Whoopie Pies

Whoopie pie (alternatively called a gob, black-and-white, bob, or "BFO" for Big Fat Oreo), an American baked good that may be considered either a cookie, pie, or cake. It is made of two round mound-shaped pieces of chocolate cake, sometimes pumpkin cake, with a sweet, creamy filling or frosting sandwiched between them.  (from Wikipedia)

I LOVE Whoopie Pies!  I didn't know that's what these things were called.  My friend, Wendy, used to make them every year for us for Christmas because they're on the "all time favorites" list.  But she called them Homemade Oreos, and I'm pretty sure she didn't make them from a box.  Typically I'm not a fan of dessert mixes in a box (cake mixes are the one exception).  And because my dad was a chef,  I have substantial guilt whenever I "cheat" and make a convenience dessert.  But a friend gave me this box for Christmas, and it was so darn cute that I had to at least try them.  

Not only were they TOTALLY easy, but they were SUPER yummy, too!  Daughters #1 and #2 helped make them.  The little cookies are like Devil's Food cake.  They scooped perfectly and baked into these perfectly round, 3" dark chocolate cake circles.  We made 45 of them, and since they have to be assembled into sandwiches requiring an EVEN number of tops and bottoms, we had to eat cookie #45.  (sometimes sacrifices are unavoidable)

We let them cool and mixed the frosting.  You add your own butter, powdered sugar, and milk to a little mystery packet of something. (????).  I'm not sure what that something is or what it added to the frosting because all those other ingredients would have turned into frosting without it, but the box said to add it, so I did.  The only part of the cookie that was "peppermint-y" were the little crushed-up peppermints that are supposed to be added after the cookies are assembled, but that didn't seem like enough to me, so I added 1/2 teas of peppermint extract to the frosting....PERFECTION!  

Then we set up our assembly line frosting, assembling, and rolling the cookies in sprinkles and peppermint crumbles until we ended up with 22 of the most perfect cookies ever made...

Seriously yummy stuff!  I split one with one of the girls, but then when they left the kitchen I ate another entire cookie all by myself!  These may even be as good as Wendy's.

Since I was so impressed with this "boxed dessert," I thought I'd go back to Target (that's where the box said it was from) and buy whatever remaining Whoopie Pie mixes there were (just to have around in case we had a craving sometime in the middle of March or something), but guess what??  

They were GONE!!!!...ugh! HUGE disappointment!   

It's a good thing there are still 15 of those things downstairs in the kitchen.  I may have to have one for breakfast tomorrow!