The search is on for the perfect whoopie pie. It needs to be nice and chocolaty and not cloyingly sweet. A harmonious balance of chocolate and vanilla that must freeze well and stand up to an 8-hour car ride. That's not too much to ask for, is it?

The plan is to make these for our wedding, either as a dessert option or just as favors to put at each place setting, individually wrapped and tied with a pretty bow (and maybe these super adorable miniature lobster buoys). I thought it would be fitting - along with lobsters, clam chowder, and blueberries, these just scream Maine to me.

For this trial I used a recipe from Gourmet for the chocolate cake part, and Rose Levy Beranbaum's mousseline buttercream for the filling (the Gourmet recipe called for a marshmallow fluff filling and I'm not really interested in that). I used my 1 1/2 T scoop to portion both the cakes and the filling which gave me 36 cakes (18 when assembled) and filling for 15. They're really good, and at first I thought the filling may be too sweet, but that might have been due to too much sampling on my part. I just had a day-old pie and it was delicious.

I will keep testing recipes though and possibly go even smaller, using my 2 tsp scoop.

» Gourmet's Whoopie Pies
» Piece of Cake: Rose Levy Beranbaum's Whoopie Pies
» The Way the Cookie Crumbles: A comparison of four vanilla frostings