Red Velvet Cupcakes

Red Velvet cake. It's something I had never tried yet saw pop up everywhere - recipe mags, Food Network shows, other food blogs. Even Bobby Flay had a cupcake throwdown where the challenged baker's most famous cupcake was her red velvet. I knew sooner rather than later I would give into the desire of trying these out for myself. That time was this past weekend. I made a long one of it taking Tuesday off to make it a 4 day-er and since I had some downtime I couldn't wait to start baking.


I used a recipe for Red Velvet cupcakes from my friend Danielle of Make No Little Meals. She made mini-cupcakes but instead I went for jumbo cupcakes. That's right, I baked them right in my jumbo muffin pan! Ok, well, I actually didn't own a jumbo muffin pan until about a week ago when I decided that since I've always wanted one and these cupcakes would be the perfect excuse to finally invest in it! I actually halved Danielle's recipe (the full recipe appears below) and it made 6 perfectly sized jumbo cupcakes (which took about 26 minutes to bake).


For the frosting, I opted for a typical cream cheese frosting consisting of cream cheese (duh), confectioner's sugar, butter, and vanilla extract.


So, what was the verdict on red velvet cupcakes??? Yummy! I actually may bake another batch this weekend!


Red Velvet Cake
(from Confetti Cakes)

3 ½-cups cake flour
½-cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ½-teaspoons salt
2-cups canola oil
2 ¼-cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1/3-cup red food coloring
1 ½-teaspoons vanilla
1 ¼-cups buttermilk
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 ½-teaspoons white vinegar
Preparations:

Preheat oven to 350* and prepare pans accordingly.

In a large bowl sift together the flour and cocoa, set aside. In a stand mixer with your paddle attachment, combine the oil and the sugar on medium until combined.

Set mixer to low, add the eggs one at a time. Add the food coloring and vanilla slowly until incorporated. Slowly add the flour mixture and the buttermilk—alternating, beginning with the flour. Mix until well combined.

While batter is mixing, whisk vinegar and the baking soda together in a small bowl. Immediately add this mixture to the batter, speed set to medium and blend for only about 10-seconds.

Divide batter into pans and bake until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool for 20-minutes before removing from pan.

Frosted Peanut Butter Cupcakes

My friend Sam gave me two super cute cookbooks for my birthday this past summer - a Cupcake one and a Muffin one. I was flipping through the cupcake one the other day and decided the Frosted Peanut Butter Cupcakes recipe looked delish, so I made them Wednesday night.

I pretty much followed the recipe to a T, it says it makes 16 cupcakes, I only got 14 and in the end, I definitely could have just made 12 slightly fuller ones. The frosting recipe definitely makes more than enough for this recipe. I may try to make use of the leftovers at some other point this weekend for something else. The only real change I made was to the frosting recipe, adding some vanilla and a bit of peanut butter to kick up the flavor. Also, as you'll probably notice, this recipe has really odd measurements that you don't see everyday (1/8, 5/8, "heaping,").

One snafu occurred while making these - somehow I either didn't turn the oven timer on or accidentally shut it off when I went to check on the cupcakes at some point. As the minutes went by I questioned why the timer hadn't gone off yet. Lo and behold, I discovered the timer wasn't on. Quite luckily nothing was burnt, just slightly overdone so I got lucky in that respect. My husband said they were good, just a little dry, which I expected given the situation. Next time I make these I'll just have to make sure the timer is on!


Frosted Peanut Butter Cupcakes
(from Cupcakes by Susanna Tee)



4 tablespoons butter
Heaping 1 1/8 cups firmly packed brown sugar
Heaping 1 1/8 cups firmly packed brown sugar
Heaping 1/3 cup crunch peanut butter (I used smooth)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Scant 1 5/8 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
Generous 1/3 cup milk


Frosting:
8oz cream cheese
2 tablespoons butter, softened
2 cups confectioner's sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter

Preheat the oven to 350F. Put 16 muffin liners in muffin pan.

Put butter, sugar, and peanut butter in a bowl and beat together on low with electric mixer for 1-2 minutes or until well mixed. Gradually add the eggs, beating well after each addition, then add the vanilla extract. Sift the flour and baking powder into a separate bowl, and then, using a metal spoon, fold them into the mixture, alternating with milk. Spoon batter into muffin liners (about 2/3 full).

Bake cupcakes in preheated oven for 25 minutes, or until well risen and golden brown. Transfer to wire rack and cool.

To make frosting: put the cream cheese, peanut butter, and butter in a large bowl and use electric mixer to beat together until smooth. Sift the confectioner's sugar into the mixture and beat until well mixed and smooth.

When cupcakes are cooled, spread frosting on top of each cupcake. Store cupcakes in refrigerator until ready to serve.

Black Bottom Cupcakes

Tonight we are headed off to our friend Matt's apartment for a small holiday party he and his girlfriend Alexis are throwing and I asked what we could bring - he replied with "something sweet."

Seeing as though I am "cookie-d out" (for lack of a better term - if you are confused, see previous posts!), I went searching through some of my older recipes that I haven't made in awhile. I stumbled upon this recipe for Black Bottom Cupcakes which I haven't made in ages.

They are tasty, but I'm a little disappointed in how much they stuck to the paper muffin liner when I tried one. Also, I put just about the same amount of cream cheese filling on top of each cupcake but you wouldn't know that because the tops of them al look different. Oh well, they're still good and I'd still make them again! Sometimes it doesn't matter how they look as much as how they taste!

Black Bottom Cupcakes
(from allrecipes.com)

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 egg
1/3 cup white sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line muffin tins with paper cups or lightly spray with non-stick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese, egg, 1/3 cup sugar and 1/8 teaspoon salt with a mixer on low until light and fluffy. Stir in the chocolate chips and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, 1 cup sugar, cocoa, baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Make a well in the center and add the water, oil, vinegar and vanilla. Stir together until well blended. Fill muffin tins 1/3 full with the batter and top with a dollop of the cream cheese mixture.

Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes. (Note: the original recipe calls for these to be baked 25-30 minutes, mine took only 20 so I reduced the cooking time)