Heart-Shaped Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies

For Christmas, my girl friends and I exchanged favorite things.  One of the favorite things Jamie shared with us was a "Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies" recipe along with a box of red velvet cake mix and a tub of cream cheese frosting.  I have been avoiding baking for a while now (for a few reasons) but decided to try this since I had the ingredients on hand.  (I listed the ingredients below and what I substituted.  However, the original recipe & directions are here.)

For the cookie:

• 1 box of red velvet cake mix
• 1/2 cup butter, softened to room temperature (I substituted 2 tbs of Chobani greek yogurt & 4 tbs of butter instead of using 1/2 cup of butter.)
• 2 eggs 

For the cream cheese filling:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened to room temperature (Again, I used 2tbs of Chobani greek yogurt & 4 tbs of butter instead.)
• one 8 oz package of cream cheese, softened to room temperature (I used the one with 1/3 less fat.)
• 1 lb box of confectioner's sugar (I used only a cup, and it was sweet enough.)
• 1 tsp vanilla

The mixture for the cookie will be very thick.

Since Valentine's day is just around the corner, I decided to go with heart shaped cookies.  I filled the cookie batter into a piping bag and piped the batter in the hearts drawn on parchment paper using a heart cookie cutter.  Not only did tracing the hearts help with shape, but it also helped with size consistency.

As you can see, they weren't perfectly piped at all.

On the cooling rack after baking in pre-heated 350 degrees for 10 minutes.  Not bad for a first try.

Made the cream cheese filling while the first batch cooled and the 2nd batch was baking.

Filled & ready to be enjoyed.

Made about 14-15 cookies.  Luckily, my family came over so I sent the rest home with them.