Inside Out Chocolate Whoopie Cupcakes

Makes 20 cupcakes

For the cake:

• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup buttermilk, shaken
• 6 Tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup warm water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Fill the cups of your muffins tins with paper liners.

In a bowl add the dry ingredients: cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt. Stir to combine. With your electric mixer on low (I used my hand mixer for this) stir in the eggs, water, buttermilk, vegetable oil and vanilla until combined. Mix on medium speed for about 2 minutes until the ingredients are fully combined and the batter is smooth.

For uniform cakes use a scoop to divide the batter into the muffin cups. Bake for about 20 minutes on the center rack of the oven. Let cupcakes cool in the pan completely before frosting.

For the Filling

• 1 cup milk
• 3 Tablespoons flour
• 1 cup solid shortening
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla

Directions

To make the filling: In a saucepan over medium heat, combine milk and flour and cook, stirring constantly until it forms a thick paste. Let cool.

In a medium bowl, beat sugar and shortening until fluffy. Add vanilla. Add cooled flour mixture and beat until double in volume.

To Fill and Frost the Cupcakes

Use a pastry bag to squirt the whoopie pie filling into the center of the Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes. It is easy to squirt the filling into the top of the cupcake. You'll be frosting over the top so no one will know how the filling was inserted. Pipe additional whoopie pie filling on top of the Chocolate Chocolate cupcakes.