Whoopie Cake!

For those of you who don't know, I love celebrating. I'll celebrate almost anything because I just like an excuse to bake, host parties, decorate, etc. Imagine my dismay when I learned that Joe is pretty anti-birthday. To be fair, he isn't anti- other people's birthday, just his own. That said, I wasn't going to let him get away with not even getting a cake, so I set to work trying to figure out what he would most appreciate (since he wouldn't offer any suggestions).

One thing I knew he loves was Whoopie Pies (you know, the dessert made out of mini chocolate cakes with marshmallow fluff based filling). His grandmother had a recipe for them and he took over the task of making them this past Easter. It was so cute watching him bake and he positively scarfs the things down. I also knew that he really likes cheesecake (there was a time when we first started dating that we were always at the Cheesecake Factory). In a moment of sheer genius, I decided to combine the two.

While I figured I would be able to find a recipe online for whoopie pies, I wanted it to be his grandmother's recipe in particular. That said, I won't post it here. I'm sure it's not some super secret family recipe, but I still don't feel like it's mine to pass around. If you're interested in replicating this cake, I'm sure any whoopie pie recipe will do the trick.

Essentially I decided to turn the whoopie pie into a three layer cake with a lower layer of cheesecake filling and an upper layer of traditional whoopie pie filling! I did a test run the weekend before Joe's birthday to take to a friend's party and the cheesecake was a little hard, so the recipe below is the version I used the second time, which was much softer.

For the cheesecake, I just did a super simple crustless cheesecake. I took a round cake pan (because I didn't need the cheesecake to be pretty) and added a little bit of margarine so the cake wouldn't stick. Then, because I wanted it to be thin, I just did half of what I would normally do for a cheesecake. I used one package of cream cheese, one egg (the full recipe calls for three if anyone is looking to double this and make a full cheesecake), probably around 1/3 c. of sugar, and what likely amounts to around 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla. Super easy. The biggest thing is to make sure the cream cheese is out at room temperature for long enough to get soft so that you don't need to use a mixer. Using a mixer can cause over-mixing and make the cheesecake tough and less creamy. I like to be able to just mix mine together with a spoon and then put it into the pan. I baked it at around 325 degrees (lower than I would do most cheesecakes) for around 30 minutes. Then I put the whole pan, covered in plastic wrap, in the fridge for a day.

Then I took the cake portion of the whoopie pie recipe and used it to make three thin layers of cake.* They weren't all exactly even in thickness, so I used the thickest layer as the bottom and the thinnest layer for the top so that the fluff-based filling didn't get squished out everywhere.

*Side note: While I am not posting that recipe here, one suggestion I will share is to cook the cakes a little less than you would think to cook other cakes. The recipe I had was meant to be used for the smaller portions and therefore the big portion had a tendency to be a little dry in the test run. By baking them for a little less time and them wrapping them individually in plastic wrap while I kept them overnight, they stayed nice and moist.

To begin assembly I took the bottom layer and put a very thin layer of fluff filling, basically for use as cement to hold the cheesecake in place (something else I learned from my test run the weekend before), then I added the cheesecake. This time it turned out very creamy and actually split apart a couple of times. Because it was so creamy I was able to use a knife to smooth it out a bit and then put another very thin layer of fluff filling on top of it to hold it together.

I put the next layer of the cake on top of that and then slathered on the remaining fluff filling and the final layer of cake. I wrapped it all in plastic wrap and carried it to Joe's, where it stayed in the fridge for another few hours before the big reveal.

The final product after it was unwrapped at Joe's.

Held up pretty nicely this time. The cream colored layer on the
bottom is the cheesecake,while the upper layer is fluff-based filling

Joe loved it! It luckily held up very well and the refrigerator didn't dry out the cake too much. It was delicious a couple of days later too, so it keeps fairly well in the fridge if covered tightly with plastic wrap. His family loved it too, so I'll likely be making it again in the near future. I'm still trying to come up with a good name for it. Whoopie Cake is pretty encompassing, but there is no indication that a fully baked cheesecake is inside. Whoopie Cheesecake doesn't really give you a complete picture either because it sounds like some random version of a cheesecake. Whoopie Cheese Pie just sounds disgusting. Suggestions? In the meantime, I'll stick with Whoopie Cake.

