Red Velvet Cupcakes Recipe

Cupcakes seem to be one of American’s favorite snacks.  Below is my recipe for making some delicious and flavorful red velvet cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting.  The cupcakes are made with cocoa, butter, sugar, vanilla, red wine vinegar, red food coloring and buttermilk  These cupcake are not only a treat for your taste buds but are also visually stimulating by the contrast in colors of the red velvet cake with the white cream cheese frosting.  I also garnish them with some fresh raspberries on top for a nice decorative touch.

Ingredients

3 cups of all purpose flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
3 tablespoon of cocoa (Dutch cocoa is best)
1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup of vegetable oil
2 cups of granulated sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
4 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons of red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon of red food coloring
1 cup of buttermilk

Ingredients for Cream Cheese frosting:

1 cup of butter
2 (8 oz.) packages of cream cheese
4 cups of confectioners' sugar, sifted
1/2 tablespoon of lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon of almond extract
24 fresh raspberries, for garnish

Instructions:

You will want to begin by preheating your oven to 350 degrees F.   You will also want to line 2 (12 cup) cupcake pans with cupcake papers.

Take a mixing bowl and then sift in the flour, baking soda, salt and coco and give your ingredients a quick whisk to combine.  In a separate bowl add in your butter, oil, sugar and vanilla  and then beat your ingredients together with an electric mixer.  Then add in your eggs, one at a time, and continue to beat until they are well combined.  Next add the red wine vinegar and food coloring to the bowl and continue to mix until your ingredients are well mixed.

Your next step is to add the flour and buttermilk to the mixture to create the batter for the cake.  You will want to do this by adding in about a cup of the flour to the mixture and beating with your mixture until it is incorporated into the batter and then adding in half of a cup of the buttermilk.  Continue doing this until all of the flour and all of the buttermilk have been added to the mixture and you have the batter.  Make certain to start with the flour and end with the flour.  Adding those ingredients a little at a time keeps the air bubbles in the batter, which makes your cake light.      

Now,  divide the batter evenly among the cupcake pans.  You want the batter to be about 2/3rd of the way up filled.   Then place your cupcakes in your preheated oven and bake for about 20 to 22 minutes, turning the pans once, half way through.  You can test the cupcakes to see if they are done by inserting a toothpick in the middle of the cupcake and if it comes out clean its done.  When done, remove your cupcakes from the oven and then place them on a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

When your red velvet cupcakes are fully cooled you will want to make the cream cheese frosting.  Before doing so you will want to make certain the cream cheese and butter have softened to room temperature.  Place the butter and cream cheese in a mixing bowl and mix them together with an electric mixer.  Next add the sugar and beat on high until its smooth, fluffy and creamy.  Now add the lemon juice and the almond extract and mix just until they are incorporated into the mix, but do not over beat the frosting.

You will want to frost your red velvet cupcakes with a butter knife or you can pipe the cream cheese frosting on with a big star tip. Then, garnish each red velvet cupcake with a couple fresh raspberries on top.  Now you have some delicious red velvet cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting that your whole family will love.