I love red velvet cake (especially around Valentine's Day!) and so the other day I decided to whip up a batch of whoopie pies. I have tried multiple filling recipes, some with cream cheese, some with shortening, but never was too thrilled with any of them. A while back, I finally found one that I loved! I haven't made it in a while and when I got the recipe out, I realized that it is almost identical to Jessica's Marshmallow Buttercream Frosting recipe! I guess great minds think alike! I was just going to color the frosting pink (for my little girls!), but noticed a jar of maraschino cherries in the fridge and decided to use the juice to color AND flavor the frosting at the same time! I absolutely love anything cherry flavored, especially when paired with chocolate...so I thought these were delicious!
Red Velvet Whoopie Pies with Cherry Filling
COOKIES:
1 box Red Velvet cake mix
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
FILLING:
2 sticks unsalted butter (softened)
1 (7-ounce) jar of marshmallow creme
2 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
3-4 TBSP maraschino cherry juice (you can definitely add more!)
Add oil and eggs to the cake mix and blend together.
Roll the dough into balls and place on cookie sheet. I used a standard sized cookie scoop to make the balls the same size and then just rolled them to make them a little more round.
Bake cookies at 350 for 8 minutes and let them cool completely before making the filling. Blend the powdered sugar and butter together until well mixed.
Next, mix in the marshmallow creme and vanilla until smooth.
If you want your filling to be cherry flavored, add 3-4 TBSP of maraschino cherry juice. I may have added a little more than that just to make it a little more pink and it was wonderful! It just depends on how strong of a cherry flavor you prefer!
Next, I used a cookie scoop to portion out the filling onto half of the cookies, and then I placed the remaining cookies on top to make little sandwiches. Enjoy!
