Red Velvet Whoopie Pies
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Nothing says Valentine’s Day dessert quite like red velvet. It seems that it was created specifically with this holiday in mind. Although many variations of red velvet are sold year-round, Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to dust off the red velvet recipes and let them shine! Back in the fall I made red velvet cupcakes (which far surpassed any I have found in bakeries!) and naturally I wanted to do another spin on red velvet with Valentine’s Day approaching. Cue the whoopie pie!
I’ve mentioned before that I grew up eating the chocolate cake and white filling version of whoopie pies known as “gobs” in the Pittsburgh area, but I love all of the variations that have sprouted up in recent years. There’s pumpkin, s’mores, and a whole host of others. The possibilities are limited only by your imagination!
In honor of Valentine’s Day, red velvet whoopie pies were in order. They are fluffy, a little chocolatey, a deep, gorgeous red, and filled with sinfully sweet cream cheese frosting. Truly dreamy.
One year ago: Icebox Cake
Three years ago: Black and White Chocolate Cake
Red Velvet Whoopie Pies with Cream Cheese Filling
Yield: About 2 dozen assembled whoopie pies
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 40 to 50 minutes total
Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Ingredients:
For the whoopies:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup vegetable shortening
½ cup light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 teaspoons red food coloring
1 cup buttermilkFor the cream cheese filling:
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
3½ cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extractDirections:
1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.
2. Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, beat together the butter, shortening and both sugars on low speed until just combined. Increase the speed to medium and beat until fluffy and smooth, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla and the red food coloring and beat until just blended.
4. Add half of the flour mixture and half of the buttermilk to the batter and beat on low until just incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the remaining flour mixture and remaining ½ cup buttermilk and beat until completely combined.
5. Using a spoon (or a medium cookie scoop, which is what I used), drop a tablespoon of batter onto one of the prepared baking sheets and repeat, spacing them at least 2 inches apart. Bake one sheet at a time for about 10 minutes each, or until the cakes spring back when pressed gently. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and let the cakes cool on the sheet for about 5 minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool completely.
6. While the cakes are cooling, prepare the filling... In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat together the cream cheese and butter on medium speed. Add the sugar and beat on low speed until combined. Add the vanilla and increase the speed to medium-high; beat until creamy and smooth, about 4 minutes.
7. To assemble: Spread the filling onto the flat side of one cake using a knife of spoon. Alternatively, you can use a pastry bag with a round tip (I used a #12 Wilton tip) to pipe the filling onto the cake. Top it with another cake, flat-side down. Repeat with the rest of the cakes and filling.
Storing: Assembled whoopie pies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days. If you need to stack layers, place a piece of wax paper between layers.
(Recipe adapted from Whoopie Pies)
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I already liked your red velvet cupcakes, these must be great
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Una hermosura se ve estos pies
Un relleno muy bueno
besos
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These look delicious! Whoopie pies are the cutest
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These look amazing! I absolutely love whoopie pies
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Perfect for Valentine’s!
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Whoopie pies are awesome! These always make me feel like I’m closer to home, these are a blast from my past! Such beautiful photos!
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Awe, these are precious! I agree with Caroline, gorgeous photos. I love how Valentine-y they look with the pink background!
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Whoopie pies are definitely making a comeback! I love how they are so fun to make and equally fun to eat!
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These are almost too pretty to eat!
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these look just like the “hot velvet” cookies we’ve been selling like crazy for valentine’s day, except ours have marshmallow filling: http://www.cookiepanache.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=order&occasion_id=1&action=product_detail&product_sub_id=246.
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these look delishious! I love all things red velvet.
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We were thinking the same thing, I posted red velvet whoopie pies today too
Yours look terrific!
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These look delicious!!! I love the cream cheese filling as well. Yum!
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I am so excited you posted this! I was thinking of making red velvet cake pops for Valentine’s Day (but I can’t seem to find sucker sticks last minute), but now these are what I will make! now if only I can make them heart shaped….
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Sarah M on October 21st, 2011 at 11:55 am
I know this is a few months past due but for sucker pops go to Michael’s. I found all the supplies I needed to make cake pops at Michael’s. (I’m sure you have already found a solution, but i thought just in case you hadn’t i would post)
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These are just beautiful. I wish I could just make like 4 of them for my husband and I to enjoy on Valentine’s Day, and not a whole batch (because I will end up eating all of them!)
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Il colore è fantastico molto chic, brava li immagino deliziosi
ciao
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These are adorable! My daughter has planned to bake Valentine’s treats for her friends this weekend. She’ll be so happy when I suggest these
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Love red velvet anything!
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I will be making these this weekend, can’t wait.
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Perfect for my red velvet cravings.
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These look incredible! I think I need to add them to my Valentine’s menu
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Those are GORGEOUS!
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I am scrolling back through your red velvet postings and whoopie pies and am loving every one of it! Looks delicious and so beautiful!
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Red velvet anything makes me drool.
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Beautiful Whoopie Pies.
