Recipes - Carrot Cake Whoopie Pies

I found this recipe on Tracey's Culinary Adventures, and it was awesome :) I converted the cup measurements into weights, to make it easier for my British friends to use! If you'd rather use cups, then feel free to look at the original recipe. 

Ingredients
For the cake
120g unsalted butter, at room temperature
105g granulated sugar
85g light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
300g plain flour
1.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
.5 tsp ground nutmeg
.5 tsp salt
150g grated carrot (roughly 2 small-medium carrots)

For the filling
90g butter
120g cream cheese
220g icing sugar
.5 tsp vanilla

Directions
For the cake, cream the butter and two sugars together until they are light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, and stir in the vanilla. Measure all the dry ingredients (flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, salt) into the bowl and then stir in to form a soft dough. Mix in the grated carrots, then cover the bowl with cling film and refrigerate for an hour. Longer is better, 30 minutes will do in a pinch.

Prepare your baking trays by cutting a sheet of non-stick baking paper for each try. Depending on the size of your trays, and how many you have, you will probably need to bake in batches.

When the dough is chilled, turn on the oven to pre heat to 180 degrees C, or gas mark 4. Use two teaspoons to scoop the dough into little mounds on the tray, a bit smaller a plumb. Don't worry about them being too neat, but try to make sure they are all the same size. Place them about 2 inches apart as they will flatten and spread out when baking, and you don't want to make a uni-cookie. I managed to fit 6 on each tray, and made 24 in total.

Place the trays in the oven and bake for 15 minutes, but check after 12 minutes to see that they're not cooking too fast. The lower down tray will probably take 18 minutes. They are cooked when they are golden brown and somewhat firm to the touch. Slide the parchment sheets off onto cooling racks and rinse the trays under cold running water to cool them down. Re-line them with parchment and separate out the rest of the dough and bake that in the same manner. The cooked cakes can be peeled off the paper after about 5 minutes - before that and they will stick a little. When they are completely cool, store them in a tin before you ice them.

For the filling, put all the ingredients except the icing sugar in a bowl and beat until smooth. Then add the icing sugar in 3 or 4 parts, through a sieve, each time mixing til smooth. At the end is should be light and fluffy. Get out all the baked cakes and match them up as best you can into pairs that have the same size/shaped foot. Spread lots of the filling onto the flat side of one and sandwich them together. If you have left over icing, eat it with a spoon over the sink before washing the bowl. But don't tell anyone I told you that. If there's lots, maybe try putting more on the cakes next time. It's quite good on scones or even just as a cheeky sandwich.

Store your whoopie pies in the fridge, on a plate wrapped in clingfilm or in a sealed container. They should last a week like this, if you can stop yourself from scoffing them all. They're pretty big, but they're ridiculously more-ish!

Love and hugs