Football Whoopie Pies

This past week I made football shaped whoopie pies for my husband to take to work for a meeting.  They turned out pretty well.  In honor of the Superbowl today, I wanted to share the recipe.

Here's how I made them-

Ingredients:

For the Cakes-

v  4 Cups Flour

v  1 Cup unsweetened Cocoa Powder

v  2 1/2 tsp baking soda

v  2 tsp salt

v  2 cups buttermilk

v  2 tsp vanilla

v  2 sticks of unsalted butter

v  2 cups of brown sugar

v  2 large eggs

For the Filling-

v  2 sticks of unsalted butter, softened

v  2 1/2 cups of confectionery sugar

v  4 cups of marshmallow cream

v  2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Use 2 separate bowls.  In the first bowl whisk together the dry ingredients, including: flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt until fully mixed.  

The other bowl will be used for the wet ingredients: buttermilk and vanilla and mix these together. 

Beat together the butter and the brown sugar on a med speed until it is fluffy.  This will take about 3 minutes.  

(Tip for softening butter in the microwave:  I forgot to take mine out ahead of time, but I hate putting butter in the microwave because it always melts too much and doesn't soften the way I want it to.  This time I put the butter in for 5 second intervals, 4 times for a total of 20 seconds.  In between each interval, I flipped the butter so each side was on the bottom for 5 seconds.)

Reduce the speed and add the eggs, one at a time.  Once this is mixed well,  alternate the dry mixture and the wet mixture, ending with the dry.  Make sure to scrape the sides to ensure it is mixed well. 

Don't get discouraged if you make a mess.  I sure did...

Use an ice cream scoop to drop the mixture on cookie sheets.  (I line mine with parchment paper)  Once I had the batter on the parchment paper, I used my fingers to push it into a football shape.

 Bake for 11 to 14 minutes, depending on the size.  You will be able to tell if they are done if you insert a toothpick and it comes out clean.

Once the tops and bottoms are baked, let them cool completely.  While they are cooling, go ahead and make the cream filling for the center.

For the filling, I creamed the softened butter for a minute by itself.  I then added the other ingredients and beat it for about 3 minutes.

Once the tops and bottoms have completely cooled, use a piping back with large tip to fill the inside.  Don't overfill or the center will overflow.  (I definitely did that a couple times) 

Finally, I used some vanilla frosting to pipe the football design on top.  

That's all there is to it!  It's a really cute idea for any type of a football event or if you just want a chocolaty snack.  

Enjoy!