Making whoopie

Whoopie pies, that is.

(What can I say? Couldn't resist the opportunity to use that line.)

My friend Ellen is having a little get together on Sunday night to watch the season premiere of Mad Men on AMC. It will be a period foodfest, with green bean casserole, meatloaf, Maytag blue cheese salad, and gimlets galore.

While I myself have never watched an episode (until tonight, thanks to my beloved Tivo), I am game for an evening of retro food with friends. Plus, the clothes on that show... fabuloso! The photo spread in the current issue of Vanity Fair was just luscious and I was hooked on the eye candy, both sartorial and thespian.

(Sidenote: when I showed my engineer the photos, I thought he might enjoy it, as he has a taste for mid-century design. However his immediate comment was, "That guy (Jon Hamm) looks constipated in every single photo." While I think Mr. Hamm is gorgeous, now I cannot see any of his photos -- or for that matter, most stills from the show with him in it -- without the unseemly urge to burst out laughing because it's TRUE! My sweetie certainly has a way with words sometimes. *snicker*)

Anyway, based upon my viewing of tonight's episode (Ep. 1 from Season 2: For Those Who Think Young) I might give up watching season 2 and just read their detailed episode guides instead.

In any case, although jello parfaits were suggested (since I of course volunteered to bring dessert), I hate STUFF in my jello, so instead, I fixated upon the idea of whoopie pies. I had seen an article from the March 18th edition of the New York Times Dining section, complete with recipe, and it evidently caught my fancy.

While I have no idea of it's historically accurate or a complete anachronism, I'm gonna go with it.

So though most of you have seen these types of shots (creaming the eggs and sugar, etc.) in your own kitchens, I just LOVE baking porn, so here they are anyway.

After I took the cakey portion of the pies out of the oven -- all 12 halves -- I realized that I only have one cooling rack. Whoops (pun intended).

So I "repurposed" my All-Clad splatterguard. HA!

The filling I will make in the morning, since it should only be added after the pies have completely cooled in any case, and I am tired -- this insomnia, Lunesta be damned, is kicking my ass.

And then in the early afternoon, my engineer and I are off to an Indian wedding, for one of his former coworkers. I've never attended one, so that should be interesting!