Vegan Funfetti Cake Whoopie Pies

Today is my birthday and I was going to make my popular ultimate vegan funfetti cake then thought why not a hand held version like a whoopie pie?! I’ve been obsessed with whoopie pies since first going to Pennsylvania Amish country as a kid so I thought why not combine my favorite cake with my favorite dessert?! Why not indeed.

My recipe just needed one tweak to make them into the cookie/cake hybrid whoopie pies are. The cake batter as originally made in my recipe was too thin and it’s a fine line before it’s too thick so I added a bit more flour and it was perfect. I’ve road tested just about every vegan recipe out there and they all came up short for me. They either didn’t have the right texture, or flavor and were just disappointing. I’ve been baking since I was a kid and I remembered a book I bought when it came out in the late 80s called “The Cake Bible” by Rose Levy Beranbaum. I made so many cakes (all in my pre-vegan days) from this book and I recalled she had an unusual method of incorporating ingredients and I went to my bookshelf to grab my well worn copy and started reading the recipes again. Yep, she had written about a revolutionary method of adding the fat to the dry ingredients FIRST before adding the liquid ingredients. It’s come to be known as the “reverse creaming” method and it guarantees a moist cake with an incredible texture. It’s a method used in commercial bakeries although they usually use vegetable shortening and not oil like I am in my recipe.

Why does reverse creaming work? Well, it coats the flour with fat preventing it from absorbing moisture and creating gluten resulting in a more tender lighter cake. The traditional method is to cream butter and sugar, add eggs then the dry ingredients usually alternating with milk. Using this method, you run the risk of over-beating the batter and creating a tough cake. Add the fact that we’re not using eggs because this is a vegan recipe (they add tenderness) then it’s difficult to make a really good cake with a fine crumb unless you’re an experienced baker and know just how much to mix the batter. With this method, you can’t over-mix the batter no matter how much you try!

Another amazing benefit of reverse creaming is that everything is mixed in one bowl. You really should use a stand or hand mixer for this but you could mix it by hand with a whisk. The dry ingredients are all blended together first to break up any lumps and then the oil is added with some vegan sour cream (for tenderness) and some of the vegan milk then mixed completely. Then you add the rest of the milk which we’re adding some lemon juice into for some lift from the acid and then the magical extracts. More about those after the photo jump.

What gives cake that magical funfetti flavor? Two options: cake batter flavor extract or clear imitation vanilla. I know, I know, Ina Garten only uses “good” vanilla but that just won’t give the cake that bakery flavor. Cake batter extract (I use McCormick brand) is what I prefer. It does color the cake a slight yellow but that’s fine. I grew up using Duncan Hines yellow cake mix and it replicates that flavor. Clear imitation vanilla is also another solid choice and it’s what I like to use in the frosting. I’ll add the extracts to my Amazon store (link at the bottom of the recipe) and the vegan sprinkles I use. More about sprinkles after the jump.

So vegan sprinkles. Wait, what? All sprinkles aren’t vegan? They’re just sugar right you might ask? Wrong. Most are made with confectioners glaze which has shellac in it derived from insects and colors can also be questionable. Vegan sprinkles are available online at some retailers (both Kroger and Whole Foods Market sell their own private label versions) but they’re usually way more pastel than their traditional bright intensely vibrant counterparts and tend to dissolve more into the batter. No judging If you use regular sprinkles but for a truly vegan cake you may have to forgo the fireworks in the cake itself and just be satisfied with a ton of them on the outside!

I tested this cake made with vegetable shortening, vegan butter and oil and oil was the clear winner. It was the moistest of the options as it’s pure fat which excels in the reverse creaming method as opposed to vegan butter which contains some water. For the frosting however I prefer a mix of vegan butter and shortening as it creates the lightest most bakery-like flavor.

So why is my recipe the best?

• No special egg replacers!
• Reverse creaming method guarantees success!
• True funfetti flavor in every bite!
• Made in one bowl!
• Perfect texture and taste!

