I made some lovely whoopie pies last week--unfortunately, my lab scoffed them up before I could get a picture. So no, these are not the whoopie pies that I made (they're Bon Appetit's), but mine looked pretty similar.

I made this exact cake recipe, but I substituted a basic cream cheese filling for the maple one (I had cream cheese in the house, but no marshmallow fluff). They were actually quite tasty, and not too sweet, which was good for the people in my lab.

I know Amanda was considering making these for the holidays, so here are my thoughts on the recipe:

1. I would add extra cinnamon, it wasn't spicy enough for me. Granted, I added a little less nutmeg than the recipe calls for because I didn't have much left, but I know some of you will want to leave the nutmeg out all together. More cinnamon! Other than that, the cake was delicious. Manda, you might even be able to substitute your famous pumpkin cake recipe.

2. When you drop the cakes on the baking sheet, take a bit of extra time to make them smooth on the top and as round as you can make them. For some reason, I thought they would spread out as they baked, but they definitely do not--if anything, they puff up higher! And some of mine turned out to be weird oblong shapes, which made matching them up for pies more difficult.

3. Try and make the cakes a bit flat. They don't seem that big when you have them on the baking tray, but then once they bake, and you try and put two together....well suffice it to say that my pies posed a bit of a challenge to actually fit the pie into your mouth.

4. Lastly, invest in some parchment paper (I think Reynolds makes a pretty cheap version these days). It made the cakes just lift right off, with not even a chance of sticking or starting to make crumbs on the bottom. I thought it was great!

http://www.bonappetit.com/magazine/2009/10/pumpkin_whoopie_pies_with_maple_marshmallow_cream_filling