Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Every time I walk into a Starbucks I always get mesmerized by their Red Velvet cupcakes, however, I just can't reason with myself to spending $2.75 on one cupcake, again it's not THAT much money, but as a student little things like that can really add up. That being said, today was the day that I would have my FIRST Red Velvet cupcake. Overall, I really did enjoy this recipe, it was fun to make because you got to see the cupcakes go from white to red, which even as an adult is always fun to watch, and I mean a cream cheese frosting just adds the taste of these cupcakes.

Ingredients:

Cupcakes

• 2 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 oz. red food coloring (two bottles)
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Frosting

• 1 package (250 g) cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup icing sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two 12-cup muffin tins or silicone pans with cupcake liners.

Sift together the cake flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside. In a smaller bowl, mix food coloring and cocoa powder to form a thin paste without lumps and set aside.

In a large bowl, using a hand mixer or stand mixer, beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about three minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then beat in vanilla and the red cocoa paste, scraping down the bowl with a spatula as you go. Add one third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, beat well, then beat in half of the buttermilk. Beat in another third of flour mixture, then second half of buttermilk. End with the last third of the flour mixture, beat until well combined, making sure to scrape down the bowl with a spatula.

In a small bowl, mix vinegar and baking soda. Be careful as it will fizz so don't do it in a shallow bowl. Add vinegar mixture to the cake batter and stir well to combine. Fill cupcake cups with cake batter until they are a little under 3/4 full make sure you don't fill them up to the top because they will get extremely large. I used small liners at the beginning then had two substitute my second batch with larger liners because of how large they ended up getting. I ended up with 20 cupcakes. Place muffin tins in your preheated oven. Bake for approximately 20 minutes, rotating pans halfway through. The cupcakes are done when you are able to pat the tops and the cake springs back up. If it sinks down they are not yet complete mine sunk down, however, when I ate them they were ready. Or you can insert a toothpick into the center of a cupcake in the center of the tin and if it comes out clean they are done!

Cool the cupcakes in their tins on a wire rack for 10 minutes then remove and allow to cool completely before frosting.

When the cupcakes are cool enough, in a bowl beat cream cheese with butter until smooth. Beat in vanilla. Beat in icing sugar, one-third at a time, until smooth. Spread over top of cake. Decorate the tops of your cupcakes with any sprinkles you would like. I chose hearts since Valentine's day is two weeks ahead, and what girl doesn't like the look of hearts, it makes these already pretty cupcakes that much prettier. (Make-ahead: Cover loosely and refrigerate for up to I day.)

Until next time, enjoy :)