What to buy: Waitrose’s Whoopie Pies

If you had not noticed already, the American craze for ‘Whoopie Pies’ hit the UK food fashion well over a year ago. What are they? They came about as a way to use up leftover batter amongst Amish groups in New England. They almost look like mini Victoria Sandwich Cakes (though you can get different coloured sponges according to flavour), but the difference is the sponge has a slightly more biscuit texture and the butter creamed filling often consists of melted marshmallows.

I had my first try of these Yankee concoctions last year when M&S launched a range of pre-packaged ones. Overall out of the few I tried, none were particularly good and my verdict was that Whoopie Pies were simply overrated plain pieces of sponge with butter cream plonked in between. Just like the way I feel about the revival in cupcakes really.

Yet, this opinion was altered when I went into Waitrose last weekend. Seeing slightly large sized ones reduced down to 89p in the bakery counter and having never yet given Waitrose the chance to prove me wrong, I went ahead in sampling the toffee, and chocolate & cookie ones. I could not detect any toffee in the former. Still it was a lot fresher than those dull overpriced M&S ones had been. As for the chocolate & cookies one, I wanted more! It was a lot like consuming a cake version of Oreo biscuits, and my views on Whoopie Pies were forever erased. In fact, I think these will probably be emerging on my cravings list very soon!

"Wonka’s Whipple-Scrumptious Fudgemallow Delight" Cake

Inspired by the literary "Wonka’s Whipple-Scrumptious Fudgemallow Delight Bar" from Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, this is a gooey chocolate sponge cake oozing with surprise pieces of melted caramalised fudge. Drenched in fudge sauce and centred with a marshmallow cream filling, this really is the ultimate fix for the sweet tooth or even just simply a way to return to childhood fantasies.

For the cake:

270g dark chocolate, broken into pieces

4 eggs, separated

100g caster sugar

200ml double cream

100g Cadbury’s Fudge, broken into large pieces

For the fudge sauce:

125g light soft brown sugar

170g evaporated milk

50g butter

2 drops vanilla extract

For the marshmallow cream:

50g chopped marshmallows, plus extra whole ones for decorating

300ml double cream

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3. Grease two sandwich cake tins and line the bases with greaseproof paper.

2. To make the cake, melt the chocolate completely in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Set aside to cool completely.

3. Whisk the egg yolks with 65g of the caster sugar until pale and fluffy. In another bowl, whisk the egg whites with the remaining sugar until soft peaks form when whisk is removed from bowl. In a third bowl, whisk 100ml of the double cream to peaks.

4. Fold the chocolate into the yolk mixture, then stir in the 100ml of unwhipped double cream. Gently fold in the whipped cream, followed by the egg whites until combined.

5. Divide the cake mixture between the two cake tins. Sprinkle over the fudge pieces between the two cakes. Bake for approximately 30 minutes. Once cooked, leave in the tins for 5-10 minutes, turn onto a wire wrack to cool and strip off the base papers.

6. To make the fudge sauce, combine the brown sugar and evaporated milk in a saucepan. Heat gently, stirring frequently, until the sugar dissolves. Once dissolved and the mixture comes to the boil, keep the heat very low and simmer for 6 minutes without stirring. Remove from the heat, whisk in the butter and vanilla extract. Transfer to a bowl and once cooled, cover with clingfilm and chill for an hour to thicken.

7. For the marshmallow cream, whip the cream until peaks form. Fold in the chopped marshmallows. Spread over one sponge. Beat the fudge sauce and spread most of it over the other cake. Sandwich the two together.

8. Spread the rest of the fudge sauce over the top and decorate with marshmallows.