Initially, I had wanted to make the Korean Moon Pies, with chocolate cake and marshmallow filling, then dipped in chocolate coating. After a few rounds of googling and internet, I had come to see that moon pies are actually made with biscuits, not cake. But the ones I ate in Korea had cake! So I immediately thought of a whoopie pie, cause it’s quite similar to the Korean moon pies. Chocolate cake, checked. Marshmallow filling, checked.

In the original recipe of the marshmallow filling, it had Marshmallow fluff and shortening; I dont know what is Marshmallow fluff and I don’t really like putting shortening into my bakes so I had to use the normal marshmallow recipe and hope for the best. eekk..!

I was very skeptical about the whole piping-marshmallow-filling in between the cakes as the previous attempts of marshmallows, they are usually very runny and it would take a few hours to actually set in a mould. How is that going to be possible if I wanted to pipe fresh marshmallow onto a piece of round cake and make sure it doesn’t slide off. Are you kidding me? Of course it would slide off and if would be messy.

Classic Chocolate Whoopie Pie

(adapted from Bakerella)

200g all-purpose flour
50g unsweetened cocoa powder
1  teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
60g butter
60g shortening (I used butter, so in total 120g butter)
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup milk

• Preheat oven to 175 degrees.
• Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
• In a bowl, sift together, flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
• In another bowl, beat butter and sugar with a mixer on low until just combined. Increase speed to medium and beat for about 3 minutes.
• Add egg and vanilla and beat for two more minutes.
• Add half of the flour mixture and half of the milk and beat on low until incorporated. Repeat with remaining flour and milk and beat until combined.
• Using a tablespoon, drop batter on baking sheet two inches apart. Bake for about 10 minutes each or until pies spring back when pressed gently.
• Remove from oven and cool for about five minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool completely.

Marshmallow Filling

(adapted from BrownEyedBaker)
2 egg whites
Pinch cream of tartar
Pinch salt
2/3 cup light corn syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
Method:
1. Using a mixer with the whisk attachment, beat the the egg whites with the cream of tartar and the salt until firm peaks form, gradually increasing from medium-low speed to medium-high speed as the egg whites gain volume.
2. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, boil the corn syrup over high heat without stirring until it registers 110-112 degrees Celcius on a candy thermometer. Slowly drizzle the hot corn syrup into the egg whites and beat at high speed until glossy, about 2 minutes. Reduce the speed to medium-low, beat in the vanilla extract and the powdered sugar.
3. Using either a pastry bag or a spoon, mound about 1½ tablespoons of marshmallow filling into the center of a cookie. Top with another cookie and press lightly to spread the marshmallow to the edges.

4. Add another mound on top of the second cookie, and top with another cookie, again pressing slightly to spread the filling to the edges. Repeat with the rest of the cookies.
Note: As with the humidity here, using freshly made marshmallow immediately after it’s made is a terrible mess. For some of it, I kept the marshmallow in a piping bag and let it sit so it sets a little, then pipe onto the whoopie pies later. But seeing that the recipe actually has no gelatin, it’s quite a gamble. The ones with the ‘set’ marshmallow did stand better a little. If were to make this again, I would use gelatin in the marshmallow filling recipe, or resort to other fillings and not use marshmallow.