Carrot Cake Cream Cheese Whoopie Pies

I guess this year´s Easter will be a little bit different then we´re used to, but I believe there still will be some cake on your table. I don´t know why but when I think about Easter, carrot and carrot desserts come to my mind. This year, I made Carrot Cake Cream Cheese Whoopie Pies. They are like a hybrid of cookies and soft, sponge-y, cake. Since there is baking powder and baking soda in batter, they expand when baking. Thanks to carrot, whoopie pies are soft and fluffy, and spices like cinnamon and ginger give them a lovely taste. Thanks to cream cheese and heavy cream filling they get soft even more. For me, this filling represents an inseparable part of carrot cakes, whether it is cream cheese or mascarpone filling. If you can´t decide whether you want cookies or a cake, these whoopie pies are right for you, for Easter or just during the year.

Ingredients:

Whoopie pies:

115 g butter

100 g brown sugar

80 g crystal sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

250 g all purpose flour

1 ½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

¾ tsp ground ginger

½ tsp nutmeg

¼ tsp salt

180 g grated carrot

Filling:

100 ml heavy cream

6 tbsp icing sugar

400 g cream cheese

Instructions:

Batter:
Beat butter with both kinds of sugar until fluffy.
Add eggs, one at a time, then vanilla extract, beat again.
In the next bowl toss together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt.
Incorporate flour mixture into butter mixture, stir.
Add grated carrot, stir well.
Take small pieces from batter using a spoon and create small balls from these pieces. Put these small balls on a baking pan covered with baking paper and slightly press them down. Cookies will slightly spread when baking so leave them enough space.
Bake for 8-10 minutes at 180 degrees or until golden-brown.
Let them cool and fill them with filling:

Filling:
Whip heavy cream.
Add sugar and cream cheese, beat again.
Put filling into a piping bag.
Put filling on one whoopie pie, cover and gently squeeze it with the second whoopie pie.