Valentine’s Whoopie Pies
Get ready for Valentine’s Day and surprise your loved ones with these irresistible Valentine’s Whoopie Pies! The cake-like cookies are colored with red, pink, and purple food coloring, sandwiched with sweet buttercream, and rolled with pretty sprinkles!
These Valentine’s Whoopie Pies consist of cakey cookies, vanilla buttercream, and pretty sprinkles. The cookie dough is divided and colored in vibrant and fun shades of pink, red, and purple, making them perfect for Valentine’s Day. Of course, you can make it even more extra special by making my Valentine’s Strawberry Fudge, too!
They’re easily adaptable with some simple ingredient swaps to suit different occasions or personal preferences. If you love the combination of soft cookies with sweet and buttery frosting, then you’ll also want to try these Carrot Cake Whoopie Pies, Strawberry Shortcake Whoopie Pies, Air Fryer Sugar Cookie Whoopie Pies, and Patriotic Whoopie Pies.
🌟 WHY I LOVE VALENTINE’S WHOOPIE PIES
Valentine’s whoopie pies are beautiful treats with bright red, pink, and purple coloring and matching sprinkles.
They make adorable Valentine’s Day gifts to give to your friends, family, partner, neighbors, or teachers. Add them to a clear plastic bag or paper box with decorative string and gift tags.
These whoopie pies are fun to make with your kids as a Valentine’s baking activity. It’s only 10 minutes of preparation and easy decorating!
🍽 KEY INGREDIENTS
Whoopie pie dough – This includes the ingredient staples required to make that spongy whoopie pie dough, including softened butter, white sugar, room temperature eggs, vanilla extract, all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt.
Food coloring – Red, pink, and purple food coloring gel is great for Valentine’s Day colors!
Frosting – This vanilla buttercream frosting consists of softened butter, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and milk. You can change the consistency of the frosting by adjusting the powdered sugar and milk.
Decoration – Use your favorite sprinkles that’ll add a pop of color and fun to these whoopie pies.
Swaps
Flour – Use Bob’s Red Mill flour for gluten-free whoopie pies. It’s a convenient 1:1 substitution.
Vanilla extract – Almond extract can be used instead of vanilla in the dough and frosting, OR use strawberry extract for this Valentine’s Day treat!
Food coloring – Easily make these delicious whoopie pies with different food coloring to suit other holidays and party themes. Colored sanding sugar can also be used instead of sprinkles. You can even use natural food colors to help add vibrant colors to your baking.
🥣 EQUIPMENT
You’ll need a baking sheet, mixing bowls, an electric hand mixer or stand mixer, and a cooling rack.
🔪 HOW TO MAKE VALENTINE’S WHOOPIE PIES
These vibrant and fun Valentine’s whoopie pies are easy to make with maximum visual appeal! Follow these simple step-by-step instructions and helpful cooking tips for best results.
Preparations
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.
Cooking Instructions
Step 1
Beat the butter and sugar, followed by the vanilla extract and eggs. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt, and beat again until the dough is smooth.
Step 2
Divide the dough into three separate bowls and add one color to each. Mix to combine. Check the recommended amount of food coloring gel to be used on the packaging of the product. For deeper shades of color, add more.
Step 3
Roll 1 1/2-inch dough balls with your hands and place them on the prepared baking sheet.
Step 4
Spray the flat-bottom of a drinking glass with cooking spray and flatten each dough ball until it’s about 1/4-1/2-inch thick. Bake the whoopie pies for 8 minutes, or until lightly browned, and then transfer them to a cooling rack.
Step 5
While the whoopie pies cool, cream the butter with powdered sugar in a mixing bowl. Add vanilla extract and milk, and beat again. Adjust the consistency by adding more milk or powdered sugar, as desired.
Step 6
Assemble the Valentine’s whoopie pies by filling two cookies with buttercream frosting. Roll each whoopie pie in the bowl of sprinkles to coat the edges, and enjoy!
💭 COOKING TIPS
- Make sure that the individual cookies are completely cool before assembling the whoopie pies, otherwise the frosting will become a runny mess!
- Sifting the powdered sugar will help to prevent any lumps in the buttercream frosting.
- Avoid overcrowding the baking sheet when baking the cookies. There should be about an inch of space between each cookie to accommodate normal spreading while baking.
