Red Velvet Cupcakes

Happy Monday everyone! Hope you enjoy the new look to my blog :-)


Back during my pregnancy with my now 14-month old daughter, I had some major cake cravings, especially during the last trimester. I would go to the local grocery’s bakery section and not resist getting a piece of (or a whole) red velvet cake. I loved the moist layered cake with the wonderful cream cheese frosting. If I got a whole cake, I could easily finish it all on my own in less than a week! 
Without realizing, this was the beginning of two of my current loves: baking and red velvet cake. Since then I have been searching for that perfect red velvet cake recipe. For me, a good red velvet cake has these three major qualities: moist, fluffy, and RED! I have come across this recipe recently from one of my favorite food blogs and decided to give the recipe a try. My goodness, did I like it! I got really excited when I started seeing the cupcakes dome up beautifully in the oven, and that is without any baking powder! This cupcake hit all the qualities listed above. I think that my search for the perfect recipe is over, but the countless times I make this recipe is just beginning! 
*One quick note, I modified the frosting recipe just a tad to make it a bit more creamy, although I would try using a colorless vanilla extract next time so the frosting has a nice white shade.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Yield: about 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

For the cake:

2½ cups cake flour

1½ cups sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tbsp. cocoa powder

1 tsp. salt

2 large eggs

1½ cups vegetable oil

1 cup buttermilk

2 tbsp. (1 oz.) liquid red food coloring

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. distilled white vinegar

For the frosting:

8 oz. cream cheese

8 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature (1 stick)

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1-2 tbsp heavy cream

3½-4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350° F.  Line cupcake pans with paper liners.  In a medium bowl, combine the cake flour, sugar, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt; whisk to blend.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the eggs, vegetable oil, buttermilk, food coloring, vanilla and vinegar.  Beat on medium speed until well blended.  Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed and beat until smooth, about 2 minutes.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared liners.  Bake, rotating the pans halfway through baking, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 18 minutes.  Let cool in the pans 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting, combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer.  Beat on medium-high speed until well combined and smooth, about 2-3 minutes.  Mix in the vanilla extract.  Gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar until totally incorporated, increase the speed and then beat until smooth.  Frost cooled cupcakes as desired.

Adapted from Annie’s Eats