Red Velvet Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting

My husband and I were talking about Red Velvet things recently, and he asked me to make a Red Velvet dessert.  I can't eat Red Velvet things because I am allergic to red dye, so I thought I'd attempt to make whoopie pies.  Shortly after the first batch came out of the oven, I knew I messed up the size of my cookies, and I wouldn't have enough cookies to make pies for everyone in Jacob's office.  So, I just decided to turn them into frosted red velvet cookies.

This past weekend, I bought a cookie scoop, so hopefully my cookies will be more uniform in the future so that I can attempt whoopie pies again.

Red Velvet Cookies
from Annie's Eats
Ingredients
Cookies
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
8 tablepsoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1 oz. red food coloring 

Frosting
8 oz. cream cheese
5 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2½ cups confectioners’ sugar

Directions
1) Preheat the oven to 375˚ F.
2) In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.
3) In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and brown sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
4) Beat in the egg until incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.  Blend in the vanilla.
5) With the mixer on low speed, beat in about a third of the dry ingredients, followed by half of the buttermilk, beating each addition just until incorporated.  Repeat so that all the buttermilk has been added and then mix in the final third of dry ingredients.  Do not overbeat.
6) Blend in the food coloring.
7) For the frosting: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment beat the cream cheese and butter on medium-high speed until well combined and smooth, about 2-3 minutes.  Mix in the vanilla extract.
8) Gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar until totally incorporated, increase the speed and then beat until smooth.
9) When cookies cool, frost and enjoy.

Jacob really loved these cookies.  He said they flew off the table at his office and his office mates wished there were more.  He sat at the mixing bowl and ate the extra frosting that wasn't used on the cookies.  I think all in all, they were probably just as great as the whoopie pies would have been.