What is it about red velvet cupcakes?

Two things:

1.) I have red hair.

2.) I like eating cupcakes.

Therefore, I think that I am qualified to make a post about red velvet cupcakes. Also, while I'm at it, icing bags are more complicated than they appear to first time time users who don't now read the instructions.

This was my first time ever baking from scratch. From the cake to the frosting, I boldly made the promise to find the best red velvet cupcake recipe I could and bring the cupcakes in for Ana's birthday. Classic example of not thinking before I speak! First time EVER and I'm promising birthday cupcakes to a friend and the entire office will be eating them?! As a side note, we have a woman who regularly bakes from-scratch cakes and brings them in. I'm competing with her legacy?! What was I thinking?! Luckily for me, I didn't completely fail (only a teensy bit), and the hyenas ended up wolfing them down before 8:15am anyway.

*Queues the music*

Enter the red KitchenAid stand mixer.... (yes, those are angels singing!)

I knew exactly where to start. Bakerella is a very gifted baker and blogger extraordinaire. I've been an avid fan of hers forever and I knew that she had the red velvet cake recipe that I was going to use for Ana's birthday cupcakes. Without a ton of ingredients and her stamp of approval, I knew that her recipe was a winner as long as I could execute it.

Baking is science. Unlike cooking, you need exact measurements or else a little bit extra of this or not enough of that and you can pull a lump of goodness knows what from your oven. Execution my friends....execution is key.

Everything was going swimmingly until I realized that my butter was not room temperature. This is the teensy bit of failure that I was alluding to up above. Butter cannot be rushed. Putting it in the microwave (as I did) does not give you the consistency that is required for baking. Lesson learned -- my cupcakes were not as fluffy as I would have hoped/liked! To speed up the process, you can cut your butter into smaller, tablespoon sized chunks for them to become room temperature faster. Remember, you cannot speed up softening your butter by putting it in the microwave! AHHHhhh!!!

OK moving on.

Cupcakes baked and cooling on my bar area, etc. etc., it's time to make the icing! I'm not a particular fan of icing but let me tell you...this frosting was AMAZEBALLOONS. Good thing I live by myself - I was practically spooning that stuff into my mouth it was so good!!! (By the way, if anyone asks me about the frosting spoonage, I'm totally denying it.)

Frosting made, now comes the next tricky part. I was trying to go all fancy-pants mcgee with the frosting application. Normally, I spoon it on from the can but since I was making this stuff "from scratch," I wanted it to be as pretty as possible. I had purchased from Michael's a piping kit that included the plastic bags and metal heads to pipe different frosting designs on cakes/cupcakes/cookies. Guess who didn't read the instructions. Guess who figured out after the fact that the metal heads are applied from the inside, not held on the outside by the baker who then gets frustrated and ends up yelling at cake. THAT'S RIGHT, ME!!!

Not knowing how to move forward after sharing that bit, I'm just going to post another picture and the recipe and then go poor myself a nice glass of  some "wine of shame."

*Cheers!*

Red Velvet Cake

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1 Tablespoon cocoa

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups oil

1 cup buttermilk

1 Tablespoon vinegar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 oz. red food coloring

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Grease and flour two 8 inch cake pans.
• 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 your mixing bowl and stir together really good with another wire whisk.
• Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix on medium-high for about a minute or until completely combined.
• Pour into cake pans and then drop the pans on the counter a few times to release any air bubbles.
• Bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
• After about ten minutes, remove from pans and cool completely on a wire rack. I also cover in plastic wrap while the cakes cool.
• Then make the frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla

6 cups confectioners’ sugar

• Sift sugar and set aside.
• Beat cream cheese and butter on high until creamy. Add vanilla.
• Then, add the sugar in batches. Scrape down the sides in between each addition.
• And frost away.

*Both cake and frosting recipes are from Bakerella