Classic Whoopie Pie vs Sticky Toffee Pudding with Toffee Sauce

Both desserts cream butter with sugar and beat in egg and vanilla, yet they end up in very different places. The Whoopie Pie bakes cocoa cookies leavened with baking soda from the dry mix, then sandwiches them around a smooth, fluffy filling of butter, shortening, powdered sugar and vanilla. The Sticky Toffee Pudding instead soaks chopped dates in boiling water with bicarbonate of soda, folds them into a brown-sugar batter, and finishes with a hot butter, brown sugar and cream sauce poured over the warm pudding. One is a chocolatey sandwich; the other is a toffee-sweet, sauced dessert served warm.