Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

Happy Blog-a-versary to me! Happy Blog-a-versary to me! Happy Blog-a-versary to the Newtonienne! Happy Blog-a-versary to me!

One year ago this week I decided to dedicate my blog to my culinary adventures. A few (27) recipes later and I have officially been food blogging for one year. No, I'm not on any of the cool food blog aggregators like foodgawker or foodblogs.com nor am I unaware that I need a new camera to improve my photos nor am I in denial that this constant cooking thing is taking a chunk out of my 'grocery store food' line item in my budget . . . But I am enjoying it and judging by the hits on my site, a few others are too for which I am sincerely grateful. In order to celebrate the milestone as well as the recent Valentine's holiday, I made these Whoopie Pies. I may have set the fire alarm off twice (still don't know how that happened - I blame the suspect apartment appliances) and I may have doubled the size of my whoopie pies so that instead of making 15 like the recipe says, I made only 7 -- but these slight hiccups did not diminish the deliciousness of this dessert (or snack if you are that hardcore).

Now, not to brag or anything, but I make a stellar Red Velvet Cake for Christmas (future post, I'm sure) and I will admit these weren't as good but they were fun and cute and festive. Sort of like myself . . .

So here's to another year of food blogging. Here's to hoping I do more than 27 posts in 2011 as I continue to improve. Here's to hoping my blog is finally approved by foodblogs.com (they have like 5 billion blogs on there, how come I can't be one?) and my photos are accepted at foodgawker.com (ok, I respect the stellar quality of the photographs on it so I get that one). And here's to hopefully stumbling upon a Canon Rebel XTi with a 50mm f/1.8 lense laying on the side of the road . . .

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies
From Sweetcakes Bakeshop

Makes 10-15 sandwiches. (Or 7 if you measure like I do.)

1/4 c butter
1 c sugar
2 eggs
2 tbsp buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp red food coloring
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
4 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add in eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Beat in buttermilk, vanilla and red food coloring. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet.

Scoop dough onto a lined cookie sheet using a generous medium scoop (2-3 tablespoons). Bake at 375 degrees F for 10-12 minutes until centers appear set. Allow to cool slightly. Then pull the liner onto the wire cooling rack to cool completely.

Cream Cheese Filling

8 ounces cream cheese
4 tbsp butter, softened
2 tsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar

Cream together cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl. Beat in milk and vanilla. Sift powdered sugar over the wet ingredients and beat in until smooth. Spread in between two cooled red velvet cookies.