Baked Sunday Mornings: Red Velvet Whoppie Pies

I joined a new baking group, BAKED Sunday Mornings, which is based on the booked BAKED Explorations.  I got this book almost as soon as it came out, since I loved the first BAKED book and I was glad to find this group.  They bake every two weeks and post on Sunday mornings.


This week's selection is Red Velvet Whoppie Pies.  I guess they are appropriate for Valentine's Day (not a huge deal in our house), but they are also very appropriate for another major event in our household...Brown Bunny's Birthday. My very adorable son has a brown bunny that he carries around with him and sleeps with (actually it is a bear, but we don't argue) and he has cleverly named it Brown Bunny.  Apparently, the entire past month has been Brown Bunny's Birthday and his favorite color is red, so he needs a red cake for his birthday.  I convinced by son that red cookies were just as good as red cake, so we set about making these Whoopie Pies for Brown Bunny.  My son magnanimously agreed to eat one for Brown Bunny, and he enjoyed smearing it everywhere as well.


These were delicious.  The ones not eaten by Brown Bunny, I took to work, where they were promptly gobbled up, even by people who say they are on a diet.  Someone even called me after leaving the office to ask for the recipe.  All 15 mini pies and 2 large pies were eaten in one day.


An awesome bonus of this recipe is that it was so easy to put together.  I only made one change, which was to substitute butter for the shortening, since I am not a shortening person.  I made some mini (with my tablespoon scoop) and two large ones (with my regular ice cream scoop).  I think the minis were the perfect size, since you could finish them in a few bites and weren't too rich.  The cake was tender and soft and the filling was tangy and sweet at the same time.  I highly recommend these for the red velvet fan in your life (and you'll convert anyone who isn't).


You can find the recipe here.