You want to know what's better than a whoopie pie? A red velvet whoopie pie. I have yet to meet a red velvet creation that I didn't fall head over heels for. I just don't possess the ability to say no to red velvet. In fact, I had to bring the rest of these red velvet whoopie pies over to my parents' house for them to enjoy because I couldn't be trusted with them any longer. I filled these with a cream cheese frosting, but you could substitute a traditional buttercream if you prefer. (I am not usually a big fan of cream cheese frosting, but I like this version with these whoopie pies a lot.)
This recipe, like my recipe for Chocolate Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies, calls for shortening in the batter instead of butter. The reason for that is to achieve the fluffiness and height of the cakes. When all butter, or a shortening/butter mixture is used, the resulting cakes are much flatter (as pictured below).
They're so good...I promise you can't eat just one. I'm even thinking about buying myself one of these whoopie pie pans: Wilton Nonstick 12-Cavity Whoopie Pie Pan.
I typically try not to buy pans or gadgets that can only do one thing, but sometimes they're worth it. It took me 7 years to buy a bundt pan, and I have never looked back! I'm officially obsessed with bundt cakes, so maybe I'll become a whoopie pie pan convert too?
Red Velvet Whoopie Pies with Cream Cheese Filling
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: About 24 assembled pies 1x
Ingredients
For the cakes:
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ cup vegetable shortening
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup cocoa powder (my favorite is Penzey's Dutch-processed cocoa)
- 1-½ teaspoons baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 ½ tablespoons red food coloring
For the cream cheese filling:
- 4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with Silpat baking mats, or parchment paper.
- Cream sugar and shortening in an electric mixer. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat until very smooth, light,and fluffy, about 4 minutes.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.
- In alternating additions, add the dry ingredients and the buttermilk to the butter/shortening mixture, mixing until combined.
- Add food coloring, and mix until combined.
- Drop rounded tablespoons of the batter onto the prepared baking sheets.(Using a medium cookie scoop works very well.)
- Bake at 350 degrees for 9-10 minutes, until tops spring back when pressed gently.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.
- While the cakes are cooling, make the cream cheese filling: Beat together the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add confectioners sugar and vanilla and beat until smooth and fluffy.
- Spread a rounded tablespoon of the filling (cookie scoop works great here too) onto the flat side of one cake and sandwich it together with a second cake.
- Store in airtight container.
Notes
Note: Using shortening makes the cakes puffier than if you used butter or a butter-shortening mixture. Using half butter and half shortening works okay, but your cakes will be much flatter, looking more like a cookie.
These are also perfect for St. Patrick's Day if you use green food coloring in place of the red!
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