when my friend let me know she would be hosting another wizard rock show, i immediately started planning what i would bake. i will use the flimsiest excuse to bake ridiculous desserts (i even invented a holiday), so actual events are very exciting for me. i had been toying with the idea of butterbeer cake pops, but then whoopie pies starting showing up everywhere and they looked like more fun. sadly, the internet was lacking a butterbeer whoopie pie recipe, so i cobbled together a couple of recipes after several taste tests at potterland.
i live so close to hogsmeade that i knew i couldn’t make these unless they tasted like actual butterbeer, and the second batch was perfect. the cakes were full of butterscotch flavor, and the frosting added just the right hint of marshmallow.
butterscotch cookies:
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick butter (softened)
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tbs caramel flavoring*
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup cream soda
marshmallow frosting:
1/2 stick butter, softened
3/4 cup confectioners sugar
1 tsp vanilla
7 oz marshmallow fluff
makes about 70 sandwiches (teaspoon sized batter = cookies about an inch across)
01. preheat oven to 350 degrees.
02. in small bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
03. in a larger bowl, cream together butter and sugars for about 3 minutes. add egg, vegetable oil, caramel, and vanilla. mix together.
04. slowly add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, mixing after each third. add cream soda about 1/4 cup at a time, until batter reaches the right consistency.**
05. pipe or spoon*** about teaspoon-sized amounts onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet.**** they need a little bit of room to spread. bake for 8-10 minutes, until golden around the edges. when you take them out of the oven, let them cool on the pan for a minute, and then transfer them to a cooling rack.
06. after all the cookies are baked, make the frosting. basically just mix all of the ingredients together. if you have a dinky hand mixer (like me), mix it by hand. that marshmallow fluff means business, y’all. you can add a tablespoon of heavy cream or milk or whatever you have on hand if it needs to be thinned out.
07. put a small (small!) amount of frosting on the flat side of a cookie. smoosh it together with another cookie that is of a similar size and shape. try not to devour it immediately. rinse. repeat.
*i found the caramel flavoring at walmart, in a weird brand i’ve never used before. it worked great though! if you can’t find that, caramel or butterscotch syrup would probably also work, you’ll just need to adjust the amounts a bit.
**it should be in-between a cookie and cake batter, i guess? i don’t know, i did this twice and these amounts left the batter the perfect consistency for me. if you want the cakes to be more cakelike, add up to 1/4 cup more flour. if you bake the first batch and the batter was too thin, add some flour. if it was too thick, add some cream soda. i have faith in your abilities.
***the first time i made these, i piped them because that was what the internet told me to do. it wasn’t hard, but it was a little messy and more complicated than i like my baked goods to be. the second time, i got one of these containers. it was less than a dollar at wal-mart. i found it in the housewares department. i snipped the tip a little, since the batter is thick. i used our biggest funnel and our smallest spoon to get it in there. (use the handle of the spoon to sort of shove the batter through the funnel.) once i put a batch in the oven, i would refill the container and then stick it in the fridge to firm up a bit. leave the bowl with the extra batter on the counter, cos it’ll be easier to get through the funnel when it’s closer to room temperature.
****if you are a lazy baker like me and usually just rip a piece of parchment paper that looks to be about the right size, i have some bad news for you: you want to cut it down to be an actual good size for your pan. the batter/cookies are too light to weigh the paper down and end up being weird shapes if you let the parchment paper hang all over.
