It’s not hard to be inspired these days with so many blogs, magazines and pins, so that I could spend more than a lifetime in the kitchen trying out new things. But cracking it down, my problem is the overflow of inspiration. I am an indecisive person, always have been and always will be. Whenever there are too many options and ideas, I am easily overjoyed what leads to being completely uninspired. That happens to me a lot lately, probably because my day-job has been rather demanding in different ways. But whenever in doubt, I can always rely on Martha Stewart. She is not only an icon, she is also an unfailing source of inspiration for me. For my birthday I got the Martha Stewart Cupcake book and my first try, S’mores Cupcakes, turned out awesome, even the homemade Marshmallow, which allegedly is difficult to do, was amazing. And the reaction to those cupcakes at my friend’s BBQ restored my faith in my baking. Though Martha is da Queen, I have 2 major problems with American recipes: The cups measures (here’s a nice piece on why one is fed up with stupid cups measures) and way too much sugar. That’s why I always convert the recipes and reduce the amount of sugar. Reducing the sugar needs to be balanced because it affects the consistency of the batter and as baking is pure chemistry it’s essential. However I think I have found a good balance and like to present you some nice bake for hot summer days: Keylime Whoopie pies! Whoopie pies are like cakes answer to Macarons, 2 halves of cake sandwiched with a decadent creamy filling. And as the pies only take 10 mins in the oven, they can also be made on warm days. For 16 Whoopie pies:
- 150 g flour
- 120 g whole wheat flour
- 150 g dark brown sugar
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 tsp cinnamon
- pinch of salt
- 150 g full fat plain yoghurt
- 65 g vegetable oil
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- To sprinkle hot whoopies: 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon and 25 g sugar
Mix the flours, soda, salt, sugar and 3/4 tsp of the cinnamon in a bowl. In another bowl beat yoghurt, oil and eggs for several minutes on medium speed. Reduce speed to low and add the flour-mix in 3 steps. Once everything is blended, stir in the vanilla extract. Cover and refridgerate for 30 minutes. In the meantime cover 2 baking trays with parchment and prepare the filling.
For the filling:
- 250 g cream cheese
- 75 g confectioners sugar
- 1 tbsp grated lime zest
- 1 tbsp fresh lime juice
Beat the cream cheese until smooth before sifting in the confectioners sugar and adding the zest & juice. Beat well until combined, then cover and refridgerate.
Preheat the oven to 175° C. Use a tablespoon to drop rounds of dough on the lined baking trays, leaving space in between cause the dough will spread a little. Transfer to the lower half of the oven and bake for 10 minutes, make sure to rotate the trays halfway through so that they bake evenly. Once they are set remove from the oven and immediately sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar. Place the trays on wire-racks to cool. Once the cakes have cooled, peel them from the parchment, spread about 1 tbsp of filling on the flat side of one cake and sandwich it together with another cake. The Whoopies keep fresh in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 2 days.