Recipe: Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

Happy Valentine’s Day, friends!  I hope your day is filled with all good things and lots of love.  Friend, family, lover – whoever you’ve got your eye on, give them a squeeze and share something sweet to eat.

I whipped up these Red Velvet Whoopie Pies for a girls’ night earlier this week, and I think they’re the perfect blend of festive and delicious.  They come together quickly so there’s still time to make these today.  To keep things simple I used a box cake mix (it’s an intimidating amount of food coloring), but you can substitute with any cake recipe if you’re feeling fancy.

Roughly adapted from Everyday Occasions by Jenny Steffens Hobick.

Ingredients:

Cake:
1 box red velvet cake mix
3 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup water

Buttercream filling:
2 sticks butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
3 to 4 cups confectioner’s sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Combine all ingredients for the cake in a large bowl and mix thoroughly.  Transfer into a piping bag.  (No piping bag?  Grab a large ziplock bag, spoon in the cake mix, and snip a hole in the corner of the bag.  Voila!)
3. Pipe equal-sized circles of batter onto parchment paper.  You can also pipe heart shapes by drawing a “V” with the batter.
4. Bake for 8 minutes, remove from oven, and allow to cool.
5. Meanwhile, create buttercream filling.
6. Mix butter and 1 tsp vanilla.  If you have a stand or hand mixer, use this for best results.  You want the butter getting creamy and light.
7. Slowly add in confectioner’s sugar.  Too much at a time and you’ll have a cloud of sugar!
8. Once you incorporate 3 cups of sugar, check the consistency and taste.  Add more sugar as needed.
9. Assemble the whoopie pies: pipe icing onto the flat side of one cake, then sandwich with a similar-sized cake.
10. Repeat for the whole batch of cakes, except the two or five that make it in your mouth first.
11. Share with a pal.  Spread the love.

Please excuse the less than perfect-looking whoopie pies.  I piped the cakes too close together and then didn’t photograph them until after they sat in the fridge overnight.  In real life they taste just as good as prettier ones.

Also, this is a shout out to my awesome husband and beautiful daughter, the best Valentines I could hope for!  I love you more than words can say.  xo T