red velvet cupcakes

Ok ok, so I told myself I would wait until this weekend to feed my baking craving, but there is only a quiz standing in between me and bliss. Studying can wait, right? Always. Well, no.. sometimes. And this happens to be one of those times.

When searching for recipes, allrecipes.com is my go-to site. It is a good starting point, it gives you something you can work with, something you can "customize". Plus, the user ratings are accurate 99% of the time, and the reviews are full of good-to-know do's and don't's.

Also, I always always bake to Pandora. My new obsession: Coeur De Pirate ("Pirate Heart"), Beatrice Martin. Google her, youtube her. You will fall in love.  She reminds me of a French Regina Spektor.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

via allrecipes.com

Yields about 15 cupcakes (I halved the original recipe).

1 1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup milk

half of a 1-oz. bottle of red food color (this recipe recommends McCormick Red Food Color)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.

Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed 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. Batter will be thick. Do not over beat. Spoon batter into paper-lined muffin tins, filling each about 2/3 full.

Bake 20-25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into cupcake comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire cooling rack for about 5 minutes.  Remove from pans and cool completely before frosting*

*Rather than frosting the cupcakes with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting, I will be frosting mine with buttercream.. cream cheese and red velvet are, well, THE perfect combo. But buttercream is best for piping.

I will post the buttercream recipe along with photos of the finished products tomorrow! Get excited. I am!