Malteser Whoopie Pies

A whoopie pie is not actually a pie, but two small cakes that have been sandwiched together with a filling.

1. 1

   Preheat the oven to 180ºC and line several baking sheets with non-stick parchment or use silpat/silicone baking liners.
   
   In a large mixing bowl, using an electric whisk, cream the sugar and butter until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time and whisk again.
   
   Finely crush the Maltesers to a rough powder in a grinder or food processor and put a couple of tablespoons aside for topping the whoopie pies. Put the rest into another large bowl. Add the flour, baking powder, cocoa powder and a pinch of salt to the Malteser powder mixture. Mix these dry ingredients well.
   
   Carefully whisk the milk, vanilla extract and the dry flour ingredients to the egg mixture in batches, making sure everything is well mixed and combined. You should be left with a thick batter.
   
   Spoon rounded dessertspoons of the batter onto the lined baking sheets, allowing space for them to spread while cooking. You could use a cookie scoop to make even drops of mixture.
   
   Sprinkle the reserved crushed Maltesers onto half of the drops of the mixture - I found that the whoopie pies looked better if the crushed Maltesers were sprinkled onto the tops after 1 minute of cooking as the batter had then spread and you got a more even covering of topping.
   
   Bake for about 12-15 minutes, the tops should be puffed up and springy to the touch.
   
   When cooked, remove and place onto a wire rack to cool.
   
   For the filling: Put the Maltesers into a bag and crush them lightly with a rolling pin.
   Put the mascarpone into a large bowl and start whisking gently. While whisking, add the cream carefully and stop when all the cream has been added. The mixture should be fairly stiff. Fold in the Maltesers using a large metal spoon or spatula.
   
   Spoon the filling onto the sponges and sandwich together with another sponge.