Hanukkah Whoopie Pies and Cake Balls!

On Sunday, we were invited for a Hanukkah dinner at my friends house.  I may have mentioned them before, they live across the street and over the years our family's have shared many, many meals together.  My friends mom is a really good cook so I was looking forward to this all weekend (after of course I got to meet Pioneer Woman).

I decided to make my Red Velvet Whoopie Pies to bring over for dessert...it's always a crowd pleaser and worth a revisit to this recipe since it's one of the first I posted.  If you haven't seen them before,  they are easy, delicious and the perfect colors for Christmas...Red and White!
As I walked across the street trying to avoid getting my Whoopie Pies soaked from the rain that was coming down, mom turned to me and asked "since its Hanukkah, why didn't you make the whoopie pies with white cake mix and die it blue instead?"  as she said the words...all I wanted to do was go back home and re-make them...that would have been so cute.  I like the flavor of red-velvet much more then a yellow or white cake mix but sometimes its about the presentation..and the marshmallow filling is so good that it really doesn't matter what kind of cake it is.
Everyone loved the Red Velvet Whoopie Pies and no one knew I was sitting there upset with myself that I didn't think of making them more Hanukkah looking...So as soon as I got home, it was back to the kitchen to see if mom's theory was right.

We only had a box of yellow cake mix, so that's what I used, but next time...I would try white cake to make them.  You can make these whoopie pies any color you want, even green for Christmas if you prefer to red?

I made some in muffin tins and some on cookie sheets...

I used a circle cookie cutter to make the ones made free form on the cookie sheet so they would all be the same size.

 

these are more uniform but have a crumblier edge. (is that even a word..crumblier?..will ask my SAT tutor tomorrow and get back to ya on that)

The muffin tin pies were a little thick so I trimmed the bottoms to make them thinner but the edges are smooth.

 

This is one of each...both are cute!

Then I rolled them in silver sanding sugar for extra effect...

..then I thought...why not Hanukkah cake balls?

So I took the extra trimmings and added the whoopie pie filling instead of a cream cheese frosting this time and..

rolled them into balls,

added some lollipop sticks,

dipped them in melted white chocolate,

added some sprinkles and sanding sugars, and...

 

Tadda..Hanukkah Cake Balls

and Hanukkah Whoopie Pies

With love and cupcakes,

Cookteen