Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

Let’s start off this blog with something that has started to become quite popular over here in the UK.  Red Velvet and Whoopie Pies!

I made these the other day (please ignore the random red bits that have mixed with the icing.  I couldn’t get rid of them.  Also, I’ve lost my camera so the photos have been taken on my phone.  Sad face).  And I love them!  And, apparently, so do my brother’s friends, to whom my brother nicked most of the whoopie pies to take to his band practice.  But oh well!  At least people like them.  Which is always a good thing.

     Anyway!  The recipe:

Ingredients:

Whoopie Pies:

·         120g butter at room temperature (or you could use 60g butter and 60g vegetable shortening – I use Cooken.  This won’t give as smooth a texture but it will taste the same)

·         175g light brown sugar (using dark brown sugar doesn’t make a difference)

·         1 medium egg (free range!)

·         290g plain (all-purpose) flour

·         1 tsp salt

·         1½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

·         240ml buttermilk (or 240ml milk and 1½ tsp lemon juice)

·         25g cocoa powder

·         1 tsp red food colouring

Filling:

·         50g cream cheese (I use Philadelphia.  To me, it’s the best!)

·         30g unsalted butter at room temperature

·         ½ tsp vanilla extract

·         220g icing sugar

Optional:

·         Red edible glitter (if you have it) to sprinkle over the top of them.  It totally baffled my brother’s friends when they saw that they were eating ‘sparkly’ cakes.

Set oven to 180^oC (350^oF).  Line two baking tray with greaseproof paper.

Whisk together the butter and the sugar (either by hand or in an electric mixer).  In another bowl, mix the flour, salt and baking powder together.  And in yet another bowl, mix the cocoa powder with the food colouring.

Whisk in the egg into the butter and sugar until it is completely combined.  Then add the flour mixture in parts, varying between the flour mixture and the buttermilk.  When all the flour and buttermilk has been added, mix in the red cocoa powder mixture.

Put the batter into a piping bag and pipe 5cm circles onto the lined baking trays.

Bake them for 10-15 mins (or until they spring back when touched).  Leave them to cool on a wire rack before filling them (otherwise the filling will melt!)

To make the icing, beat the cream cheese and butter (again, either by hand or in an electric mixer) before adding the vanilla extract and the icing sugar.  Keep beating until it becomes smooth and fluffy.  Pipe onto the flat side of one of the pies and sandwich with another pie (flat sides facing each other).  Do this for all the pies.  If using the edible glitter, just sprinkle it over the pies (you don’t need much to make them look good.  Although the glitter hasn’t shown up in any of my pictures.  Again, sad face)

The nom nom nom would be more impressive if I had found my camera :(