I'm In Love....with Red Velvet

As most of you know, I love to cook.   But more specifically I love to bake.  And, I am slightly obsessed with cupcakes.  I love experimenting with flavors and perfecting a recipe.  I love finding new concoctions like matcha flavored, or filling a perfect vanilla flavored cupcake with lemon curd.  I love whipping up the most amazing frosting to top off an already perfect baby cake with flavors like brown sugar vanilla, or a rich chocolate ganache, or to spice up a perfect cream cheese frosting with a citrus zest!  I love cupcakes.

Last night I made the ever-amazing Red Velvet!  I love these beautiful and elegant cupcakes.  They are the fanciful cupcake: rich, decadent, and beautiful.  I think the secret to a rich and moist red velvet cake lies somewhere in the buttermilk and sifted cake flour.  Oh, and the un-godly amount of vegetable oil.  The sexy and sumptuous red cake is sharply contrasted with the bright white and equally as bright in flavor with the tangy cream cheese frosting resting gracefully on top.  But anything with cream cheese in it and I'm in love.   Perfection.  It's even more perfect that calories don't count when you find the perfect recipe. (Although the previous sentence is not scientifically proven, I've trained my brain to convince my metabolism of this and I'm pretty sure it works...to a certain degree. But please do not quote me.)

This is the recipe that you write in your cookbook... in ink...possibly laminated as red food dye is unforgiving and hard to tame.  Just remember to choose carefully you who share it with as this cupcake has some serious thunder most will want to steal.

But, I'll share the recipie, only because I think that everyone needs to make this, especially if you're looking for love...in the form of food.

Red Velvet Cupcake Love

Ingredients

Makes 24

• 2 1/2 cups cake flour (not self- rising), sifted
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon red gel-paste food color
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Sift together cake flour, cocoa, and salt.
2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, whisk together sugar and oil until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Mix in food color and vanilla.
3. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk, and whisking well after each. Stir together the baking soda and vinegar in a small bowl (it will foam and makes you feel like a mad scientist!!!); add mixture to the batter, and mix on medium speed 10 seconds or completely combined.
4. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes.

Ingredients

• 8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 12 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• about 4 cups of confectioners sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon pure madagasgar vanilla extract

Directions

1. Beat butter and cream cheese with a mixer on medium-high speed until fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low. Add sugar, 1 cup at a time or until desired consistency is achieved., and then vanilla; mix until smooth. Frosting can be refrigerated for up to 3 days; before using, bring to room temperature, and beat until smooth.

*this glorious recipe is adapted from the Martha Stewart Cupcake recipe book.