Red Velvet Cupcakes (by Raelynn from Garnish It)

First and foremost I want to thank Mandy for having me. I’ve been so excited about this post for awhile now, and here we are. Thanks again Mandy!!

Let me introduce myself, my names Raelynn, I’m a small town South Dakota girl that grew up in sin city Las Vegas, and now living in Mile High Denver. I’m married, in my late 20’s and have 3 dog, who I adore. I started my blog Garnish It in November of 2008, and I since think about taking pictures with everything I do, just in case it become “blog worthy”. So feel free to stop on over and see what other yummy things I’ve got cookin’ in my kitchen.

So we’ve all had Red Velvet cupcakes before, right? I hope you have, they’re my favortie, hands down. And I’ve come across many different variations, which in turn lead me to changing things here and there until I get something I adsoultly love. So here’s what I got:

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Here’s what you’ll need:
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tbsp unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups veggie oil
2 lg eggs at room temperature
1/2 tsp red gel food coloring*
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp apple cider vinegar

Here’s what you’ll do
~Preheat your oven to 350, line cupcake pan with 24 baking cups
~Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder and salt
~In an electric mixer on medium speed mix, sugar and oil until combine, add 1 egg at a time, mixing until incorporated
~Mix in gel coloring and vanilla
~Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture in three batches and buttermilk in 2, mixing well after each.

First batch of flour mixture going in.

Buttermilk time.

~In a small bowl add baking soda, and apple cider vinegar, once foaming has finnished add to the batter and beat on medium for 10-20 seconds

A little foam action going on.

~Divide batter evenly among baking cups, I use a 1/4 cup to measure out my batter, and to insure the cups are of equal amounts.
~Bake for 15 minutes, rotate pan 180 and bake for another 8 minutes, until tester (toothpick) comes out clean.

Almost done!!

~Let stand in pan for 10 minutes then take them out to cool at room temperature.

Coolin’ down.

Cream Cheese Frosting

What you’ll need:
1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
12 oz cream cheese at room temperature
4 cups confectioners sugar
3/4 tsp pure vanilla extract

What you’ll do:
~In an electric mixer on medium speed cream the butter and cream cheese together until fluffy, 3-5 minutes.
~Reduce speed to low and add in sugar 1/2-3/4 cup at a time. Mix well after each addition.
~Add Vanilla extract, scrap down the sides of bowl and mix for 2-4 minutes more.

I usually make my frosting first and let it set up in the fridge before I make my cupcake batter. If you do this, make sure you mix up you’re frosting before pipping onto the cupcakes.

The they were then frosted and covered in White Sanding Sugar

to give them a bit of sparkle.

*I use AmeriColor gel food coloring, their great, and come in a TON of colors, I had about 4 different red’s to choose from at the store, you can get them on Amazon too…I used Super Red, and loved the way they turned out color wise with using these.