Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

I must say, this being my first Valentine's in the blog world, I just love gawking at all the sweet creations popping up all over the place. I've always enjoyed Valentine's Day because it's a day you show your affection for someone special through fun, thoughtful, and sometimes crafty expressions (of course, I love when those expressions are edible!). And I'm not just talking about showing affection for that romantic someone in your life, but for anyone that is special in your life... family, friends, classmates, teachers, co-workers... anyone that is special to you.

My sister recruited me to bake some yummy treats for my niece and nephew's teachers. Given that my nieces and nephew are my most favorite little people in the entire world, and their educational growth and social development is very important to me (because I want them to grow up to be my most favorite big people in the entire world), I happily agreed to help my sister show her appreciation for those who have a wonderful impact on her kids. I decided to make these adorable heart shaped whoopie pies, and packaged them up in some super cute boxes. It turn out to be a perfect little gift!

These whoopie pies are absolutely delicious! I believe Matt's words when he sampled them were, "These are ridiculous!" Ridiculous being cool terminology for "insanely good". :) I browsed through a couple of recipes for cream cheese filling and finally ended up creating the one below, and it was phenomenal! Once I tried it, I immediately started brainstorming all the wonderful things I could make to include cream cheese filling so that I could have more reasons to make it. :) So. Darn. Good!

Ingredients
Yields 2 dozen whoopie pies
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
8 tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 oz red food coloring

Filling:
8 oz Neufchatel cream cheese, softened
4 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
2 1/2 cups confections' sugar
1/2 tbsp clear vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat oven to 375°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.

In a small bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, cream butter on medium-high speed. Add brown sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Reduce speed of mixer to low, gradually beat in half of the flour mixture, then the buttermilk, and then the remaining flour mixture just until incorporated. Do not over beat. Blend in food coloring.

Transfer batter to a pastry bag fitted with a large round tip. Using a heart shaped cookie cutter as your guide, pipe batter onto prepared baking sheets spacing each heart about 1 inch apart.

Bake 7-9 minutes or until tops are set. Cool on wire racks. Remove cooled cookies from baking sheets.

For filling, cream the cream cheese and butter in a large mixing bowl. Gradually add confectioners' sugar. Beat in vanilla.

To assemble, transfer icing to a clean pastry bag fitted with a large round tip. Pair the cookies up according to size. Pipe frosting onto the flat side of one cookie from each pair, leaving a little room around the edges. Sandwich the cookies so that the flat sides are facing each other, pressing gently so that the filling reaches the edge. To store, refrigerate in an airtight container.

Source: adapted from Annie's Eats, originally from Better Homes & Gardens