Whoopie Pies

Whoopie Pies.  Yum, yum, yum.  These are a pretty indulgent little treat.  So rich and yummy with a such a  lovely texture to bite into.  Pillowy chocolaty sweetness.  I can really understand what the craze is about.  I think I could live off whoopie pies for quite awhile.  Or at least eat them for breakfast every morning (I love sugar for breakfast). This recipe did not disappoint and is relatively easy to make.  It does call for shortening but this can be substituted with butter or margarine if you don't have this available to you.  It also calls for sour milk which can be made by adding 1 teaspoon of white vinegar to 1 cup of milk and letting it sit for five or so minutes (this is a great tip if a recipe ever calls for buttermilk and you don't have any on hand).   I didn't make the icing to go with these as many people indicated it was pretty sweet and I didn't like the idea of the raw eggs for something I was giving away so I used a butter cream icing in the centre and it was perfect.  If you want to try the original whoopie pie than the icing would be worth trying.  

These cupcakes/cookies/pie or whatever you wish to classify them as (because that's really how great they are) were given to a family who has had a rough time recently.  A few weeks ago they had a house fire and much of their belongings have smoke damage.  They have had to move house because of this.  Thankfully no one was home during the fire but as you can imagine this is a pretty scary thing for anyone to experience. 

A few years ago our own house caught fire in the middle of the night.  Miraculously the neighbors saw it and woke us up and called the fire department.  Fortunately none of our belongings were damaged but for quite some time I would wake in the middle of the night reliving awaking to the sound of people banging on our house and with the realisation that we could have lost our lives.  We didn't have batteries in the smoke alarm as they had died a few weeks previously and I was 'getting to it'. I also figured that we were pretty safe with our cooking and neither of us smoked so the chances of a fire were next to nil.  I also figured that surely the smell of smoke would wake you (I now know you can't smell when you are sleeping).  When I found out the house was on fire, I panicked a little and didn't know what to do.  I feel sick about that now as my daughter was sleeping in the next room and I should have had a plan on getting her and getting her outside as quickly as possible.  I feel embarrassed about this but I wonder how many other people are like I was? I will always take fires seriously now.  I don't ignore the commercials on TV anymore and I always make sure my smoke alarms are working. Please, think about what your attitudes surrounding house fires are.  Make sure you do have a plan and you really know how you will handle a fire if it happens to you.  Because it could.  It happened to me and it has now happened to someone I know.  If you haven't done so go and check your smoke alarms because such a small thing could save your life.

You can find this recipe for whoopie pies here.