I know there are a lot of mixed feelings out there about Valentine’s Day, but I happen to think it’s a fun holiday. It’s a low stress day here – no expensive gifts or fancy dinners out – just a nice homemade meal and some quality time together. Oh, and candy! I love Valentine’s Day candy, especially those Reese’s Hearts 🙂 I haven’t decided what I’m making for dinner or dessert yet, but I generally try to come up with something a little more special than our typical meals, maybe with an ingredient we wouldn’t normally splurge on. I’ll let you know what we end up doing. In the meantime, between now and Monday I’ll be sharing a few Valentine’s Day recipes in case you’re looking for ideas.
I saw these adorable heart-shaped red velvet whoopie pies over on Annie’s site last year and have basically been itching to make them ever since. I put them off until Valentine’s Day approached because they really couldn’t be more appropriate for this holiday. Adorable red heart-shaped cookies sandwiched around irresistible cream cheese frosting – if there’s a red velvet lover in your life, I think these would be the perfect way to say Happy Valentine’s Day! Even Shane, who claims not to like cream cheese frosting, happily gobbled several of these whoopie pies for dessert the night I baked them. I used Annie’s technique to create the heart shapes, but you could definitely make round cookies if you wanted to keep things simple. Regardless of the shape you select, be sure to follow the suggestion to pipe (or spoon) the batter about 1/2-inch high. I learned the hard way (on my first batch) that if you don’t your cookies will be flat and not nearly as soft and cakey.
Red Velvet Whoopie Pies
cookies from Better Homes & Gardens, via Annie’s Eats
frosting from The Gourmet Cookbook, via Confections of a Foodie Bride & Annie’s Eats
Cookies
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons natural cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
red food coloring
Frosting
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
Preheat oven to 375 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt together. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then add the egg and vanilla, beating to combine. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture, beating just until incorporated. Add the food coloring a little at a time until you achieve your desired color for the whoopie pies.
Pipe (or spoon) batter in 1-inch rounds, about 1/2-inch high on prepared baking sheets, leaving about 1 inch of space between each round. (Alternatively, you can pipe heart-shaped cookies – see Annie’s photos and instructions linked above.) Bake 7-9 minutes, or until the tops of the cookies are set. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets for a few minutes then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
To make the cream cheese frosting, in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment beat the cream cheese and butter on medium-high speed until well combined and smooth, about 2-3 minutes. Add the vanilla extract and mix to combine. Gradually add the confectioners’ sugar, stopping to scrape the sides of the bowl occasionally. When all of the sugar has been incorporated, increase the speed of the mixer and beat briefly until smooth.
Match the cookies by size as best you can to make pairs. Pipe the frosting on the flat side of one of the cookies in each pair. Sandwich the cookies together and press gently until the filling reaches the edges.
Makes about 20 whoopie pies (depending on size)
Oh my goodness – I saw the heart-shaped whoopie pie pans on sale at Sur La Table today and resisted buying them. This post is making me think otherwise, they are so cute and the cakes sound absolutely delicious!
These look amazing Tracey. Love that you made them heart shaped too 🙂
Great job- so pretty! 🙂
O my! This looks very very nice 🙂 We usualy don’t celebrate Valentine’s day, but this year I will make this hearts for my loved one, he will be thrilled 🙂
So pretty and just perfect for Valentines day! I’ve been wanting to make whoopie pies – these will be moved to the “MAKE SOON” list!
Adorable! Anything with cream cheese frosting is a winner in my book, but these look exceptionally tasty.
Yum. I think valentines day snacks are appropriate for every day of the year….yum.
How in the heck can these get anymore adorable. I’m totally making these asap!
These look so beautiful! I love the red-white combination, thank you for sharing 🙂
Those hearts look perfect!
Super cute little cakes. I’m not really one for the holiday I must say, but i do love all the fun baking ideas that come around because of it! I really do need to try making some of my own whoopee cakes too!
These are so cute – I am certain I would love them!
These are absolutely adorable… And, I’m sure they taste amazing!
How cute! I bet they taste wonderful too. Thanks for sharing.
Oh wow! I can’t wait to try this! How wide are the cookies? and how long should they bake? the whoopie pies I make are usually round ones
@Sweet Tooth – I traced the heart shapes using a cookie cutter that was about 2 inches big. I didn’t fill the shapes entirely with the batter though. I baked mine for between 7 and 9 minutes, just like the round cookies. Annie (who I linked to as a source) has great photos, I referenced them when I made my cookies, and they’d probably help you.
These are so cute. I love the heart shapes.
Those are great, Tracey! =) I’ve never actually made whoopie pies. I really need to, since I suspect that B&G would really like them.
Beautiful! Your hearts look perfect. I have never made whoopie pies but think I should get on the bandwagon and try them out!
These are adorable!
I’m making this recipe this weekend! It’ll be a great surprise for my sweetie;)
these are adorable!!! love how the hearts are puffy and cute like clouds! congrats on top 9!
So cute!!
These are so cute! Thanks for mentioning the Reeses Hearts – I was going to make Valentine cookies this weekend, but thanks to a cold, I’m not going to do any baking. Even if there are no cookies, I think my husband will be pretty happy with a gift of peanut butter hearts.
Beautiful! They look seriously amazing! Congrats on making the Top 9!
I featured this in my Weekly Favourites post: http://the-red-deer.blogspot.com/2011/02/weekly-favourites-valentines-edition.html
These are adorable. You got the color and the shape.
I made these recently, not the hearts, and they are cute even as plain ole circles.
I really wanted to try these out this year, but I never got around to making them. Yours look perfect.
You always seem to out do yourself. Happy Valentines Day!
Ohh i’m falling in love with your blog! I would be so happy if you can share few of your romantic treats with my ongoing-”Valentine’s Day Event”(till Feb 20th)
how much red food colouring did you put into the recipe, because i put quite a bit into mine & my cookies were nowhere near as red as the cookies in the picture shown? also, i made my cookies pretty small, and i doubled the recipe, and i still was only able to make 13 whoopie pies. what were others yielding from this recipe?
@Ingrid – It’s been a while since I made these and I didn’t specifically note how much food coloring I added. Next time I make them I’ll update this post! (It looks like the site where I found the recipe used 1 oz food coloring, which would be an entire bottle if you’re working with the liquid stuff available in the US. Hers were even more bright red than mine.) Not sure why you got so few whoopie pies, especially if you doubled the recipe. Sorry you had trouble.
thanks for getting back to me tracy. aside from the quantity issue, the recipe came out pretty good, the cookies were actually nice and puffy. they weren’t the most flavourful cookies in the world, however, the cream cheese icing made up for that big time. we turned ours pink to make up for the deficiency of red in the cookies. i don’t like working with too much food colouring, or even buying things with colour in them, so maybe next time if i try this again, i’ll incorporate beet juice somehow and see what happens. happy valentines.