On another topic…..what happened to the Brown Eyed Baker Unplugged?
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Michelle on February 14th, 2011 at 8:17 pm
Hi Gloria, I am doing some rearranging and reformulating of the other areas of the site. Stay tuned for an update soon!
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These are beautiful!! I want to make them just to look at how beautiful they are!
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These are too cute! Definitely keeping them in mind for the weekend!
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I’ve already planned on making a batch of these this weekend=) I’m going to try and make them heart shaped. Hopefully it works out for me!
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i made some red velvet whoopie pies at christmas and people freaked out. i second the comment above – what happened to unplugged? i loved it!
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Whoopie pies are so much fun! Fun to eat, fun to say, fun to make! And yours look so scrumptious!
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WHOOP WHOOP! Happy Valentine’s Day – definitely puts in the mood.
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I really should make these for my Hubby’s family as they all LOVE red velvet cake (I personally have gotten a little sick of it from eating this and only this for every birthday and special occasion for the past 7 years…), but this might be a nice new change! Thanks!
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These are so pretty and look incredibly moist. Your pictures are really good, congrats on a great post. Guess I have to get on the Whoopie Pie and Macaroon bandwagon.
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they look delicious!
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Whoopie pies are the best. This recipe looks awesome. I noticed the book you’re baking from, I’ve also tried some recipes from it and love that cook book!
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Wow, your photo is absolutely gorgeous and really shows the lovely color of these whoopie pies. These looks delicious!
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I have never seen whoopie pies look so dainty. Superb presentation!
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I’m making these for my family today. My daughter loves red velvet anything. Thank you!
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PERFECT for Valentine’s Day… or any day!
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These are fantastic – love them!
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I made these with great success!
http://recipeladrona.blogspot.com/2011/02/red-velvet-whoopie-pies.html
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We made these whoopie pies and they are dry and brown. I would not recommend this recipe.
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Those are adorable and congrats on top 9!!!:)
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Wow! These look perfect. How do you get them to look so uniform and smooth?
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i just made my first whoopie pies today (posting tomorrow), but yours looks amaizing! congratulation on the top #9!
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Love woopie pies and red velvet cake – yours is a perfect combination of both! Congrats on the top 9 today!!!
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These look amazing. I tried making them, and they turned out much more brown in color than red … not sure what I did wrong. Advice?
Thank you!
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Michelle on February 14th, 2011 at 8:19 pm
Hi Heather, I’m not sure about the color – could have something to do maybe with the brand of food coloring or if it was perhaps old?
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I made these for my husband for Valentines dinner. Thank You! He loved them and so did I. They were wonderful!!!
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I made these on Valentine’s Day and brought to work. Everyone loved them. I make a new cookie every monday and these are a crowd favorite. Thanks for the recipe!
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Just made these…realized I was out of red food coloring after I’d already started. whoopSie! haha They just looked light brown instead of red, but are still yummy! Thanks for sharing.
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Try adding orange zest to your whoopie pie fillings for an extra burst of freshness!
http://theyuppielifestyle.blogspot.com/2011/02/recipe-orange-zested-buttercream.html
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This is a great recipe. I made them for my wife for Valentines Day. Thought maybe we’d eat them all in one sitting!!
Thanks for posting it. It’ll definitely get a repeat performance.
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found your site while looking for red velvet cupcake (great site by the way!). decided to make your red velvet whoopie pie since I love everything red velvet! love the texture of the pie but it seems taste too much like a chocolate cake. I looked up for other red velvet recipes online and found most of the recipes only require 1 or 2 tablespoons cocoa powder. 1/3 of a cup seems a lot (actually I cut down to 1/4 cup).
also, I only end up making 16 pies and I used medium ice-cream scoop. next week will try red velvet cupcake! thanks!!
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Ever since I saw these I have had a terrible craving but I know if I make them that I will be the only one in the family to eat them. They sure look luscious.
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Hi Michelle, i have a question about whoopie pies in general i have never made them and i am wondering if you can use any cake/cupcake recipie or if there is something special in the ingredients in whoopie pie recipies? and also how do you keep them so perfectly circular?
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Michelle on April 1st, 2011 at 3:29 pm
Hi Ashley, I just use a cookie scoop to scoop out the dough and don’t do anything else to them. As for the ingredients, I have seen some that use a cake mix; you sort of want the puffy properties of a cake with the looks of a cookie, if that makes sense. No special ingredients in these, just the ratios that get you the texture.
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My first batch of these cookies just came out of the oven, so I thought I’d throw out a few ideas on the “brown cookie” dilemma.
1. Did you add the food coloring? No, I’m not kidding. I’m a terrible baker. I mean, I’m not when I actually pay attention. But I habitually get distracted and forget ingredients or walk off and burn things. If I had brown cookies, this might well have been my problem.
2. What’s the actual temperature of your oven? No, not where you set the dial. Is there an element burned out? Is heat escaping somewhere? Both will wreak havoc on your baking. For some reason, when this happened to me, it took me months to figure out this was the problem. I initially thought I needed to go to remedial baking school.
