Red Velvet Cupcakes? Yes, please!

I’m not a big chocolate fan. I don’t really like it at all as a matter of fact. If you put a plate of chocolate cake in front of me and a plate of extra sharp cheddar cheese – I’d go for the cheese in a heartbeat. When I was a kid, my Aunt used to buy a half vanilla, half chocolate cake for birthday parties so I could still eat cake while everyone else was devouring chocolate cake. Some say spoiled, I say loved…

Recently I and a few sassy ladies attended the Phantom Gourmet Phood Phest and something magical happened. Yes, we did get a picture with one of the Andelman brothers but this time, that's not what I'm talking about. I had my first bite of Red Velvet cake. I was amazed. I was mesmerized. I was hooked! I went back for a few more pieces – they were tiny so it’s kind of okay that I ate about five of them. From there on out, I had a new mission in life. The cake was good enough but red velvet cupcakes?! Yes! They would be even better – just about everything is better in cupcake form isn’t it?!

I had only made one other cupcake without a box and was really amped to keep it up. I did some research since I had absolutely no idea how to bake such a savory treat and found a great recipe to follow on the Coconut & Lime website. It turned out delish and I ended up with these lovely little nuggets of southern luvin. (recipe to follow)

Ingredients:

2 C all purpose flour
1 ½ C Sugar
1 C Buttermilk (no one really has this lying around 1 cup milk plus 1 tbs lemon or vinegar makes buttermilk. Yes it is a little gross but get over it, it makes delish cupcakes)
1 stick of softened butter
1/3 C baking Cocoa
2 eggs
2 tbs red food coloring
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 tbsp white vinegar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat butter and sugar together in a large bowl. Add eggs and vanilla and combine well. In a mixing cup combine buttermilk and red food coloring. In another large bowl, stir together flour, cocoa and salt. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture a little at a time adding some colored buttermilk in between. Stir in baking soda and vinegar.* Pour into 24 lined cupcake tins. Bake 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted into cupcake comes out clean.

*Since I’ve got a touch of the ADD and my kitchen doesn’t lend itself to have a cook book near the chef while baking, I forgot to add the baking soda and the vinegar. I’m pretty sure that’s why my cupcakes weren’t fluffy and spongy. All I can remember is combining vinegar and baking soda as a kid in a papier mache (ok paper mache – for those non French speaking friends) volcano to make it erupt. I don’t think the cupcakes would have erupted in the oven but they might have baked up lighter and fluffier instead of dense little cakes. They tasted great, however they were a little hockey puck-ish.

I decided to “ice” with fondant. I've always been somewhat drawn to cakes done in Fondant and it does give a great smooth look. I decided because of the midgetness of the dense cupcakes to wrap them in the fondant upside to make little teacakes. I loved the look however the taste was a bit weird. Give me good ol’ butter cream icing any day!!