- Be gentle when filling the cookies with the frosting as the cookies could break apart under too much pressure. Spread the frosting between the cookies, pressing the cookies together gently.
📖 RECIPE VARIATIONS
Enjoy these whoopie pies for other holidays or taste preferences with some basic variations!
DIFFERENT HOLIDAY OR THEME
Use different food coloring in the divided cookie dough to make whoopie pies for specific holidays, such as green for St Patrick’s Day or red, white, and blue for the 4th of July. The same effect can be achieved by using different colors of sprinkles.
FLAVORS
Easily change the flavors of these Valentine’s whoopie pies by using a different extract. Cocoa powder can be added to the dough for chocolate whoopie pies.
GLUTEN-FREE
Make these whoopie pies gluten-free by using Bob’s Red Mill flour instead of all-purpose flour.
🥗 WHAT TO SERVE WITH VALENTINE’S WHOOPIE PIES
These Valentine’s whoopie pies are scrumptious treats that can be enjoyed as is, gifted to friends and loved-ones, or added to other sweet treats as a Valentine’s day dessert. Here are some options you’ll love:
Ice Cream or Fluff Salad
Serve these whoopie pies with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, Strawberry Frozen Yogurt, or Cherry Fluff Salad.
Valentine’s Day Dessert Board
Add these Valentine’s whoopie pies to other Valentine’s treats, such as Strawberry Crunch Cake Balls, Red Velvet Cupcakes, or Red Velvet Cake Mix Balls.
Hot Chocolate
Enjoy a mug of hot chocolate with your Valentine’s whoopie pies with these Hot Cocoa Bombs.
🙋 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
These Valentine’s whoopie pies are filled with buttercream frosting, although some recipes also use cream cheese frosting or marshmallow fluff.
Whoopie pies got their name from the working men who would receive them in their lunches. When they opened their lunchboxes and saw the tasty treat, they would exclaim “whoopie!” out of joy. This exclamation eventually became associated with the pies themselves, giving them their fun and catchy name. So, next time you bite into a whoopie pie, remember the joy that inspired its name!
A whoopie pie is also commonly known as a cookie pie or cookie sandwich.
🧊 STORING AND ♨️ REHEATING
FRIDGE
Store these Valentine’s whoopie pies in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days due to the buttercream frosting.
FREEZER
These whoopie pies can be stored in the freezer for 2-3 months.
REHEAT
Thaw frozen Valentine’s whoopie pies in the fridge and enjoy them chilled or at room temperature.
🍳 MORE VALENTINE’S RECIPES TO TRY
- Red Velvet Cake Mix Balls
- Air Fryer Strawberry Cheesecake
- Cherry Tart
- Easy Red Velvet Cupcakes Recipe
- Valentines Pancake Recipe
👪 SERVING SIZE
This recipe yields 12 Valentine’s whoopie pies. You can halve the recipe or double it with ease, baking additional whoopie pie dough disks in batches.
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📋 RECIPE
Valentine's Whoopie Pies
Get ready for Valentine's Day with these irresistible and colorful Valentine's Whoopie Pies with cake-like cookies, sweet buttercream, and pretty sprinkles!
Ingredients
Ingredients:
- 3⁄4 cups butter, softened
- 1 cups white sugar
- 2eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 1⁄2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoons baking powder
- 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
- Red, pink, and purple food coloring gel
Frosting Ingredients:
- 1⁄4 cup butter, softened
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2-3 tbsp milk
- Sprinkles of your choice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Prepare a baking sheet by spraying it with cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar together.
- Add eggs and vanilla. Beat again.
- Add flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat until dough is uniform. Split the dough into three equal bowls.
- Add one color of food gel to each bowl. The amount of food coloring gel used will depend on the type you are using.
- Form 1 1⁄2 - inch balls of dough and place them on your prepared baking sheet.
- Using a flat-bottom glass lightly spray with cooking spray, flatten dough balls until they are about 1⁄4 - 1⁄2 -inch thick.
- Bake whoopie pies for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Transfer cookies to a cooling rack.
- To prepare frosting, in a medium mixing bowl, cream butter and powdered sugar together.
- Add 2 tablespoons of milk and vanilla. Beat well. If it is too thick, add more milk. If it is too thin, add more powdered sugar.
- Place sprinkles in a shallow bowl.
- Make whoopie pies by filling two cookies with frosting.
- Roll each whoopie pie in sprinkles to coat the edges.
