Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies for Valentine’s Day

I LOVE red velvet cake. Eric doesn’t get it, “Isn’t it just chocolate cake with red food coloring?”  That may be so, but I still swoon over pictures of it every time.  That’s why when I saw pictures of red velvet sandwich cookies, I had to make some for Valentine’s Day.  I had the perfect excuse, the 17 hungry teenage boys staying at our house for the weekend!
Yes that’s right, as I mentioned last week, we had 15 Middle School boys and two college guys staying with us for the student winter retreat our church was putting on.  Some say I’m crazy, others that I’m a saint.  I say that I just like to feed people and there’s no one more satisfying to feed than teenage boys.  Eric and I got up early Saturday morning to make pancakes and sausage, discovering that our poor stove vent could not keep up with 40 sausages frying and smoking up the kitchen.

One of the boys walked in to fill up on orange juice and said “Hey thanks for making us pancakes, some people make bad pancakes but yours are REALLY good!”  I did make it from the Krusteaz pancake mix that was donated for the event, but I put a lot of love in those pancakes and his praise warmed my heart.

We were fortunate that all the boys were very polite and respectful. I made 90 pancakes and as I was cooking more in the kitchen Eric says “They’ve ony eaten half, I think maybe you should stop.”  At that momet a boy asked “Have you and Eric gotten your pancakes yet?”  We let them know we’d eaten, and the rest of the pancakes were gone in two minutes flat!

These cookies are REALLY simple to make.  I was going to make them from scratch, but when I was at Walmart getting ingredients for the Healthy Cooking on a Tight Budget program, I saw that a box of red velvet cake mix was only 95 cents!  I did the math and the cost of the red food coloring alone would be almost that of the cake mix.  So in the interest of saving money (and not having to measure while tuning out the sound of 17 boys trying to take turns with four video game controllers) I went with the box mix.

To make these a heart shape, I used a simple silicone heart heart mold pan (although the name heart mold sounds very unappetizing if you ask me!).  If you don’t care about the shape, simply drop them in rounded tablespoons on the cookie sheet.  They’ll spread out into beautiful round cookies. I made about half the amount of frosting any other recipe I’ve seen calls for, and still had some left over.  I didn’t stuff mine very full with frosting, about a tablespoon worth so you can add more if you like.

Whether making a treat for your sweetie, or looking for a fun baking craft for your kids, these cookies are sure to please one and all on Valentine’s Day.  The round shape also makes a gorgeous Christmas cookie!

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Yield: makes about 17-20

RED VELVET SANDWICH COOKIES

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Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Total Time 20 minutes

Ingredients

Cookies:

• 1 box red velvet cake mix (I used Duncan Hines)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

Filling:

• 1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick)
• 1/2 cup cream cheese
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a stand mixer beat together cake mix, eggs and 1/2 cup butter. Drop rounded tablespoons of dough onto a greased cookie sheet or into greased molds (should make 30-35 individual cookies).
2. Bake 8-10 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Let cool completely on a wire rack.
3. Using your (clean) stand mixer, beat together 1/4 cup butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla. Place a large dollop of filling onto the bottom of one cookie.  Place another cookie on top and lightly press the cookies together, working the cream out toward the edges.
4. Continue with remaining cookies and cream until all the cookies are sandwiches.

Notes

Approximate cost/serving: This only came out to $2.50 and made 17 sandwich cookies. If I had done all circles (no hearts) I could have used less dough and made 20 sandwich cookies. So only 13 cents a cookie!

Vegetarian: Yes, though it does have butter so is not vegan.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

20

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 150Total Fat: 11gSaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 47mgSodium: 96mgCarbohydrates: 13gFiber: 0gSugar: 12gProtein: 1g

Nutrition information is an estimate only.