Make “Whoopie” for Valentine’s Day
Nine out of ten, Valentine’s Day is the root of disappointment for a lot of people. It’s made some people bitter and angry, and even in denial about their disdain for the holiday…but not for me. I’ve had fairly good Valentine’s Day experiences, even though for most of then I’ve been single. Last Valentine’s Day I got a puppy, who is now, by far, my best friend ever. (I named her “Chodoi,” Japanese for “perfect”.) This Valentine’s Day is looking to be awesome, and I know just what I’m going to do for A.
A. is easily the skinniest fat kid there is. (I know…it makes me angry, too, that he’s skinny as a rail and eats like a horse.) He’s really into food, which is good because it’s just about the only thing I can do right. Luckily, I’ve got Sur La Table at my disposal.
At my disposal, I have Chocolate Whoopie Pie mix and India Tree “String of Pearls” decorating pearls. I also have a Heart-shaped Wilton cake pan that’s not only perfect for this day of days, but is non-stick!
Now that I have the mix at my disposal, I can make my lovely desserts. It was really, really easy(as all box-mixes have been made to be) and really, really fast. All you have to do is preheat the oven to 400 degrees and combine the wet with the dry. I had never made these before so I was kind of surprised by how springy the mix turned out to be. I had to be pretty lax with the mix and I thought they wouldn’t fill the pan…but—to my delight—the cakes puffed up like marshmallows and were huge!
I cut the tops off and made the pretty(for Valentine’s Day) cakes using the shapely bottoms. I saved the tops for me(a little reward for doing such a good job) and the box made a lovely dozen of whoopie pies(half puffy half shapely…kind of like me).
The frosting mix was included, but I wanted to take it a step further using rose water instead of milk as the liquid. This was so romantic, and making the rose water felt like drawing myself a bath and sprinkling rose petals in the water for myself. The best way to make rose water is to simply steep petals in warm water for at least 40 minutes to get a gently poached petal…and a pretty gold-ish colored water that have the rose flavor in it.
After about 40 minutes on a low poach, it’ll look something like this. Who knew that roses could go from red to white?
To make the frosting, I took the frosting mix, 4 oz. of cream cheese, 3 tablespoons of rose water, an extra cup of powdered sugar and 1 stick of room-temperature butter. Creaming them all together with the petals(drained) in the frosting makes them so beautiful and so-so-SO tasty! Want a finishing touch?
Take the pearls and put them in a shallow bowl. Then simply roll the sandwiched cookie/pies in the pearls sideways to make them stick. Display with roses and greenery, and make whoopie for Valentine’s Day. See if minimal effort can’t get you maximum results.
by TheWannabeGourmande for StyleCoven
