Chocolate whoopie pies with strawberrries

Hi everyone! It's been a while since I posted, but my work has picked up somewhat, which is a good thing in itself. In between all this working and spring cleaning and whatnot, I did manage to pack a picnic once the first warm rays were out.

Packed a lunch of warm baguette, cheeses, charcuterie and vegetarian paté, homepade pesto, cherry tomatoes and this version of whoopie pies I dressed at our picnic site, you know, to avoid disasters, and they turned out great! Also, my vintage picnic basket has an isothermal compartment so I was able to keep the cream and berries cool until serving.

Here's what you'll need for the cakes, it's the basic chocolate yogurt cake (or buttermilk) recipe, which gives them that glossy finish. I basically followed the cake recipe from foodess.com. This will make about 12-15 cakes.

Batter:

1-3/4 cups flour

2 cups sugar

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1-1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

1 cup buttermilk (or 1/2 cup yogurt and 1/2 cup milk)

1/2 cup melted butter

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons instant coffee in 1/3 cup boiling water).

Mascarpone vanilla cream:

500 g mascarpone or cream cheese

1/2-3/4 cup powdered sugar

Flavor with a teaspoon of lemon juice or lemon or orange rind, vanilla...)

10-15 strawberries, sliced

Preheat oven 175° C/ 350° F. Line baking cups or tins with parchment paper or use silicone cups. In a bowl, mix wet ingredients (except instant coffee in water). Blend in dry ingredients, beat with a mixer about 3 minutes. Once the coffee has dissolved, blend in to mixture. Pour into cups or tins and bake about 25-30 minutes or until the center is firm. Allow to cool at least 15 minutes before removing from tins/cups. Once cooled, cut in half to make whoopie-like sandwiches stuffed with cream and berries.

The next day, the cakes were still super moist and I dressed them with cream and strawberries in between layers.

Enjoy, everyone !

Comments

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