Red Velvet Cupcakes

Tomorrow is my husband's birthday.  He decided after much contemplation that he wanted red velvet cake for his birthday.  I had never made red velvet cake before now.  Even from a box.  So I was a little nervous to try it.  And I didn't want a repeat of my husband's graduation cupcakes, which I had to make two batches of because the first batch I made was a complete dud.  I printed off four different red velvet recipes to compare and figure out which one I wanted to use.  I ended up going with Bakerella's recipe because she hasn't led me wrong yet! 

Red Velvet Cupcakes
Source: Bakerella.com

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon cocoa
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1 cup oil (or 1 1/2 cups for regular cake)
1 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 oz. red food coloring

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and fill cupcake pans with liners.
Lightly stir eggs in a medium bowl with a wire whisk.  Add remaining liquid ingredients and stir together with whisk until blended.  Set aside.
Place all the dry ingredients in mixing bowl and stir together well with wire whisk. 
Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix on medium-high for about one minute or until completely combined. 
Pour or spoon into cupcake pans.  Drop pans on counter a few times to release any air bubbles.
Bake about 14-17 or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
After about ten minutes, remove from pans and cool completely on wire rack.  You can also cover with plastic wrap while the cakes cool.
Frost as desired.

Amy's Notes:
If you don't have buttermilk (I never do) you can substitute 1 cup milk plus one teaspoon vinegar or lemon juice and let sit 5 minutes.  I almost always use a measuring cup to scoop out my batter for cupcakes.  This time, I used the 1/4 cup to scoop it out and it was the perfect amount.  I made a dozen mini cupcakes and the rest as regular cupcakes, which made 21 cupcakes.  I thought these turned out really good.  They were light and airy and had a good flavor to them.  I used cream cheese buttercream frosting to frost these and didn't have enough to frost them all, so next time, I need a little extra frosting. 


  

Pretty even before they were frosted



My husband told me I could pick the icing color, hence the pink frosting!



Yummmm





I ran low on icing but love how these mini cupcakes turned out!