Instructions

For the Whoopie Cakes:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the sugar, eggs, vanilla and butter. Cream this till mixed together completely. Add the brewed coffee, mixing till combined.
4. In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa, salt, espresso powder). Add this to the sugar mixture in small batches till the dough is smooth.
5. Drop small spoonfuls of the dough onto the lined baking sheets. I like using a tiny ice cream scooper for this. If you want to make larger whoopie pie cookies feel free. I like making small bite-size versions so I have more to go around. Also, try to spread out the dough a bit so it looks like a small cookie shape. When I made mine I did not do this, and the cookies rose quite a bit. They still tasted great, but makes for a very tall whoopie pie!
6. Cook the whoopie cookies in the oven for 10-12 minutes. 11 minutes seemed to be the magic number for me. Just keep an eye on them and take them out once the top of the cookie springs back when touched.
7. Cook the rest of the dough in this fashion till you've used up all the dough. Let these cool completely before assembling the pies.

And now for the filling:

1. You will want to make the caramel sauce first. Heat butter and brown sugar on the stove in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat, whisking until the sugar is dissolved into the butter, around 2-3 minutes. The sauce it creates should be thick and browned. It will also start to bubble a bit.
2. Add heavy cream, whisking it to combine.
3. Add the salt and whisk together. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
4. Now it's time to make the basic filling. Using a mixer, combine the cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla. When these are all combined and smooth, add in all the caramel sauce. Make sure to mix this well so the sauce is evenly distributed into the filling.
5. If needed, put the filling into the fridge to cool before assembling the pies. Depends on how hot the caramel sauce is and if the filling is thick enough.

Putting it all together:

1. Once the whoopie pie cookies are cool, spread a generous spoonful of the filling on the bottom of one cookie, then top with another cookie. Voila! You have made your first whoopie pie!
2. Continue in this way until you have either used up all the cookies, or run out of filling. This filling should be enough to make 17 whoopie pies, with a little filling leftover. I'm still trying to figure out what to do with the leftovers. So there may be a salted caramel cupcake recipe in my future.
3. Serve and enjoy.