'Blood' Orange Chocolate Whoopie Pies (and BBC Good Food Show ticket winners!)

These are meant to look a bit messy! The ‘blood’ orange oozing out is just a filling made from cream cheese, marmalade and icing sugar, with some orange food colouring mixed in for good measure. The rest is an adaptation of a very simple chocolate whoopie pie. Whoopie pies seemed to be all the rage for a while, but the fad seems to be a bit over now. But paired with the blood curdling tangy filling they make a perfect and sticky Halloween snack!

165 grams plain flour

65 grams unsweetened cocoa powder

1 ½ teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

½ teaspoon salt

113 grams unsalted butter, softened

200 grams light brown sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

250ml full-fat milk

Adapted from ‘A Baked Creation’

Blood Orange Filling:

3 tablespoons full fat cream cheese

3 tablespoons smooth orange marmalade

200 grams icing sugar (may need more)

orange food colouring paste

Cakeyboi Original

Method:

Preheat your oven to 180C. Line two cookie sheets with greaseproof paper.

Sift together the flour, cocoa, bicarb and salt in a bowl and set aside.

In a mixer beat together the butter and sugar until light and creamy in texture. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until the mixture thickens very slightly.

Add one third of the flour mix and mix in, then add half of the milk, mix in, another third of the flour, last bit of milk, then last bit of flour. Don’t over mix the batter.

Spoon about two tablespoons worth for each pie onto the greaseproof paper, leaving some space in between, allowing for them to expand.

Place them into the oven for 12 to 15 minutes, They should feel firm to touch, but quite spongey. Let them cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing them from the greaseproof paper and letting them cool fully on a wire rack.

In a bowl mix together the cream cheese and marmalade until smooth. Add the icing sugar slowly until you get a slightly thick consistency. You may need more than recommended so have some extra on stand by.  Add enough orange food colouring to get a deep blood orange.

 To assemble, add the filling to a food bag, seal and snip off a corner. Pipe enough filling onto the flat side of one ‘pie’, so it oozes out when the top half is placed on.

And that is Blood Orange Chocolate Whoopie Pies. Messy and bloody – perfect for Halloween!

(Keeping them in the fridge stops the filling getting too runny!)

Lastly, congratulations to the lucky winners of the BBC Good Food Show Scotland ticket giveaway. Sandra, Angela, Sophie, William and Zoe (chosen by random.org) each receive two tickets each. They are in the post guys. Have a great time and maybe see you there!