I tested the whoopie pie sizes with various ice cream scoops for consistency and the smallest one worked best. I’ll add that info to the recipe and it’s also important not to over-bake these. You want them done but not too browned as they could get tough. I hope you enjoy this riff on my original recipe as it’s nice to have options right? These are great for a kids party as you can wrap them individually in plastic wrap and they’re less messy than serving cake or even cupcakes. Enjoy!

Vegan Funfetti Cake Whoopie Pies

Recipe by Kreg

5.0 from 1 vote

Course: Sweets, DessertCuisine: American

Servings

18

servings

Prep time

30

minutes

Cooking time

15

minutes

The BEST hands down vegan funfetti cake on the planet now made as whoopie pies!

Ingredients

• Funfetti Whoopie Pies

• 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

• 1 1/2 cups vegan cane sugar

• 1/4 cup cornstarch

• 1 1/4 teaspoons Kosher salt

• 1 tablespoon baking powder

• 1 cup plain vegetable oil

• 1/3 cup vegan sour cream

• 1 tablespoon cake batter flavoring or clear imitation vanilla

• 1 teaspoon almond extract

• 1 1/2 cups vegan milk

• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

• 1/2 cup vegan rainbow sprinkles plus more to decorate pies

• Funfetti Frosting

• 1 cup vegan butter at room temperature

• 3/4 cup vegetable shortening

• 3 1/2 cups confectioners sugar, sifted

• 1/8 teaspoon Kosher salt (this generally is called a “pinch”)

• 2 teaspoons clear imitation vanilla extract

• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract

• 1 tablespoon vegan milk

Directions

• Funfetti Whoopie Pies
• Prepare your baking sheets by lining with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 350°.
• Mix dry ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large bowl using a hand mixer to combine and aerate for a minute. If mixing by hand, use a whisk. Add the oil, 1/3 cup vegan sour cream and 1/2 cup vegan milk and mix until combined on low speed. Scrape down bowl then continue to mix on medium speed for 1 minute.
• Mix the lemon juice into the remaining 1 cup milk and let it sit for a minute. Add the extracts and whisk to combine. Slowly add the remaining liquid to the mixture in the bowl on low speed then scrape the bowl down and mix for two minutes to combine. The great thing about this is because we use the reverse creaming method you can’t overmix this and make the batter tough because we coated all the flour with fat. Fold in the 1/2 cup sprinkles by hand just until combined. Don’t use the mixer to combine the sprinkles as it will break them up too much. Just fold them in until just combined.
• A trigger style ice cream scoop is the best tool to use to make sure they’re mostly uniform when baked but a regular spoon can be used as well. Just try and get the same amount of batter for each top or bottom on the trays. I used a 1 1/2 inch sized scoop after trying larger ones. That seemed to be the perfect size. It’s probably 2 tablespoons of batter if measured. Bake for about 12-15 minutes depending on your oven (convection cooks quicker) and watch carefully so they’re done but are not too browned. Over-baking will make them tough. Let cool completely before adding the frosting to the middle.
• Funfetti Frosting
• In a bowl, mix the room temperature butter and shortening together with a hand or stand mixer until light and fluffy about 3 minutes scraping down as necessary.
• Sift the powdered sugar over the butter mixture (if you don’t sift, your frosting will be lumpy – I use a small fine mesh strainer) and add the remaining ingredients and mix until we’ll combined and fluffy about 2-3 minutes. You want it to be a light consistency so you may need more than one tablespoon of milk.
• Assembly is simply matching similar sized tops to bottoms and adding a dollop of frosting to the middle before sandwiching them together. You can use a scoop again, a pastry bag (like I did) or a simple spoon. You can then roll the edges in more sprinkles if desired.
• I wrap my whoopie pies in plastic wrap and twist the bottom together to tighten it and store them at room temperature. This is how it’s done in Amish bakeries so I took my cue from them.

Recipe Video

Notes

• You can find vegan sprinkles in some stores like Whole Foods Market and Kroger or you can order them online. I have a link in my Amazon store below.
  
• Use your favorite vegan sour cream and milk.
  
• If you can’t find it don’t want to use artificial flavorings then use pure vanilla but understand that your cake won’t have a true funfetti flavor.

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