We celebrated New Year’s Eve at a friend’s house. It was a perfect family-friendly night with a yummy burger bar (you know what a fan I am of the whole bar idea).

We wanted to bring something decadent and delicious for dessert that we knew kids would like (no lavender cardamon truffles for this crowd), so we decided to make whoopie pies.

What a terrific idea it turned out to be. They were so simple to make, my five-year-old daughter could be very involved in the baking (plus she got to try marshmallow fluff for the first time — loved it!), and they were oh so tasty when they were finished. This will definitely be one of our Leslie family go-to desserts.

We based our recipe on this one from Eat, Drink & Be Merry but made a few tweaks.

So in case you’re wondering how we did it, and I highly recommend you try it, here’s the simple recipe:

Whoopie Pies:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 5 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 5 tablespoons cocoa
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Beat together sugar and butter, then add egg and mix until combined. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Add the flour mixture and milk and mix well. Drop on an ungreased cookie sheet using a small tablespoon or an ice cream scooper. They spread when baking, so err on the side of smaller rather than larger. Bake for 5 to 7 minutes. Once cooled, transfer cookie cakes to a wire rack.

Filling:

Beat together ingredients until smooth. Pipe the mixture in between cooled cookie cakes working your way from the outside in (or you could also spread it on with a knife).

If you make them, please email me a photo at jillian(at)catchmyparty(dot)com. I’d love to see how yours turn out.