Chocolate Whoopie Pies with Baileys Buttercream
An easy recipe for moist chocolate whoopie pies with festive 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.
Notes
Buttermilk is preferable to buttermilk substitute, but if you need to you can find easy recipes for the substitute online. It generally involve milk and white vinegar.
You can leave out the Baileys if you don't want alcohol.
Alternately, you can use marshmallow cream instead of buttercream. That is the traditional whoopie pie filling.
If you don't have a piping bag, you can put the buttercream in a large Ziploc and cut off a corner. You can also just use a knife.