Your Christmas Budget: The 1900's

Representative prices for items popular at various times during the decade, culled from newspaper and magazine ads of the period:

Men's smoking jacket: $5.00

Women's corset ( "all popular sizes:): $1.59

Sheet-music cabinet: $6.25

Phonograph: $150.00

China candle stick. 50 cents

boy's worsted sweater: $2.00

Toy sewing machine: $1.00

Toy automobile"with rubber tire wheels": $2.50

Elevated railroad set: $5.00

Clothbound copy of Peck's Bad Boy: 39 cents

The only blind person at Christmas-time is he who has not Christmas in his heart.

----Helen Keller

I have to giggle today cause I got a few e-mails this morning requesting that I put the Whoopie Pie recipe up on the blog... soon!!!! So here I am little earlier than normal.. blogging and reading!!!

I have used this recipe for the past 10 plus years... I have used different cocoas to make the "shell" of the Pie... and I have come to the realization that there is NO BETTER cocoa than King Arthurs. Unfortunately I have not made a road trip up that way so I had to settle for Hershey's.. which taste's just fine too...

So here are a picture of my pies!!

The batter is not super stiff... but should be thicker than cake batter....

The final product.. I have to QUICKLY FREEZE the ones that I want to mail or save for Christmas Gifts or they are GONE!!

FlipFlopMom's Whoopie Pies

1 cup shortening

2 cups milk

2 tsp vanilla

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

4 cups of flour

3/4 cup cocoa

2 1/2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp salt

Normally I dump this all together and mix from there.. but you can do it this way as well..

Cream together shortening, sugar. Add eggs in one at a time. Add vanilla. In another bowl mix flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt together. Slowly rotate combining dry ingredients with the milk... mix well. Preheat oven to 350 degrees... I lightly spray my cookie sheets with pam so the "cake" doesn't stick to the pan... I use two small spoons as my drop size on the cookie sheets.. Bake at 350 degrees for about 8-10 minutes... check your oven during your first batch so you can get to "know" how they cook.. each spooful can vary in size... Let the "cake's " cool and then remove them from the pan.. ( cooling takes about 5 minutes).... Once the "cake's" are cool frost oneside with a good amount of cream filling and and "cookie" it together with another "cake"...

*** Now here's a few pointers.. depending on the % of milk you have ... you might not need the whole amount of milk.. I used skim yesterday.. so I ended up only using 1 1/2 cups of milk.. so just watch for the look of the batter.. if you use whole you can use the whole two cups...

FILLING.... This is NOT a Marshmallow filling.. this is a creamy frosting filling... I prefer it OVER the Marshmallow any day.

3 cups of confectioners' sugar

1/3 cup shortening

1/4 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla....

*** Again.. my tips for this.. I DOUBLE this amount... I blend the shortening together with the sugar.. and then add vanilla... SLOWLY add your milk in... it's better to NOT Have enough than to have to much... beat the mixture together and add your milk in a little at a time till you get the desired creamy texture you want... ( I tend to make it stiffer than store bought)...

It's a LOT easier to make it than it sounds.. but if you have ANY questions.. you can always ask me... and if this wasn't the internet.. I'd post my # so you could call me if you needed... Ü I'm horrible with directions.. and this just happens to be one of those recipes that I have altered so much.. EAT and ENJOY!!!