Where did August go?

I'm pretty inconsistent with my blogging when I'm not procrastinating something else, it seems. Good thing I start school full-time in a couple of weeks...

That said, life has been pretty busy since I finished my research job.

Just a couple of days after I finished work, Joe and I went to a friend's wedding in New Hampshire. It was absolutely beautiful; both the ceremony and reception were on a boat on the Piscataqua River. Afterward several of the younger guests went out to the Press Room in Portsmouth for drinks to celebrate. Joe and I stayed overnight and spent the next morning hanging out in Portsmouth in all of the little shops.

After that I finished my summer class, which was the same workload as a semester long course, but accelerated. Needless to say, it wasn't easy to juggle with working full-time, but I'm glad I went ahead and got one class out of the way. Now I can focus on the other 19 I need to take over the next two years.

Joe and I took his nephew to a birthday party at Stone Zoo in Stoneham on the 6th. We all had a really great time. That night I hosted a housewarming barbecue, which was a success! It was great having people over and I'm hoping to do it a few more times in the fall and maybe some sort of holiday get-together as well. It's nice to have an apartment I feel at home in, even if I do spend most of my time at Joe's.

The following weekend Joe was away in Vegas for a bachelor party and I spent my time hanging out and catching up with friends. It was a friend's birthday so a group of us went to the beach in the early afternoon and then back to her place for drinks in the evening. I met a ton of really great people that day and look forward to hanging out with them again. I did a test run of Joe's birthday cake at that party (more on the cake later) and had an overall splendid time. One of the girls is in the Boston League of Women Wrestlers and I'm seriously considering trying to join. It seems like it would be a really fantastic way to fill my free time. Oh right, I don't have much of that right now.

I've also been doing what I can to keep up with my training. I broke my 5K record once again, so that was a great feeling. I'm trying to get in more of the distance runs and did a 6 mile run yesterday. Not sure what I'm going to be able to work in today, but I'm hoping for around 8 miles. I may end up doing the elliptical today instead for cross training and then do the 8 miles tomorrow. Still up in the air and will depend on how I'm feeling this afternoon.

I also made Joe a gift for his birthday. In addition to the books I got him (don't worry, his birthday has passed so there is no chance for ruining a surprise) I also made him some LP bookends. He's hard to shop for, so I decided to make him something that combined two things he really cares about--music and books.

I had bought my parents bowls made out of LPs for their birthdays, but realized that I could probably do the very same thing. A quick internet search confirmed my suspicions and I set to work on two Elvis Costello LPs (because we went to a show together and I wanted them to be meaningful), a Paul Simon LP (he went to a Paul Simon show with his dad and brother) and a Huey Lewis and the News LP. I boiled several pans of water and filled up our kitchen sink. When I put the LPs in the water, they almost immediately started melting down. It was a little difficult to get the hang out of reshaping them quickly enough once I took them out of the water (and the ends still bubbled up a bit), but at least the bookends will sit up on their own. Joe seemed to really appreciate them.

The photo quality isn't great, but you get the idea at least.

Then this past weekend, which was Joe's actual birthday (Happy 30th, love!) we went to a wedding in Plymouth. It was a lot of fun! There was plenty of dancing and revelry to go around. I even ended up breaking the strap off my dress because I was dancing so hard. Okay, so it was probably near the breaking point to start, but it was comical for it to break mid-dance. I ended up just stuffing both straps into the dress and pretending it was a strapless dress all along. I met a lot of really great people that night as well and look forward to hanging out with some of them again. 

I've also been spending a lot of time with my Little Sister. It's been so rewarding to be part of the Big Sister Association so far and I imagine that it will only become more so as time goes on. My Little and I have done things from going to the movies and having a picnic to playing Wii and going swimming. Last night I came over and we made homemade pizza and then baked a cake. I highly recommend the program to anyone who has the time and wants to get involved in a girl's life. 

There are a lot of more adventures to come in the next few weeks (Salem with Joe's parents this week and then a trip to NC for Labor Day weekend), but I'll save those details for a future post. The next post will include details and photos of Joe's birthday cake.