I baked the shells (cakes? cookies?) for these whoopie pies one night after work when I was utterly exhausted and shouldn’t have been baking at all – that’s when mistakes happen.

My first two trays came out flat and anemic looking – underbaked but still delicious. My second two trays were almost completely charred (instead of setting the oven timer for 5 minutes, I set the temperature to 500 degrees – good one!).

The flat, anemic cookies are moist and the cinnamon and banana come through loud and clear. The few overbaked cookies that I salvaged look nicer – more rise, but the flavors are lost.

I bumped up the salt in the buttercream because I’m a fan of salty sweets. Despite the troubles, these are pretty darn good.

For the recipe and to see how the other Baked Sunday Mornings bakers fared, head over to Baked Sunday Mornings.

• Banana Whoopie Pies (Baked Elements, p. 202)