Chocolate Whoopie Pies with Baileys Buttercream
St. Patrick’s Day or Any Day: Chocolate Whoopie Pies
I’m starting to feel guilty posting so many dessert recipes but I have really been churning out some great things that I want to share. These chocolate whoopie pies with Baileys buttercream were something I threw together for St. Patrick’s Day. The cake is moist with a deep chocolate flavor. The filling is my nod to the holiday: a super simple buttercream with a tablespoon of Baileys Irish Cream. As someone who doesn’t generally drink alcohol, I found that just the right amount to add flavor without an excess alcohol taste. You can adjust it to your liking or leave it out altogether.
Sifting Our Way into a Very Light Cake
Baking tip of the day: recently I have really been into sifting my dry ingredients. I know that is fairly basic. I probably should have been doing it all along. The process is simple and, I think, helps produce a lighter cake. My technique involves hooking a sieve over a bowl and shaking the ingredients back and forth. I started with the flour and then did the cocoa powder. If you know anything about cocoa powder, you know it is pretty common to find clumps. This will avoid finding a big glob of unmixed cocoa powder in your cake.
Chocolate Whoopie Pies with Baileys Buttercream – and Coffee?
For flavor, I added one tablespoon of brewed espresso to the batter to bring out the chocolate. You can use strong brewed coffee if you don’t have espresso available. As with most cakes, you also need a liquid here. I chose to add buttermilk – real buttermilk – and I loved it. You can always make a buttermilk substitute or just use milk, but real buttermilk is super tangy and is thicker than regular milk. I also enjoy the consistency as it plops into the measuring cup.
Buttercream or Marshmallow Cream, the Choice is Yours
Whoopie pies are often filled with marshmallow cream. If that is what you want to do, amen to that. You can use a prepared marshmallow cream like Fluff. These were for St. Patrick’s Day, so I whipped up a simple buttercream and added a tablespoon of Baileys Irish Cream. You can add one additional tablespoon if you want a stronger alcohol taste or you can skip it altogether. Make sure your buttercream is a pipable thickness. Mine was a bit too thick to pipe, so I added a tablespoon of heavy cream. You could either add less powdered sugar (which I probably should have done) or add a little milk or cream to thin it out. The buttercream can also be left plain or colored.
A Festive Touch
To add color to my Chocolate Whoopie Pies with Baileys Buttercream, I used a deep green gel food coloring. Because I didn’t want dark green, I stuck a wooden skewer into the food gel container and swiped the little bit of coloring through the prepared buttercream.
Make sure your whoopie pies are cool before you add the filling. With either buttercream or marshmallow, your filling will melt and run if the pies are hot. I piped the buttercream using a plain round tip, but you can use a fancy tip or even just a knife.
Chocolate Whoopie Pies with Baileys Buttercream: Versatile & Delicious
And there you have it. Chocolate Whoopie Pies with Baileys Buttercream are a fun little dessert. Change up your fillings. Change up your piping tips. Whatever works best for you is good enough!
Chocolate Whoopie Pies with Baileys Buttercream
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup butter softened
- 1 cup brown sugar packed
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tbsp brewed espresso or strong brewed coffee
- 3/4 cup buttermilk room temperature
Baileys Buttercream
- 1/2 cup butter softened
- 1 1/2 to 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp Baileys Irish Cream
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1-2 tbsp heavy cream if necessary
- colored food gel optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Line two baking trays with parchment paper.
- Sift the flour into a medium bowl. I hook a sieve over the edges of a bowl, put in the flour, and then shift it gently back and forth.
- Sift the cocoa into the bowl with the flour.
- Add the baking powder, baking soda, and salt into the dry ingredients. Whisk or mix lightly with a fork. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a mixer combine the butter and brown sugar. Beat until fluffy, about 2 minutes.
- Add the egg and beat until combined.
- Add the vanilla and espresso. Beat until combined. Make sure to scrape down the sides to incorporate everything.
- Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl and mix only until combined. With each step, do not over mix the batter.
- Add 1/3 of the buttermilk and combine.
- Continue alternating the buttermilk and the dry ingredients until everything is incorporated.
- Using a cookie scoop, place a round of batter on the prepared cookie sheets. Leave space between the scoops as they will spread out slightly.
- Bake for 11-14 minutes alternating the trays midway through the bake. The whoopie pies are done when set and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Remove the whoopie pies to a wire rack to cool completely.
Baileys Buttercream
- You can mix up the buttercream while the whoopie pies are baking, but you won't be able to use it until the cakes are totally cool.
- In the bowl of a mixer combine the butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and Baileys Irish Cream. Start with 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar as you will need a thickness that is easy to pipe.
- I used two cups of powdered sugar and found it really hard to squeeze the piping bag. I added 2 tbsp of heavy cream to thin it out.
- Once I had the right consistency, I wanted to add some color. To avoid having too dark a color, I stuck a wooden skewer into green food gel to get just a bit and then smeared it through the buttercream. I mixed it by hand after that.
- Fit a piping bag with round tip and fill with the buttercream.
- Squeeze out some buttercream on one whoopie pie, then top with another like a sandwich.
