Fat Friday...

Whoopie indeed! For two main reasons. One, that I somehow managed to wade myself out of Glasonbury alive [whilst having a fab time in the process, more on that later] and two, that I finally cracked the secret behind the elusive whoopie pie recipe.

Basically, don't mess it up.

Simple as. See, last time, I managed to add in a few hundred grams of icing sugar where I shouldn't, and I created biscuits that were all kinds of wrong [tasty nonetheless, but so, so wrong]. This time though, I adapted a few tips and measurements from here and there and made up my own little recipe. Seems like following your own advice can sometimes work wonders.

Now, back to the mud-covered week of glory I just survived. It was fantastic, and I'll be sure to blog about it another time [it needs a devoted post and, alas, this one is more sweet-tooth than welly-boot], but what it resulted in was a desperate need to feel clean.

The hot shower preceded by an hour long bath was lovely, but still not quite enough to make me feel squeaky clean, fresh in that summers-day, crisp-breeze sort of way. And so my attention turned to food. I've eaten salad for lunch pretty much every day this week, have been loading up on fresh, juicy fruit and haven't stopped drinking anything that isn't cider. In Danni world, this is almost a detox.

And in Danni world, no detox is complete without something sweet and baked. Uh huh.

I knew I wanted to retry the whoopie pie, but somehow chocolate just wasn't calling to me [the fresh air obviously got to me]. I needed something fresh and clean, sweet but refreshing, and so I came up with this little number.

Lemon and coconut whoopie pies.

Don't get me wrong, these are almost achingly sweet, but they're sugary in that light, airy way which doesn't feel so naughty. They're fruity, tropical and helped all the more with a sprinkling of white chocolate chips.

I wish I could say I finally felt clean after eating one of these refreshing goodies, but no. I managed to drop buttercream all down my front didn't I? Smooth.

INGREDIENTS

We'll move onto the filling and topping later.

For now, pre-heat the oven to 375°F // 190°C // GM 5 and line two baking trays with greaseproof paper.

In a bowl, sift together the flour and bicarbonate of soda.

In a seperate bowl, beat together the butter and sugar. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat until incorporated.

Now grab the flour/bicarb bowl and pour half into the wet mixture. Add half of the milk and stir.

Once incorporated repeat with the remaining milk and flour.

Drop tablespoon sized portions onto the pre-lined baking trays, leaving plenty of space for them to spread. To make giant whoopie pies [and I mean shareable size...it defeated me!] just make 2tbsp portions and leave an even larger gap between them.

Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until they spring back when pressed lightly.

Remove from the paper to cool and place on a cooling rack. Now, to fill and top!

INGREDIENTS

Beat the butter lightly and add the icing sugar and coconut. Beat until incorporated.

Arrange the pies into evenly shaped pairs and spoon a little frosting onto one of each couple! Spread with a knife and sandwich together.

And last but by no means least, it's time for the topping.

INGREDIENTS

Sift the icing sugar into a small bowl, squeeze in the lemon juice and add a little water if it's too thick [or more lemon juice if you like a bit of tang!].

Spread the top of each pie with icing and sprinkle on chocolate chips if desired.

Voila! The cleanest dessert of them all. Well, it's tastier than shower gel that's for sure.

xxx