3. Old food coloring. I have this vague idea that food coloring can go brown with age, but then this website (http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/Articles/Nutrition-Health-Food-Labeling-646/food-expiration-dates-faqs.aspx#421db231-007a-4014-94ef-4bcf38ecccf5) claims that doesn’t happen. I’d be very surprised, though, if food coloring doesn’t eventually change once it’s been exposed to air.
As it happens, though, I concentrated VERY hard on this first batch and managed to add my coloring (and all other ingredients) and not burn them. Oh, and how I ever got through life without a cookie scoop, I’ll never know. They look perfect!
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There look great and I’ll have to try them this weekend (I’m also trying your Margarita cupcakes
. I do have a question, I hate using shortening. Can I use butter and have the same effect? Will the pies be too flat?
And thanks for this fabulous website!
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Michelle on June 19th, 2011 at 12:31 pm
Hi Cindy, Butter really won’t have the same effect, as butter and shortening have different properties when it comes to baking. The shortening keeps the whoopie pies soft and help them hold their shape. Using butter instead could cause them to spread and be flatter, and perhaps not as soft.
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Woopie pies seem to be all the craze. I lovee red velvet, definitely think I’m going to have to try them! Great post
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Hi. I’m curious as to why you decided to increase the amount of flour to 3 cups from the original 2 1/2 cups in the recipe. Was the original too sticky and moist? I’ve tried both the original (choosing to use 1/4 c cocoa) and your recipe. The original came out smoother on top and moister, although it doesn’t rise as much and becomes a bit too moist after a day or so. I’m interested in hearing your take on it. Thanks!
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Michelle on September 5th, 2011 at 10:07 am
Hi Karen, I don’t have the cookbook in front of me and I made these so long ago that I honestly don’t remember the reason for the increase in flour – perhaps there was mention in the book about it?
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Karen Yang on September 7th, 2011 at 10:09 am
Oh, I thought you changed the recipe since the book now says 2 1/2 cups of flour. So maybe the authors reduced the amount of flour when they reprinted the book. In any case — I find that with 2 1/2 cups of flour, the cake is more moist although it doesn’t rise as much. In general, people prefer the moistness of that over the recipe with 3 cups of flour. Thanks for getting back to me!
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Hi! I LOVE YOUR BLOG! While I LOVE red Velvet, this is my first attempt at making it. This were delicious but I have 2 questions: 1) Mine never came out as well rounded as the one pictured above. There was slight puff, but not as much. Do you think it is an ingredient issue on my part (publix butter instead of a European brand i.e.)? 2) There was a little bit of streaking of color in batches 2 and 3. Pretty cool but not the uniformed look I was going for. I was terribly scared of overmixing but I may have undermixed, no? Thank you again!
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I think that European Butter has more fat than American, from what I know. That could definitely have an effect on the recipe. There is more water in American butter, and more air. The water causes steam when you bake which can make things puff more.
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I love whoopie pies! Do you have any ideas on how I could make Blue whoopie pies? Im from Kentucky and every year we have a big March madness party for Kentucky basketball and this year I would love to make Kentucky Blue whoopie pies. Thanks!
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Michelle on September 26th, 2011 at 3:51 pm
Hi Heather, Although I don’t have a recipe here on the site, I would suggest a vanilla whoopie pie and use blue food coloring. Sounds fun!
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can i make this without a mixer?
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Michelle on October 10th, 2011 at 4:37 pm
Yes, you could use a whisk and wooden spoon, along with some elbow grease!
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Daniel on October 11th, 2011 at 2:35 am
Thanx
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It sounds amazing…except for the cream cheese filling, I’ll have to try this w/ a rendition of the original butter roux frosting
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Hi, i have a question. once i cooled my pie on the wire rack i took a bite. it is so fluffy in the inside and lil bit crispy on the outside. however, on the next day when im acout to fill the pie with its filling, i taste another pie and it turn out to be very dense and not fluffy and crisp at all.
i dont know what went wrong. i had to reheat the pie in the microwave prior to serving to make it a lil bit fluffy. but then the filling will melt due to the heat.
i can only think of two reasons; i) its because of the climate coz i live in Malaysia. Or 2) because once baked i cool it on a wirerack directly infront of fan.
I appreciate if u could help me with my problem. Thanks!
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Michelle on January 6th, 2013 at 1:18 pm
Hi Haniza, They should have a soft and fluffy texture, so my guess is that if they turned dense it may have been caused by the air temperature/humidity.
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I made these today – and posted about them. Your recipe was great – I linked back here. Thanks again for the inspiration.
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I made these last year and they were a huge hit, so I am repeating it this year!
I am curious at the lack of vinegar in the recipe. Does the inclusion make the pie too soft? Thanks for all the great recipes and inspiration!
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A gluten free adaptation of these whoopie pies are presently “en route” in my kitchen! Come and visit my blog during the coming week to see them! Thanks for that recipe!
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