Angel Food Whoopie Pies

My mommy loves angel food cake. For the past couple years I have made something angel-food-cake related for her birthday. See here and here for past posts.

This year I used my heart whoppie pie pan to make little love cakes.

I used the same recipe as last year for the frosting, but switched it up to make it strawberry flavored. Aaaaand I kind of over-whipped it so it turned out more like a strawberry whipped cream and less like strawberry marshmallow.

Angel Food Whoopie Pies

I used a boxed cake mix. It’s too easy, all you have to add is water. I prepared the batter according to the box directions, then used a medium cookie scoop to dollop batter into each well of my whoopie pie pan.

I tapped it on the counter a few times and jiggled it side to side until it settled into the lumps of the hearts.

Bake at 375* for 10 minutes.

I didn’t want them to fall too much, so once I took it out of the oven I turned the pan upside-down on top of a couple drink glasses. Probably not necessary, but it couldn’t hurt.

Once the pan was cool, I used a butter knife to carefully cut around the edge of each heart. Once the edges were free, they were pretty easy to pop out. Lay bottoms up on a cooling rack until ready to frost.

Strawberry Whipped Frosting – adapted from this frosting recipe

Ingredients:

Some fresh strawberries ( I used about a basket, but it made a lot so I probably only needed a few)

1 cup granulated sugar

about 5 tbsp water

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

2 egg whites

1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Clean, hull, and cut up the strawberries, then puree. I used a manual food processor to pulse them as much as possible. I guess you could blend them, but I didn’t mind a little bit of chunks, it was going to get strained anyway.

2. Cook the strawberry puree in a small pot on low heat for about 30 minutes. I just wanted to reduce it a little… I could have cooked it longer, but I probably could have also skipped this step. I like to think it made a difference so just play along with me. 🙂

3. Once the strawberry goop cooled down a bit, I poured it through a strainer to get rid of the big chunks that were still left. Then I poured some into a measuring cup about 1/2 way up to the 1/3 cup mark. This clearly isn’t exact science here… a little more or a little less won’t hurt anything. Pour any remaining goop into a small jar to store in the fridge for later use. (I’m thinking ice cream topping!!)

4. Add enough water to bring it to 1/3 cup and pour back into the small pot. Add the granulated sugar and cream of tartar, and cook on medium heat until sugar is dissolved and the mixture is bubbly.

5. While the syrup is cooking, whip egg whites and vanilla to soft peaks. (Use the whisk attachment if using a stand mixer.)

6. When syrup is bubbly, slowly add to egg whites while mixer is running. Whip for about 7-10 minutes or until stiff peaks form. If you err on the side of less stiff, it will be more of a marshmallow texture. If you over whip (like I did) it will be closer to a whipped cream texture. Either would pair well with these!

OH! and I also added a tad of hot pink coloring because it wasn’t pink enough from just the strawberries for my liking. 🙂

7. Put whipped frosting into a piping bag with a large tip (star or round would work fine). Squeeze onto one side of the whoopie pies and top with the other side. If you opted for the softer more marshmallowy texture for the frosting, let it sit for about 30 seconds before you top it with the other piece of whoopie pie. You don’t want to squish your frosting too much.

These were YUMMY. Because angel food cake is typically tall and fluffy, the shortness of these whoopie pies made them a little denser and stickier. It was almost like taking a piece of angel food cake and squishing it up before biting into it. 🙂

The strawberry frosting was subtle. Next time I would add even more strawberry. I was just nervous about messing with the liquids in this recipe too much.

I only made about a dozen of these as whoopie pies (the rest were just regular cupcakes). It was kind of a pain because angel food cake has to stick to the pan to rise, so I had to cut every single one out of the pan, then wash the pan before I could bake the next batch. It was worth it for a couple batches because they came out so cute! Besides, they were for my mommy. 🙂