These whoopie pies are so good I could not wait to share them with you!
Before diving into the cake batter, let’s start with the chai filling, which needs to be prepared ahead of time. The base is soaked cashews blended with coconut cream, maple syrup to add sweetness, coconut oil to help it firm up, spices, vanilla, and a mandatory pinch of salt. For the spices, I went with a simple blend of cinnamon, cardamom, and ginger. For an even more authentic chai flavor you can also add some cloves.
Next comes the cake batter. It’s gluten-free, naturally sweetened with coconut sugar, and flavored with pumpkin purée. I used one FULL cup of pumpkin! We can almost say we get our daily dose of vegetables with a couple of whoopie pies. Almost.
The cakes won’t spread much so you have to slightly spread them into a disk using the back of a spoon. 13 minutes in the oven and it’s ready! The addition of pumpkin puree gives them a beautiful orange color and makes them soft and fluffy.
Finally, spread a generous amount of chai coconut cream onto half of the cakes and top with the rest. This recipe makes about 14 whoopie pies, which is not much actually considering how fast they disappear.
If you are a chai tea addict, you will love these pumpkin whoopie pies. The coconut cashew cream almost melts in your mouth while still keeping its shape at room temperature, and the cakes have a super tender texture.
These whoopie pies are the perfect holiday treat to have while watching a Christmas movie, or basically at any time of the day. They would make a nice Thanksgiving dessert too!
Cashew cream filling adapted from Minimalist Baker’s Cashew Buttercream Frosting.
Hey Thomas, this looks awesome! Question for you… can you sub out the tapioca starch for another starch (corn, arrowroot)? Thanks!!!
Hey Beth, yes that should work!
Do you think the recipe would work with “normal” flour?
I guess it could work but I have never tried honestly, I try to keep all the recipes gluten-free.
Was excited to try these, but the chai seeds were omitted from the ingredient list. Can you please email me with the amount. Are they soaked with the cashews? Please help me out as I am ever so anxious to try them!
What do you mean by chai seeds? There is no need for chia seeds in this recipe.
Janine, if you substitute most of the ingredients the result can’t be the same I’m afraid. GF mix won’t’ absorb the same amount of liquid as oat flour, same for coconut and rice flour, that’s why the consistency of your batter was off. Regarding the color, yes it depends on the pumpkin puree you use, some are more yellow than orange.
Do you think I could get away with just oat flour?
I’m afraid it won’t work, tapioca helps bind everything together.
Do you think I could replace the rice flour with something (not sure what) or leave it out completely and adjust the amounts of everything else? Really can’t have rice flour.
This looks so good! Do you use this flour blend for any other desserts?
Thanks! Not from what I remember, I usually change the blend depending on the recipes.
About 3 days in the refrigerator but are best eaten the same day!