Red Velvet Cupcakes

Recipe from The Artful Cupcake by Marcianne Miller

When I first decided that I was going to make cupcakes more often, these were the first cupcakes I decided to make. With my Absolutely-Stellar-Hero-Man by my side, I figured "What could go wrong?" What ensued was the most aggravating 4 hours of trying to bake yummy cupcakes for people to enjoy. And my parents suggested that I use canned vanilla frosting on some of them. What?!? That's blasphemy! If I'm gonna bake, I'm gonna do it up right. So here's my favorite Red Velvet recipe so far.

Yields 24 cupcakes

Ingredients for Cupcakes

• 4 oz (1 stick) unsalted butter or shortening, room temp/softened (I used butter)
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 oz red food coloring (When I bought the food coloring at the store I opted to buy the red food coloring by itself, and not in one of those multi-packs. Best decision ever!)
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (Make sure it's unsweetened!)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
• 1 tablespoon baking soda

Ingredients for Frosting

• 8 oz cream cheese, room temp/softened
• 4 oz (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temp/softened
• 1 lb confectioners' sugar, sifted (pssh, you know me and sifting... it doesn't happen unless it NEEDS to happen. But with the recipe, if I recall correctly, we did sift the sugar)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

So here's what you do:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line your muffin tins with cupcake papers.
2. Cream together the butter/shortening & sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add the eggs, one at a time, and blend well after each addition.
4. Make a paste with the food coloring and cocoa. Add the paste to the butter/shortening mixture and blend well.
5. Add the salt and buttermilk to the mixture.
6. Add the flour, vanilla, vinegar, and baking soda in that order, mixing after each addition.
7. Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake tins. (Be careful not to over fill!)
8. Bake your cupcakes for about 20 - 25 minutes (or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcakes comes out clean.) Make sure to keep an eye on them at about the 10 minute mark.

For the Frosting:

1. Mix cream cheese and butter together until fully incorporated and looking a little light in color.
2. Add powdered sugar. (I did 1/2 a cup at a time.)
3. Add the vanilla extract and mix until smooth.

Wait until your cupcakes have completely cooled (aka room temperature) before you attempt to put frosting on them. Otherwise, your icing is going to melt and just run all over your cupcakes and become a huge mess.

And last, but not least, ENJOY!