Let me tell you a thing or two about candy canes.

They look cute on Christmas trees.

They are REALLY fun to crush by banging a rolling pin on them, but also make a HUGE mess when you are having too much fun crushing them to realize there is hole in your bag and tiny candy cane bits are escaping all over your counters.

They also make phenomenal buttercream. Like really, really good buttercream. The perfect ratio of minty to sweet. Zero percent like toothpaste.

Though I could (and did) eat candy cane buttercream by the spoonful, I believe it reaches its full potential when sandwiched between two miniature whoopie pies.

It never fails to make me happy when I think about what a whoopie pie is: all the best parts of a cupcake. Two cupcake tops with more frosting than necessary in between, minus the hassle of peeling off a cupcake liner. Whoever invented whoopie pies, I salute you.

I used Martha Stewart’s never-fail chocolate whoopie pie recipe. Though I have a hard time picturing Martha sitting around stuffing her face with whoopie pies while taking a break from making her own candles out of beeswax harvested from her very own personal army of bees, this recipe is the simply the best.

As for the filling, I used:

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2-2 cups confectioner’s sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup crushed candy canes.

Beat the butter until fluffy. Add the sugar, the gradually increase speed to high and beat for 5-7 minutes. Add the vanilla and candy canes; beat until combined.