Snowflake Christmas Whoopie Pies

Christmas is just 10 days away and it seems that there's so little time with so much to do.  There's dinner menu to plan, groceries to buy, special Christmas dessert to prepare ahead of time but not too early though and last but not least, my daughter wanted me to bake her birthday cake with Little Pony Unicorn theme.  She does challenge my humble decorating skills each year.. oh my!  If I'm lucky, it'll turn out looking like a pony or else... I can't even imagine how I'm gonna do it.  Each year we celebrated her birthday together with Christmas as she was born on the eve of Christmas Eve!  Yup, she's been waiting for this day so that she'll get double presents! lol

Oh yes, not forgetting more shopping for presents.

Each year I have this list of all the cookies I wanna bake for Christmas, all the cupcakes with beautiful decos, all the pretty little gingerbread man and the list goes on but never got to do any of it.

This year, I'm adamant to make even if not all but at least one or two.  Since I've never made Whoopie Pie, and since I have this Whoopie Pie recipe book, thought I make the Christmas Whoopie Pie.  And I'm glad with my choice as my family (oh ya..and my neighbors) enjoy them.

There's more Christmas dessert coming.. gonna be a surprise! And I'm pretty excited about it because it's going to be my first time at making it... I will post it even if it's a disaster..lol

This whoopie pie has a nice chewy soft cake with almond flavor.  The creamy buttercream really compliment the whole pie.

Snowflake Christmas Whoopie Pies
(Yields 14 pies)
200g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
large pinch of salt
55g ground almond
115 g butter, softened
150g caster sugar (I used 110g)
1 large eggs, beaten
1 tsp almond extract
100 ml milk
silver balls for deco

Buttercream filling:
150g unsalted butter, softened
8 tbsp double cream (I used 4 tbsp since I reduced the sugar)
280g icing sugar, sifted (I reduce this to half the amount as I don't like it too sweet)

Icing:
115g icing sugar
1-2 tbsp warm water

1. Preheat the oven to 180dC. Line 2 large baking tray with parchment paper. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Stir in the ground almonds.
2. Place the butter and sugar in mixing bowl and beat with electric mixer till pale and fluffy. Beat in the egg and almond extract followed by half the flour mixture and milk. Stir in the rest of the flour mixture and beat until thoroughly incorporated.
3. Pipe or spoon 28 mounds of the mixture onto the prepared tray, spaced well apart to allow room for spreading. Bake for 10-12 mins until risen and just firm to the touch. Cool for 5 mins then transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

Filling:
1. Place the butter in a bow and beat with an electric mixer for 2-3 mins until pale and creamy. Beat in the cream then gradually beat in the icing sugar and continue beating for 2-3 mins until buttercream is very light and fluffy.

Icing:
Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and gradually stir in enough water to make a smooth, thick icing that is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon.

Assemble:
To assemble, spread or pipe buttercream on the flat side of one cake. Top with the other half of the cake.  Spoon the icing into a piping bag, snip the end and pipe snowflake patterns on top of the whoopie pies.  Decorate with silver balls and sprinke with icing sugar.