was kind of disappointed with the overall taste--it seemed to be missing something.  After they had been chilled in the refrigerator for at least an hour, I decided to taste them again and I was happy to discover that they tasted MUCH better. The frosting is a wonderful, slightly tangy, creamy flavor and paired with the chilled cake, the flavors really melded and came together in the perfect ratio of subtle banana flavor and white chocolate.  I stand corrected from my first reaction.

I garnished these cute mini cupcakes with a white chocolate curl and I was very pleased that this cake recipe worked well portioned as cupcakes.  If you have this book, try this recipe and don't forget to keep it chilled.

Happy Monday!