Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Welcome Home Becca!  So good to have you back from Belgium!  Since RV is her favorite, and also since she missed the dessert party, I figured I'd make some RVC for Becca.  There are so many yum recipes out that I wasn't sure where to begin.  I was a bit disappointed by my Martha cupcake recipe from Dessert Fest 2010! so I decided to look elsewhere. So naturally I turned to Smitten Kitchen to see if she had anything up her sleeve (and she did).

Buttermilk and food coloring...doesn't this looking appetizing? 

A little elf

I hope red food coloring isn't a carcinogenic!

Look at the batter!!

Red Velvet Cake

Red Velvet Cupcakes, Borrowed from Smitten Kitchen, who adapted the recipe from “The Confetti Cakes Cookbook” by Elisa Strauss via the New York Times 2/14/07

Yield: 3 cake layers (The original recipe follows below, but I cut it into thirds to come up with about 12 cupcakes)

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 3 1/2 cups cake flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa (not Dutch process)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 cups canola oil
• 2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 6 tablespoons (3 ounces) red food coloring or 1 teaspoon red gel food coloring dissolved in 6 tablespoons of water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 1/4 cup buttermilk
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 1/2 teaspoons white vinegar.

Cream Cheese Frosting, borrowed from Smitten Kitchen

Makes 6 cups (I made all of it.  What? I wanted to lick the bowl after I frosted them!)

• 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter room temperature
• 3 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place teaspoon of butter in each of 3 round 9-inch layer cake pans and place pans in oven for a few minutes until butter melts. Remove pans from oven, brush interior bottom and sides of each with butter and line bottoms with parchment.  If you are making cupcakes, just line your cupcake tins with paper liners. 

Whisk cake flour, cocoa and salt in a bowl.

Place oil and sugar in bowl of an electric mixer and beat at medium speed until well-blended. Beat in eggs one at a time. With machine on low, very slowly add red food coloring. (Take care: it may splash.) Add vanilla. Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk in two batches. Scrape down bowl and beat just long enough to combine.

Place baking soda in a small dish, stir in vinegar and add to batter with machine running. Beat for 10 seconds.

Divide batter among pans (or cupcake tins), place in oven and bake until a cake tester comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool in pans 20 minutes. Then remove from pans, flip layers over and peel off parchment or remove from the tins.  Cool completely before frosting.

For the icing:

Place cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl. With a handheld electric mixer, beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add sugar and vanilla. Beat, on low speed to combine. If too soft, chill until slightly stiff, about 10 minutes, before using.