A Red Carpet Event

(above) Red Velvet Cupcakes

The fact that no one seems to know what red velvet cake is disappoints me. I think its time to enlighten you guys. According to the oh-so reliable wikipedia, red velvet cake is "a rich, moist, sweet cake with a dark red, bright red or red-brown color... usually prepared as a layer cake somewhere between chocolate and vanilla in flavor, topped with a creamy white icing". Before today, I had only eaten red velvet cake once before at a gourmet cupcake shop and was sorrowly disappointed. The cake had the coarse crumb texture of a muffin (honestly, I think someone should come up with a crumb index in order to determine the borderline between cupcakes and muffins) and the cream cheese frosting was padded out with filler and shortening (gross!). Determined that I could outdo the corporate world of the cupcake industry, I followed a recipe I found from the faithful allrecipes.com and I started my quest in making my first red velvet cakes.

(above) That's what happens when you add 2 tablespoons of food color.

(above) A little "beheading" or levelling off the tops of the cupcakes may be in order. To avoid this I suggest that you fill the cups only half way rather than 2/3 as the batter rises. This means that you get more cupcakes, which is never a bad thing.

(above) You get brownie points if you top it off with heart shaped sprinkles.

(above) A bite of red velvet cake.

Red Velvet Cupcakes
Makes 30 cupcakes
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk
1 (1 ounce) bottle or 2 tablespoons red food color
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Set aside.
2. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Mix in sour cream, milk, food color and vanilla. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until just blended. Do not over beat. Spoon batter into 30 paper-lined muffin cups, filling each cup 2/3 full.
3. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted into cupcake comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire rack 5 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely. Frost with desired frosting.

I used my own cream cheese frosting recipe. You can view the original recipe for the cake as well as cream cheese frosting here.