Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

We have this neighbor, Rod. Rod is one of those intensely happy and hyper guys...all the time. Rod has been nothing but nice and friendly to us since we moved here about 2 months ago. He always waves and yells hello whenever we are outside. He got the neighbor kid to mow our lawn when we first moved in. Then he mowed our lawn a couple weeks later because he knew we didn't have the equipment to do it ourselves. He even found out his boss was selling his lawn mower and he paid for it up front (we paid him back) and brought it to us!! Of course, now as I sit here typing this I wonder if he was just really trying to get us to mow our own lawn! Oh well.

So Rod is divorced. His kids don't live with him. I wanted to do something for him for Dad's Day because I wasn't sure if he had anyone around to give him something special on that day. So I made him some red velvet cupcakes because he had mentioned that he liked red velvet. I don't like the stuff but it gave me an opportunity to make some from scratch. I decided to go the cupcake route because he's a single guy and I wanted him to be able to share with friends and not have to eat them all.

Now I'm going to share them with you...

Ingredients: eggs, red gel food coloring, white vinegar, Dutch processed cocoa, salt, cake flour, veggie oil, vanilla extract, sugar, baking soda. For the frosting: butter, cream cheese, vanilla and powdered sugar. There is also supposed to be buttermilk in this picture but I forgot to grab it out of the fridge. D'oh!

Line two cupcake pans with cupcake liners.

Whisk together the flour, cocoa, and salt.

Until well combined.

In a mixing bowl, combine the regular sugar and the oil.

Then add the eggs, one at a time.

Mix until well combined.

Now add the gel food coloring.

And the vanilla.

Mix well! Woah!!!

Add 1/3 of the flour mixture, combine...

Then add half of the buttermilk.

Then add another third of the flour, the other half of buttermilk, then the rest of the flour in an alternating manner mixing well after each addition.

Now combine the baking soda and vinegar in a small bowl. It foams up so don't be scared! Take that mixture and pour it in the batter, mix for 10 seconds (I don't have a picture of this step, sorry).

Then fill your cupcake liners about 3/4 full with batter. I always make such a huge mess in the kitchen! This batter should evenly distribute amongst 24 cupcake liners.

Bake. When a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, they are done. Remove from oven and cool on a cooling rack.

I suck and didn't take pictures of the frosting making process because it got dark. So, make the frosting. I chose to fill each cupcake with frosting. For instructions on how to do this click here.

Then top each cupcake with a bit of frosting as well.

Now put these babies on a tray and beg, plead, barter, then force your Hubble to take them over to the neighbor. Oh wait...that was what I did...You don't have to do that.

Then after the cupcakes have been given away, go ahead and unwrap one to taste...

Oh yeah...These were good. Of course, there was so much dang frosting that I could barely taste the red velvet! This was good for me, but I don't know if Rod likes frosting. I sure hope so! If not, oops!! Enjoy!

Red Velvet Cupcakes
Retrieved from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes 

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups cake flour (not self- rising), sifted
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon red gel-paste food color
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar
• Cream Cheese Frosting

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together cake flour, cocoa, and salt.
2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, whisk together sugar and oil until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Mix in food color and vanilla.
3. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk, and whisking well after each. Stir together the baking soda and vinegar in a small bowl (it will foam); add mixture to the batter, and mix on medium speed 10 seconds.
4. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.
5. To finish, use a small offset spatula to spread cupcakes with frosting. Refrigerate up to 3 days in airtight containers; bring to room temperature before serving.